NodeBB general flakiness, suspected broken install?

[wu-lee]

We have semi-intermittent problems using NodeBB. These come in more than one form - they may have the same cause? There seem to be components missing.

The kind of problems I've noticed are loosely as follows.

• A page submit will take you to a raw javascript page (this may not always be the same one, but I've definitely seen an attempted login do this, with the URL path /service-worker.js?loggedin=true)
• Log-ins don't work, with errors in the JS console about the following:
  • "Script error for "bootbox", needed by: forum/category/tools"
  • "Uncaught TypeError: t is not a function" (in serialiser.js within the poll module)
  • "Uncaught Error: Script error for "timeago/jquery.timeago" in require.js

Recently, having seen the raw javascript page, my subsequent attempts to log in either have no visible effect - I remain on the log-in page - or I get taken to a blank page in a new tab with just the word "Forbidden" (the URL path for this page is /login).

The missing components and the related errors can be seen all over the site, causing problems.

There seems to be some state to these problems. Telling my browser to forget all state about the site helps reset it such that I can log in, but does not eliminate these problems.

Inspecting the network tab in the browser console I see "404 not found" errors for the following components:

• /plugins/nodebb-plugin-markdown/styles/railscasts.css
• /assets/src/modules/bootbox.js?v=ohhorhrib2o
• /assets/src/modules/timeago/jquery.timeago.js?v=ohhorhrib2o

These seem to explain some of the errors in the console. However, I can't tell why these files are absent, and neither using the rebuild-and-restart option or the cloudron restart service option seem to rectify it.

Uncaught TypeError: t is not a function
    <anonymous> serializer.js:17
    <anonymous> serializer.js:162
serializer.js:17:25

Loading failed for the <script> with source “https://forum.code-operative.co.uk/assets/src/modules/bootbox.js?v=ohhorhrib2o”. login:1:1
Uncaught Error: Script error for "bootbox", needed by: forum/category/tools
https://requirejs.org/docs/errors.html#scripterror
    makeError require.js:168
    onScriptError require.js:1738
    load require.js:1943
    load require.js:1685
    load require.js:834
    fetch require.js:824
    check require.js:856
    enable require.js:1176
    enable require.js:1557
    enable require.js:1161
    bind require.js:134
    each require.js:59
    enable require.js:1113
    init require.js:788
    o require.js:1460
    setTimeout handler*req.nextTick< require.js:1815
    o require.js:1449
    requirejs require.js:1797
    <anonymous> wrapper.js:3
require.js:168:16

Loading failed for the <script> with source “https://forum.code-operative.co.uk/assets/src/modules/timeago/jquery.timeago.js?v=ohhorhrib2o”. login:1:1
Uncaught Error: Script error for "timeago/jquery.timeago"
https://requirejs.org/docs/errors.html#scripterror
    makeError require.js:168
    onScriptError require.js:1738
    load require.js:1943
    load require.js:1685
    load require.js:834
    fetch require.js:824
    check require.js:856
    enable require.js:1176
    enable require.js:1557
    enable require.js:1161
    bind require.js:134
    each require.js:59
    enable require.js:1113
    init require.js:788
    o require.js:1460
    setTimeout handler*req.nextTick< require.js:1815
    o require.js:1449
    requirejs require.js:1797
    load app.js:97
    <anonymous> app.js:23
    jQuery 12
require.js:168:16

ServiceWorker registration failed:  DOMException: The operation is insecure. app.js:793:13

There are also a slew of errors on restart, in the server-side log, which I can provide on request.

Our Cloudron platform is v v6.0.1. The NodeBB Cloudron package version is v1.17.0-1. (However, the version reported by NodeBB itself is v1.16.0. Should I expect these to be different?)

I find much help googling for any of the above errors - most cases the discussions seem to be several years old, and there is nothing I can see on this forum.

Are other people are not experiencing these problems? If not, it does seem like my installation may be damaged.

In which case, how can I safely rebuild it without losing the content? I suspect a Cloudron backup restore might restore the broken source code state as well as the content, and so I'm wary about trying that without some advice.

[girish]

@wu-lee It seems the assets were not build properly. If you go into the NodeBB's admin panel, there is a button on the top right to Rebuild assets & Restart. Can you try clicking that button and see if it helps?

Otherwise, usually these things happens if you install plugins. What plugins do you have installed? A good start will be to disable all the ones you installed and try to enable them one by one to find the offending plugin.

[wu-lee]

@girish I've tried the rebuild and restart several times. It did rectify some other problems we were having, but these seem to be persistent.

But I'll try it again, just in case. I'll list the plugins after it starts again.

[wu-lee]

No, that still doesn't resolve the problems. The console shows these errors again on first visit, following erasing the browser information for the forum domain:

This page uses the non standard property “zoom”. Consider using calc() in the relevant property values, or using “transform” along with “transform-origin: 0 0”. [...]
Uncaught TypeError: t is not a function
    <anonymous> serializer.js:17
    <anonymous> serializer.js:162
serializer.js:17:25
Loading failed for the <script> with source “[...]/assets/src/modules/bootbox.js?v=1mjvdi86tsu”. [...]:1:1
Uncaught Error: Script error for "bootbox", needed by: forum/category/tools
https://requirejs.org/docs/errors.html#scripterror
    makeError require.js:168
    onScriptError require.js:1738
require.js:168:16
ServiceWorker registration failed:  DOMException: The operation is insecure. app.js:793:13
Loading failed for the <script> with source “[...]/assets/src/modules/timeago/jquery.timeago.js?v=1mjvdi86tsu”. forum.code-operative.co.uk:1:1
Uncaught Error: Script error for "timeago/jquery.timeago"
https://requirejs.org/docs/errors.html#scripterror
    makeError require.js:168
    onScriptError require.js:1738
require.js:168:16

[wu-lee]

The installed plugins:

# ./nodebb plugins
Active plugins:
        * nodebb-plugin-code-button (installed, enabled)
        * nodebb-plugin-composer-default (installed, enabled)
        * nodebb-plugin-dbsearch (installed, enabled)
        * nodebb-plugin-discord-bot (installed, enabled)
        * nodebb-plugin-discord-notification (installed, enabled)
        * nodebb-plugin-emoji (installed, enabled)
        * nodebb-plugin-emoji-android (installed, enabled)
        * nodebb-plugin-markdown (installed, enabled)
        * nodebb-plugin-mentions (installed, enabled)
        * nodebb-plugin-poll (installed, enabled)
        * nodebb-plugin-poll2 (installed, enabled)
        * nodebb-plugin-private-forum (installed, enabled)
        * nodebb-plugin-soundpack-default (installed, disabled)
        * nodebb-plugin-spam-be-gone (installed, disabled)
        * nodebb-rewards-essentials (installed, enabled)
        * nodebb-theme-lavender (installed, enabled)
        * nodebb-theme-persona (installed, disabled)
        * nodebb-theme-slick (installed, disabled)
        * nodebb-theme-vanilla (installed, disabled)
        * nodebb-widget-essentials (installed, enabled)

[wu-lee]

I'm trying to disable plugins and will report back.

Should the NodeBB Cloudron package version (v1.17.0-1) match that reported by NodeBB itself (v1.16.0)?

[girish]

@wu-lee said in NodeBB general flakiness, suspected broken install?:

Should the NodeBB Cloudron package version (v1.17.0-1) match that reported by NodeBB itself (v1.16.0)?

They don't need to match. The package version is completely separate from NodeBB version.

[girish]

@wu-lee BTW, one thing you can do is to simply clone the app from latest backup. And then play around in the cloned instance (i.e disable all plugins and then test one by one).

[girish]

@wu-lee I found this thread https://community.nodebb.org/topic/15211/errors-when-updating-from-latest-1-15-to-1-16 which has same error as yours. It seems to come from that poll2 plugin.

[wu-lee]

After disabling all the plugins and rebuilding, there is just this error:

Failed to load ‘https://forum.code-operative.co.uk/assets/vendor/fontawesome/fonts/fontawesome-webfont.woff2?v=4.7.0’. A ServiceWorker intercepted the request and encountered an unexpected error.

Re-enabling these plug-ins:

• nodebb-plugin-markdown
• nodebb-plugin-mentions

Then I see 404s on /plugins/nodebb-plugin-markdown/styles/railscasts.css. Seems to be a bug in the markdown plugin, I filed a bug here:

I also get more occasional .ttf//.woff errors as above. And lots of [benchmark] warnings in the server logs, I think these can be ignored.

Renabling these seem to go without faults:

• nodebb-plugin-composer-default
• nodebb-plugin-dbsearch
• nodebb-widget-essentials

However, nodebb-plugin-private-forum introduces errors, when visiting anonymously.

https://github.com/LM1LC3N7/nodebb-plugin-private-forum/issues/2

Finally, installing nodebb-plugin-poll doesn't (so far) seem to create any errors....

Will keep an eye on things. There were some other plug-ins (code-button, emoji-related) which I didn't consider important enough to re-enable.

[wu-lee]

Rereading, could be worth noting for other readers of this thread: the poll2 plug-in (which seems to be marked as possibly not working with this version of NodeBB) is not the same as the poll plug-in (which seems to be marked as working)/ I'm not sure why I had both installed.