NodeJS 18 not working on Ubuntu 18.04

[cobalt2727]

Looks like NodeJS 18 wasn't built properly for Ubuntu Bionic - it only has glibc 2.27...

(not my screenshot, but I can contact the uploader for any tests needed)

[JesusPaz]

Node.js 18 is compatible with Linux distributions based on glibc 2.28 or later, for example, Debian 10, RHEL 8, and Ubuntu 20.04.

You can find more information in the release notes.

[cobalt2727]

Yes, I've read the release update. But the problem is NodeJS 18 has a release file over here for an OS you're telling me it doesn't support.

A fix for this problem would be to build NodeJS 18 on Debian Stretch, RHEL 7, Ubuntu 16.04 (which is still under ESM), or 18.04 (which is still receiving maintenance updates and is still currently considered LTS, as detailed here). If that's not possible for some reason, then the documentation needs updating. Is glibc 2.28 a hard requirement for NodeJS 18, or is that simply a side effect of the build environment used?

[theofficialgman]

agreed @JesusPaz , you should at MINIMUM remove the dists from your repo that nodejs18 doesn't support
you currently host packages for:

Index of /node_18.x/dists/
[../](https://deb.nodesource.com/node_18.x/)
[bionic/](https://deb.nodesource.com/node_18.x/dists/bionic/)                                            03-May-2022 15:55       -
[bookworm/](https://deb.nodesource.com/node_18.x/dists/bookworm/)                                          03-May-2022 15:55       -
[bullseye/](https://deb.nodesource.com/node_18.x/dists/bullseye/)                                          03-May-2022 15:55       -
[buster/](https://deb.nodesource.com/node_18.x/dists/buster/)                                            03-May-2022 15:55       -
[focal/](https://deb.nodesource.com/node_18.x/dists/focal/)                                             03-May-2022 15:55       -
[groovy/](https://deb.nodesource.com/node_18.x/dists/groovy/)                                            03-May-2022 15:55       -
[hirsute/](https://deb.nodesource.com/node_18.x/dists/hirsute/)                                           03-May-2022 15:55       -
[impish/](https://deb.nodesource.com/node_18.x/dists/impish/)                                            03-May-2022 15:55       -
[jammy/](https://deb.nodesource.com/node_18.x/dists/jammy/)                                             03-May-2022 15:55       -
[sid/](https://deb.nodesource.com/node_18.x/dists/sid/)                                               03-May-2022 15:55       -
[stretch/](https://deb.nodesource.com/node_18.x/dists/stretch/)                                           03-May-2022 15:55       -
[xenial/](https://deb.nodesource.com/node_18.x/dists/xenial/)                                            03-May-2022 15:55

this is disingenuous, the majority of these will not work (xenial, stretch, buster, bionic)

[cobalt2727]

@JesusPaz it's been about a week - when can we receive an update or an ETA on this?

[Botspot]

If Node.js 18 doesn't work at all on older systems, then information stating otherwise should be removed or at least clarified.

Right now, anyone who tries to install the Node.js package on an older OS will find that it's completely broken.

[cobalt2727]

@chrislea Hi there - sorry if I'm pinging the wrong person, but would you be able to give us an update on what the plans are here?

[chrislea]

Hi @cobalt2727. Sorry but I can't help here. I haven't worked at Nodesource in over three years and my access to any of the relevant build infrastructure that I'd need to see what's going on has long been revoked.

I can tell you from memory that when things like this (making newer versions of node work on older systems) happened back when I was dealing with it, the problem was usually that V8 started using some C++ feature that required a fairly modern C++ compiler, which in turn required a more modern version of libstdc++. Meaning that you simply couldn't compile or run V8 on systems that didn't have a sufficiently new libstdc++. In some cases, RedHat had provided modified versions of gcc that would somehow get around older libstdc++ limitations, but without those compilers, there simply wouldn't have been anything we could do. So it may just not be possible to do sanely, where by "sanely" I mean "without forcibly changing the version of libstdc++ on the target machine" which would likely have mountains of disastrous side effects.

Again, I need to stress that I don't know if that's what's going on here. I'm not in the node universe anymore really and haven't been for some time. That's just a guess based on what I remember from ~ 4 years ago.

[cobalt2727]

Node.js 18 is compatible with Linux distributions based on glibc 2.28 or later, for example, Debian 10, RHEL 8, and Ubuntu 20.04.

You can find more information in the release notes.

@JesusPaz Good morning/afternoon/evening.

This issue needs to be reopened. No PPAs, external repos, or source builds (besides the building of NodeJS itself) were used in the process of bringing you the screenshot above. NodeJS 18 itself does not require glibc 2.28 or later to function. Saying so directly conflicts with NodeJS's official documentation, which lists off required dependencies that are all available just from Ubuntu 18.04's apt repository.

The decision to build NodeJS 18's binaries on newer environments needs to be fixed. As @Botspot and @theofficialgman pointed out above, it's resulting in critical installation failures with packages being built that are impossible to install on the intended system, as shown here.

There are two solutions to this.

1. NodeJS 18+ packages from Nodesource get built on a build environment old enough to correctly support them - I'm willing to bet whatever you guys were building NodeJS 17 on probably still works, and if not, set up an extra build environment to handle all older systems still in use. I get it if you're not checking to make sure, say, Debian Jessie is being supported or anything, but 18.04 really still needs to be at least until it hits End of Life in April 2023, or maybe even April 2028 if that's possible.
2. Nodesource stops listing distributions without glibc 2.28 as being compatible and leaves users on older systems on their own to just build things themselves.

One way or another, this part of the README is currently inaccurate and must be fixed.

[dominic-p]

Just got bit by this myself. It feels like the prebuilt Node v18 binaries should not be allowed to be installed on Ubuntu 18 since they simply won't run.

[cobalt2727]

@dominic-p Until they fix this, you can build NodeJS yourself by following https://github.com/nodejs/node/blob/v18.x/BUILDING.md#unix-and-macos with two exceptions:
sudo apt install gcc-8 g++-8

And then while setting up the build:
C=/usr/bin/gcc-8 CXX=/usr/bin/g++-8 ./configure

This is a massive pain to update though given how long it takes to build on most hardware.

[dominic-p]

Thanks for sharing that! I considered trying to build it myself, but I figured it was going to be a massive pain, and there's no way I was going to figure out the exceptions above on my own. For now, Node v16 is sufficient for my needs until I can get around to upgrading the host OS.

I'm just kind of surprised that Nodesource is leaving this closed. This issue is definitely not resolved.