Hydrogen: Can't install hydrogen on Windows 10 because apm still sees VS 2015

[mmagnuski]

I first installed VS 2015 and only later discovered that I should use VS 2013. I uninstalled 2015 and installed 2013 version but still can't install hydrogen. The reason is most likely that apm still somehow sees VS 2015 because apm --version gives me:

apm  1.12.5
npm  3.10.5
node 4.4.5
python 2.7.12
git 2.8.1.windows.1
visual studio 2015

How can I change the visual studio that is used by apm? I looked around but couldn't find an answer.
(I can post the error message I am getting during instll but I'm almost certain it's because of visual studio used by amp).

[lgeiger]

We need to change the readme for this. I discovered last week that visual studio 2015 will work as long as you install it with the C++ compilers.

I don't have a windows machine to test right now, but I remember someone on stackoverflow suggested running set GYP_MSVS_VERSION=2013 before running apm install hydrogen.

[mmagnuski]

I tried changing apm vs via:

apm config set msvs_version 2013 -g

and apm --version still gives me vs 2015 :( :

apm  1.12.5
npm  3.10.5
node 4.4.5
python 2.7.12
git 2.8.1.windows.1
visual studio 2015

bUT set GYP_MSVS_VERSION=2013 does the trick, after setting that apm --version displays vs 2013 and hydrogen installs correctly! 🎉
Thanks!

as a sign of gratitude: a silly youtube video :)

[lgeiger]

Awesome! I'm glad it worked 🎉

If you like, you can add your experience and the difficulties to our troubleshooting guide.

[mmagnuski]

I'm not sure about vs 2015 working - I tried installing hydrogen after installing vs 2015 and it didn't work... I can't tell if I installed with C++ compilers, I thought it is the default.
I can check vs 2015 on some other windows machine (I have plenty of these around :) ) if you direct me to info on how to install vs 2015 with relevant compilers etc. Once I succeed I can also help changing the docs (I have documentend the steps that led me to successful install here ).

[mmagnuski]

I'll happily update troubleshooting guide. :)

[lgeiger]

@mmagnuski That would be excellent (We are mainly linux and mac devs here).

I can't tell if I installed with C++ compilers, I thought it is the default.

That's the problem. VS 2013 shipped the C++ compilers by default. With VS 2015 you have to select the custom installation and explicitly select the C++ compilers (at least that's what the microsoft docs say). There should also be a option to install them later.

One more thing worth trying are the standalone C++ compilers mentioned in #440.

Thanks a lot for taking the time. Any first hand experience is really appreciated.

[mmagnuski]

I'll be happy to help - I'll look into correct VS installation etc. in the upcoming week (that is - starting tomorrow, at least in my timezone :) ). I've opened a PR (#448) and will update it accordingly.

[lgeiger]

@mmagnuski That's really great!

As a side note: We are working on including a prebuilt version of zmq but aren't 100% there yet. If we get this to work it will improve the installation a lot.

[rgbkrk]

There's an even "easier solution" that Microsoft is aiming for now:

npm install --global --production windows-build-tools

That's linked within node-gyp's install steps, and is fairly recent.

[lgeiger]

@rgbkrk That's interesting. Would this work if we include it as a apm dependency on windows? So the users don't even have to install node?

[lgeiger]

Wow I just discovered there's even a apm install --check command which check that native build tools are installed.

[rgbkrk]

@lgeiger no idea, I was trying to use that when debugging https://github.com/nteract/zmq-prebuilt/issues/2

[lgeiger]

I'll try, time to startup a windows VM without compilers.

[sheperdsonbrown]

I am trying to install hydrogen and am getting this error.

[email protected] install: node-gyp rebuild
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the [email protected] install script 'node-gyp rebuild'.
npm ERR! Make sure you have the latest version of node.js and npm installed.
npm ERR! If you do, this is most likely a problem with the zmq package,
npm ERR! not with npm itself.
npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
npm ERR! node-gyp rebuild

npm ERR! Please include the following file with any support request:
npm ERR! C:\Users\ALEXBR~1\AppData\Local\Tempapm-install-dir-116826-6760-1l7meiv\npm-debug.log
npm ERR! code 1

Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thanks