[Bug]: obsolete developer docs about building Ledger Live from source

[csillag]

Update: contrary to how this bug report started, this is actually a documentation issue, as explored below, in the comments.

Original report below:

---

Impacted Library name

ledger-live-desktop

Impacted Library version

2.122.1

Describe the bug

I am trying to build the app following directions at https://developers.ledger.com/docs/ledger-live/accounts/beginner/live-build, using Node.js v20.19.2.

This is what I did:

git clone https://github.com/LedgerHQ/ledger-live.git
cd ledger-live/
git checkout @ledgerhq/live-desktop@2.122.1 
pnpm install
cd apps/ledger-live-desktop/
pnpm install
pnpm build

The dependency installation was fine, but then, during the actual building

$pnpm build

> ledger-live-desktop@2.122.1 build <path>/ledger-live/apps/ledger-live-desktop
> cross-env CSC_IDENTITY_AUTO_DISCOVERY=false STAGING=1 node ./tools/dist --nosign -v

[02:36:03] Cleanup [started]
[02:36:03] Remove `.turbo/cache` folder [started]
[02:36:03] Remove `.turbo/cache` folder [completed]
[02:36:03] Remove `.webpack` folder [started]
[02:36:03] Remove `.webpack` folder [completed]
[02:36:03] Remove `dist` folder [started]
[02:36:03] Remove `dist` folder [completed]
[02:36:03] Cleanup [completed]
[02:36:03] Build [started]
[02:36:03] Compiling assets [started]

> ledger-live-desktop@2.122.1 build:js <path>/ledger-live/apps/ledger-live-desktop
> cross-env NODE_ENV=production node ./tools/main.js build

Found the following native modules: [
  '<path>/ledger-live/node_modules/.pnpm/secp256k1@4.0.3/node_modules/secp256k1'
]
✘ [ERROR] Could not resolve "@ledgerhq/ethereum-provider"

    src/webviewPreloader/dappPreloader.ts:2:27:
      2 │ import { onPageLoad } from "@ledgerhq/ethereum-provider";
        ╵                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

  You can mark the path "@ledgerhq/ethereum-provider" as external to exclude it from the bundle,
  which will remove this error and leave the unresolved path in the bundle.

Expected behavior

I expected the app to build normally.

If the dependency on node v18 is strict, then I would expect to have a check near the beginning of the build process, pointing out that the system has an incompatible version of node.js

Or, I would expect node-env to be used, so that the version of node.js can be controlled by the the build scripts themselves.

Additional context

No response

[csillag]

More context.

System requirements are specified here: https://developers.ledger.com/docs/ledger-live/accounts/getting-started#setup

It says:

Node.js@18.x.x

Initially I was assuming that this info must be obsolete, since Node.js 18 is now EOL; that's why I tried to build in with v20.x - which is the oldest version still in maintenance.

But based on my failure with v20.x, maybe v18.x is actually the last supported version?

[csillag]

Update. I tried to build with node, v18.20.8 with the same results.

✘ [ERROR] Could not resolve "@ledgerhq/ethereum-provider"

I can tell that the referenced module is there:

$file node_modules/@ledgerhq/ethereum-provider/package.json 
node_modules/@ledgerhq/ethereum-provider/package.json: JSON text data

Also, nuking node_modules and reinstalling dependencies does not help, so it was not an intermittent issue during dependency install.

So, I have no idea what is going on here.

[csillag]

Update: I can build the app successfully by running pnpm build:lld in the root directory; so the issue was attempting to build the app by manually entering apps/ledger-live-desktop/, and running pnpm build there -- as instructed by the development documentation here: https://developers.ledger.com/docs/ledger-live/accounts/beginner/live-build

So, basically, this boils down to the fact that the developer documentation is obsolete.

[github-actions]

This issue is stale because it has been open 30 days with no activity. Remove stale label, comment, or consider closing it.

[csillag]

I just checked, and the documentation is still obsolete:

• The requirements still list an obsolete Node.js version
• The build process still recommends the wrong make target.

Is someone going to update these? Having obsolete docs really makes the developer experience harder than it needs to be..

[csillag]

I don't have permissions to remove the stale label here, but as far as I am concerned, this issue is till very much current.