Build Halted on Raspberry Pi OS Trixie with Node-RED 4.1.1

[mshioji]

Hello Ralph-san,

I always thank you for your work on this nice plugin. I regularly use it.
I am currently setting up a new development environment on latest Raspberry Pi OS Trixie for an upcoming tech event and have encountered an issue where the build process seems to halt or hang.

Environment and Setup Details
Operating System: Raspberry Pi OS Trixie (64-bit)
Node-RED Version: 4.1.1
Node.js Version: 22.x (specifically v22.21.0)
Moddable SDK Version: 6.0.0
ESP-IDF v5.5.1
Target device: esp32/nodemcu, esp32/xiao_esp32c3

Observed Behavior
When attempting to build a flow using the node-red-mcu-plugin, the process starts, successfully creates the working directory, but does not proceed past the output shown below:

Starting build process...
Host system check: #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 1:6.12.47-1+rpt1 (2025-09-16)
MCU Build system check: p1.5.4 + #2479795 @ m6.0.0-0-g55293e1
HOME directory check: /home/teqs100
Creating build environment for platform esp32/xiao_esp32c3.
Working directory: /home/teqs100/.node-red/mcu-plugin-cache/ogmha9cszlj

The build is attempted with an extremely simple flow consisting only of an inject node connected to a debug node.

Troubleshooting Steps
Moddable SDK Confirmation: I have confirmed that the Moddable SDK (v6.0.0) itself is functional by successfully building and running the helloworld example for ESP32 using the command line.

Setup Methods: I have tested two different Moddable SDK setups with the same result:
1.Setup following the official GitHub Moddable installation procedure.
2.Setup using the xs-dev tool.

xs-dev Environment Information
For further context on the environment, here is the output from xs-dev environment info:

xs-dev environment info:
  CLI Version             1.0.2                                                               
  OS                      Linux                                                               
  Arch                    arm64                                                               
  Shell                   /bin/bash                                                            
  NodeJS Version          v22.21.0 (/usr/bin/node)                                            
  Python Version          3.13.5 (/home/teqs100/.espressif/python_env/idf5.5_py3.13_env/bin/python) 
  Moddable SDK Version    6.0.0 (/home/teqs100/.local/share/moddable)                          
  Supported target devices lin, esp32                                                             
  ESP32 IDF Directory     /home/teqs100/.local/share/esp32/esp-idf-v5.5.1 

Since this involves Node-RED, the plugin, the Moddable SDK, and the ESP-IDF, I understand that the root cause could be in various places. However, given that a direct Moddable build works, I would greatly appreciate it if you could review the plugin's interaction with the Moddable build process to see if the issue lies there, perhaps related to the newer Node-RED 4.1.1 versions on Raspberry Pi OS Trixie.

Thank you for your time and continued dedication to this project!

Best regards.
mshioji

[mshioji]

Thank you again for your time.
I wanted to provide a quick update, as I've managed to half-resolve the issue and the build is now proceeding.

The core problem appears to have been the source of the ESP-IDF installation.

Resolution Details
Initially, I had installed the ESP-IDF following the official Moddable documentation procedures. Although the $IDF_PATH was correctly set and the Moddable helloworld exsample was building, the node-red-mcu-plugin build would still halt.I then tried installing the ESP-IDF using the xs-dev tool (just as I had done for one of the Moddable SDK setups).

Result:
After replacing the Moddable-guide-installed ESP-IDF with the xs-dev installed ESP-IDF, the node-red-mcu-plugin build process began to work correctly.
Therefore, the immediate problem is resolved, and I can now continue setting up my environment.

However, it may be worth noting for future users that there could be a compatibility or pathing difference when the plugin interacts with an ESP-IDF installed via the Moddable official guide versus one installed via xs-dev.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

[phoddie]

cc: @HipsterBrown