Cannot deploy a new project

Developers Rust
1

Hey guys, I am on windows running ubuntu. I am with the latest dfx version. I created dfx new test> choosing Rust and Vanilla JS>Internet Computer. When everything is created I am running dfx start and BOOOM error… wtf…
Caused by: The pre-build all step failed
Caused by: Failed step_prebuild_all.
Caused by: Failed to run ‘cargo locate-project’.
Caused by: No such file or directory (os error 2)

ITS A NEWLY CREATED PROJECT, WHY DOESN’T WORKING …
I’ve tried everything that I saw on google and nothing works…
I am fighting to start a project 3-4 days. trying different options… the information is not enogh and its so fakin discouraging…

2

Quoting the output of dfx new:

If you want to work on programs right away, try the following commands to get started:

    cd <name of your project>
    dfx help
    dfx new --help

Did you cd <name of your project>?

3

Motoko option is deploying the project and I can see it, but when I choose Rust, it cannot deploy it. I receive this error.

4

Could you please provide your specific steps?

I maybe reproduced the issue, but not sure if that’s the same one. Here’s my setup:

$ dfx --version
dfx 0.24.3

$ rustc --version
rustc 1.75.0 (82e1608df 2023-12-21)

The project without frontend works fine:

$ dfx new --type rust --no-frontend demo

$ cd demo
$ dfx start --clean --background
...

$ dfx deploy
$ dfx canister call demo_backend greet world
("Hello, world!")

The project with a default frontend fails to deploy a canister:

$ dfx new --type rust demo
...

$ cd demo
$ dfx start --clean --background
Running dfx start for version 0.24.3
Using the default configuration for the local shared network.
Initialized replica.
Initialized HTTP gateway.
Replica API running on 127.0.0.1:4943
Success! The dfx server is running in the background.

$ dfx deploy
Deploying all canisters.
Creating canisters...
Creating canister demo_backend...
demo_backend canister created with canister id: be2us-64aaa-aaaaa-qaabq-cai
Creating canister demo_frontend...
demo_frontend canister created with canister id: br5f7-7uaaa-aaaaa-qaaca-cai
Building canisters...
WARN: Cannot check for vulnerabilities in rust canisters because cargo-audit is not installed. Please run 'cargo install cargo-audit' so that vulnerabilities can be detected.
Executing: cargo build --target wasm32-unknown-unknown --release -p demo_backend --locked
    Finished release [optimized] target(s) in 0.03s
Building frontend...
Error: Failed while trying to deploy canisters.
Caused by: Failed to build all canisters.
Caused by: Failed while trying to build all canisters.
Caused by: The post-build step failed for canister 'br5f7-7uaaa-aaaaa-qaaca-cai' (demo_frontend)
Caused by: Failed to build frontend for network 'local'.
Caused by: Error executing Command {
    program: "npm",
    args: [
        "npm",
        "run",
        "build",
    ],
    env: CommandEnv {
        clear: false,
        vars: {
            "CANISTER_CANDID_PATH": Some(
                "/home/maksym/tmp/demo/.dfx/local/canisters/demo_frontend/assetstorage.did",
            ),
            "CANISTER_CANDID_PATH_DEMO_BACKEND": Some(
                "/home/maksym/tmp/demo/src/demo_backend/demo_backend.did",
            ),
            "CANISTER_ID": Some(
                "br5f7-7uaaa-aaaaa-qaaca-cai",
            ),
            "CANISTER_ID_DEMO_BACKEND": Some(
                "be2us-64aaa-aaaaa-qaabq-cai",
            ),
            "CANISTER_ID_DEMO_FRONTEND": Some(
                "br5f7-7uaaa-aaaaa-qaaca-cai",
            ),
            "DFX_NETWORK": Some(
                "local",
            ),
            "DFX_VERSION": Some(
                "0.24.3",
            ),
        },
    },
    cwd: Some(
        "/home/maksym/tmp/demo",
    ),
    stdout: Some(
        MakePipe,
    ),
    stderr: Some(
        MakePipe,
    ),
    create_pidfd: false,
}
Caused by: No such file or directory (os error 2)

UPD: the error message above suggests that npm was not able to start properly, which is correct because I did not have it installed on my machine.

I looked at First smart contract | Internet Computer and installed nvm and npm as suggested there as a first step.

$ node -v
v23.5.0

$ nvm current
v23.5.0

$ npm -v
10.9.2

After that it all worked just fine. It’s always helpful to read error messages carefully. Hope that helps.