VS Code axe Accessibility Linter fails to start

[ChipElavon]

Product: axe Linter

Expectation: Linter extension starts

Actual:

• On first run errors popups "Unable to start axe-linter" and "Unable to download local-server" appear.
• After restarting VSCode the error popups change to "Unable to start axe-linter" and "Unable to start local-server".
• If I chmod +x ~/.vscode/extensions/deque-systems.vscode-axe-linter-4.4.0/bin/axe-linter-server-4.4.0-macos and restart VSCode I get a popup "axe Linter setup: Starting local-server" that never progresses/finishes
  • running ./axe-linter-server-4.4.0-macos directly in the terminal prints no output and gives an exit code 0
  • investigating further ~/.vscode/extensions/deque-systems.vscode-axe-linter-4.4.0/bin/axe-linter-server-4.4.0-macos is 0 bytes in size so that explains why nothing is happening

axe-linter version: 4.4.0
vscode about output:
  Version: 1.67.2 (Universal)
  Commit: c3511e6c69bb39013c4a4b7b9566ec1ca73fc4d5
  Date: 2022-05-17T18:20:57.384Z (6 days ago)
  Electron: 17.4.1
  Chromium: 98.0.4758.141
  Node.js: 16.13.0
  V8: 9.8.177.13-electron.0
  OS: Darwin x64 21.3.0

For Tooling issues:
- Platform:  macOS 12.2.1

I'm on a machine with corporate controls installed and behind a restrictive firewall and one of those facts is probably interfering with the extension working, but I'm not finding much information to go on to figure out what exactly is going wrong with the extension starting up or what local-server it's trying and failing to download.

Looking for some help to get this extension working so we can fix a11y issues earlier in the development cycle.

Screenshot of what I see right after I install the linter extension:

[straker]

Thanks for the issue. We've been working on some major improvements to the linter that should fix some of the download issues. We're hoping to have it released in the next quarter or two.

[straker]

@ChipElavon We recently released a new version of axe linter (v4.4.1) that should address this issue. Would you be willing to give it another go and let us know if you run into any more issues?

[dstorfer-cn]

@ChipElavon We recently released a new version of axe linter (v4.4.1) that should address this issue. Would you be willing to give it another go and let us know if you run into any more issues?

I'm running into an issue with the new version 4.4.1. I get a popup saying "Couldn't start client axe Linter" and here is my OUTPUT window contents:

[Error - 3:42:43 PM] Starting client failed
Error: spawn UNKNOWN
	at ChildProcess.spawn (node:internal/child_process:412:11)
	at Object.spawn (node:child_process:718:9)
	at c:\Users\CN123456\.vscode\extensions\deque-systems.vscode-axe-linter-4.4.1\dist\src\extension.js:2:226632

This doesn't seem like a download issue like the firewall one that I had before. I managed to solve the download issue by figuring out how to trick the firewall, manually download the files, and put them where they needed to be. But this error looks more internal to either node or the plugin.

[ChipElavon]

@ChipElavon We recently released a new version of axe linter (v4.4.1) that should address this issue. Would you be willing to give it another go and let us know if you run into any more issues?

I tried today and got the following error message after installing the extension and restarting VSCode:

[Error - 1:27:24 PM] Starting client failed
Error: spawn Unknown system error -8
    at ChildProcess.spawn (node:internal/child_process:412:11)
    at Object.spawn (node:child_process:718:9)
    at /Users/m183/.vscode/extensions/deque-systems.vscode-axe-linter-4.4.1/dist/src/extension.js:2:226632

[cms365]

@ChipElavon We recently released a new version of axe linter (v4.4.1) that should address this issue. Would you be willing to give it another go and let us know if you run into any more issues?

I tried today and got the following error message after installing the extension and restarting VSCode:

[Error - 1:27:24 PM] Starting client failed
Error: spawn Unknown system error -8
    at ChildProcess.spawn (node:internal/child_process:412:11)
    at Object.spawn (node:child_process:718:9)
    at /Users/m183/.vscode/extensions/deque-systems.vscode-axe-linter-4.4.1/dist/src/extension.js:2:226632

Seeing this exact issue as well. Following.

[gps03]

Seeing the same error:

[Error - 2:23:17 PM] Starting client failed Error: spawn Unknown system error -8 at ChildProcess.spawn (node:internal/child_process:441:11) at Object.spawn (node:child_process:752:9) at /Users/gps03/.vscode/extensions/deque-systems.vscode-axe-linter-4.7.2/dist/src/extension.js:1:250750 at processTicksAndRejections (node:internal/process/task_queues:96:5)

But also seeing a popup error "unable to get issuer certificate"

[mamankhan99]

+1

on Node 20.9.0 and axe accessibility linter 4.8.0

[jsdev]

there is a strong chance you need to do the following 3 things: in .vscode/settings.json add: "telemetry.telemetryLevel": "off" chmod +x ~/.vscode/extensions/deque-systems.vscode-axe-lineter-[version.num.ber]

3rd step might be providing an alternative to axe-linter-server-binary-prod-[resion].s3.amazonaws.com