Ubuntu 22.04 : could not compile dependency :phoenix

Hello. I’m trying to install my first application with Phoenix.

I just installed elixir:

sudo apt-get install elixir

elixir -v returns me:

Erlang/OTP 24 [erts-12.2.1] [source] [64-bit] [smp:8:8] [ds:8:8:10] [async-threads:1] [jit]
Elixir 1.12.2 (compiled with Erlang/OTP 24)

Then I did:

mix archive.install hex phx_new
sudo apt-get install inotify-tools
mix phx.new app --database mysql
cd app
mix deps.get
mix ecto.create

And I have this error:

==> phoenix
Compiling 69 files (.ex)

== Compilation error in file lib/mix/tasks/phx.gen.cert.ex ==
** (RuntimeError) error parsing file /usr/lib/erlang/lib/public_key-1.11.3/include/OTP-PUB-KEY.hrl, got: {:error, :enoent}
    (elixir 1.12.2) lib/record/extractor.ex:84: Record.Extractor.read_file/2
    (elixir 1.12.2) lib/record/extractor.ex:50: Record.Extractor.extract_record/2
    lib/mix/tasks/phx.gen.cert.ex:146: (module)
    (stdlib 3.17) erl_eval.erl:685: :erl_eval.do_apply/6
could not compile dependency :phoenix, "mix compile" failed. You can recompile this dependency with "mix deps.compile phoenix", update it with "mix deps.update phoenix" or clean it with "mix deps.clean phoenix"

Why ?
Thanks.

Dont use apt, use asdf.

1 Like

Hey @stephweb welcome! Unfortunately the way the package managers on linux have structured Elixir / Erlang it’s really easy to get a “partial” install that doesn’t really have many of the things that you need.

Most folks are using GitHub - asdf-vm/asdf-erlang: Erlang plugin for asdf version manager and GitHub - asdf-vm/asdf-elixir: Elixir plugin for asdf version manager as a way to install Erlang / Elixir, which also makes it easy to use the latest versions of each.

6 Likes

I wish there was an easier way to do this.

I don’t know if this helps as in my learning path I have not yet reached phoenix but I’m also running on 22.04 (Lubuntu) and installed Elixir this way (an Ansible play but you should be able to “play” it manually without problems).

Erlang from Ubuntu repos and latest (at the moment when i made the installation) Elixir compiled against the correct Erlang version from Github releases.

$ cat roles/elixir/tasks/main.yml 
---
# Ubuntu repository Elixir version is a bit outdated so
# install only Erlang from there and then use precompiled
# Elixir package.

# Erlang version 24.2.1
- name: "erlang : install"
  become: yes
  apt:
    name:
    - erlang
    state: present

# Latest Elixir version complied against Erlang version

- name: "elixir : to be or not to be"
  stat:
    path: "/opt/elixir-1.14.1"
  register: elixir_meta

- name: "elixir : download zip file"
  when: elixir_meta.stat.exists == False
  get_url:
    checksum: sha1:63f6d59c097f9e60dcf4ccb9854db1a6f5b976f0
    url: https://github.com/elixir-lang/elixir/releases/download/v1.14.1/elixir-otp-24.zip
    dest: /tmp/elixir-otp-24.zip

- name: "elixir : create home directory"
  become: yes
  file:
    state: directory
    path: "/opt/elixir-1.14.1"

- name: "elixir : unpack zip file"
  when: elixir_meta.stat.exists == False
  become: yes
  unarchive:
    remote_src: yes
    src: /tmp/elixir-otp-24.zip
    dest: "/opt/elixir-1.14.1"
    owner: root
    group: root

- name: "elixir : add to path"
  become: yes
  file:
    state: link
    path: "/usr/local/bin/{{ item }}"
    src: "/opt/elixir-1.14.1/bin/{{ item }}"
  with_items:
    - elixir
    - elixirc
    - iex
    - mix
1 Like

I’ve found that you can do it with apt and system packages. Just do the following:

sudo apt install erlang-dev

I found this solution by looking for the file in question in Google, namely OTP-PUB-KEY.hrl and finding the package on the Ubuntu repository: https://packages.ubuntu.com/jammy/all/erlang-dev/filelist

Hope that helps!

2 Likes

Created an account just to tell you that this worked for me