Unable to update vagrant dev install on Windows

Development

AI-generated summary

The issue is that a user cannot update their Vagrant dev install on Windows due to an error when running bundle exec rake db:migrate. The error message indicates a “Protocol error” when trying to create a symbolic link. jomaxro and blake discuss the issue, and blake suggests trying to create a test symlink, which jomaxro attempts but also encounters the error.

blake finds a related issue on GitHub and suggests downgrading Vagrant as a possible solution. However, sam recommends avoiding Vagrant altogether and using a Docker dev environment instead.

epitome provides a solution, explaining that the error is due to a lack of permission to create symbolic links on Windows. They suggest running Vagrant as an administrator to resolve the issue.

1

I’m getting the following error when attempting to update my dev install on Windows. I first did a git pull, then vagrant up, vagrant ssh, and finally bundle install. The error occurs when trying to run bundle exec rake db:migrate

vagrant@discourse:/vagrant$ bundle exec rake db:migrate
rake aborted!
ln: failed to create symbolic link '/vagrant/public/plugins/discourse-narrative-bot': Protocol error
/vagrant/lib/discourse.rb:26:in `execute_command'
/vagrant/lib/plugin/instance.rb:368:in `activate!'
/vagrant/lib/discourse.rb:126:in `block in activate_plugins!'
/vagrant/lib/discourse.rb:123:in `each'
/vagrant/lib/discourse.rb:123:in `activate_plugins!'
/vagrant/config/application.rb:179:in `<class:Application>'
/vagrant/config/application.rb:27:in `<module:Discourse>'
/vagrant/config/application.rb:26:in `<top (required)>'
/vagrant/rakefile:5:in `require'
/vagrant/rakefile:5:in `<top (required)>'
/home/vagrant/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.1/gems/rake-12.0.0/exe/rake:27:in `<top (required)>'
/home/vagrant/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.1/bin/ruby_executable_hooks:15:in `eval'
/home/vagrant/.rvm/gems/ruby-2.3.1/bin/ruby_executable_hooks:15:in `<main>'
(See full trace by running task with --trace)
2

Looks like its related to this line:

Did you already install the discobot plugin before this? Do we normally create symlinks or is that a vagrant thing?

3

Nope, haven’t updated in quite some time. Also never installed plugins in Vagrant.

I have no idea…

4

Can you just try creating a test symlink yourself and see if it works?

5

It does not appear to be working:

vagrant@discourse:/vagrant$ touch temp
vagrant@discourse:/vagrant$ ln -s temp temp-link
ln: failed to create symbolic link 'temp-link': Protocol error
vagrant@discourse:/vagrant$
6

check this out

https://github.com/mitchellh/vagrant/issues/6024

I didn’t read the whole thing, but you might need to downgrade to a different version of vagrant if they haven’t fixed it yet.

7

I would recommend avoiding vagrant, if you need a “quick” setup just start an ubuntu VM and and use our docker dev env.

8

Sounds good Sam - will test that out later today.

9

you need special rights to create symbolic links with windows (inside virtual machines), the right goes by “SeCreateSymbolicLink”.
Administrator have this right by default. When you run vagrant up/ssh, you need to run it with a user that has this right.

I avoided this error by starting a powershell as administrator (since I didn’t want to bother with granting rights to my user) and discourse is up and running