Mist throws "Error starting up node and/or syncing Error: Couldn't start swarm process."

[azappella]

Hi,

Thanks for providing the docker image and the helper scripts, I managed to get everything running and it works well. I bumped into a small issue last night when following one of the steps and thought I would share it here in case someone else encounters this. When running Mist with the JSON-RPC interface, Mist complains about not being able to connect to the swarm process:

~/projects/ethereum-docker$ mist --rpc http://localhost:8545

[2017-09-15 11:52:58.760] [INFO] main - Running in production mode: true
[2017-09-15 11:52:58.763] [WARN] main - CONNECTING TO A NODE VIA HTTP INSTEAD OF IPCMAIN. THIS IS LESS SECURE!!!!
[2017-09-15 11:52:58.853] [INFO] main - Starting in Mist mode
[2017-09-15 11:53:01.493] [INFO] Db - Loading db: /home/a/.config/Mist/mist.lokidb
[2017-09-15 11:53:01.530] [INFO] Windows - Creating commonly-used windows
[2017-09-15 11:53:01.531] [INFO] Windows - Create secondary window: loading, owner: notset
[2017-09-15 11:53:01.596] [INFO] updateChecker - Check for update...
[2017-09-15 11:53:03.394] [INFO] Windows - Create primary window: main, owner: notset
[2017-09-15 11:53:03.405] [INFO] Windows - Create primary window: splash, owner: notset
[2017-09-15 11:53:03.948] [INFO] ipcCommunicator - Backend language set to:  en
[2017-09-15 11:53:04.634] [INFO] updateChecker - App is up-to-date.
[2017-09-15 11:53:04.888] [INFO] (ui: splashscreen) - Web3 already initialized, re-using provider.
[2017-09-15 11:53:04.992] [INFO] (ui: splashscreen) - Meteor starting up...
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.054] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - Initializing...
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.055] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - Resolving path to Eth client binary ...
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.069] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - Eth client binary path: /opt/Mist/nodes/eth/linux-x64/eth
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.070] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - Checking for new client binaries config from: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ethereum/mist/master/clientBinaries.json
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.529] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - No "skippedNodeVersion.json" found.
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.531] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - Initializing...
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.531] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - Resolving platform...
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.532] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - Calculating possible clients...
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.535] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - 1 possible clients.
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.536] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - Verifying status of all 1 possible clients...
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.537] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - Verify Geth status ...
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.555] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - Checking for Geth sanity check ...
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.555] [INFO] ClientBinaryManager - Checking sanity for Geth ...
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.619] [INFO] Sockets/node-ipc - Connect to {"hostPort":"http://localhost:8545"}
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.630] [INFO] Sockets/node-ipc - Connected!
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.632] [INFO] NodeSync - Ethereum node connected, re-start sync
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.638] [INFO] NodeSync - Starting sync loop
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.640] [INFO] Sockets/3 - Connect to {"hostPort":"http://localhost:8545"}
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.936] [INFO] Sockets/3 - Connected!
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.969] [INFO] (ui: splashscreen) - Network is privatenet
[2017-09-15 11:53:05.970] [INFO] (ui: splashscreen) - Network is privatenet
[2017-09-15 11:53:07.659] [INFO] NodeSync - No more sync necessary
[2017-09-15 11:53:07.660] [INFO] NodeSync - Sync loop ended
[2017-09-15 11:53:26.107] [ERROR] main - Error starting up node and/or syncing Error: Couldn't start swarm process.
    at Timeout.error [as _onTimeout] (/opt/Mist/resources/app.asar/node_modules/swarm-js/lib/swarm.js:420:21)
    at tryOnTimeout (timers.js:232:11)
    at Timer.listOnTimeout (timers.js:202:5)

The solution as a workaround is to set --swarmurl null:

mist --rpc http://localhost:8545 --swarmurl null

Cheers,

A.