"npm install electron-builder" fails on Armbian Linux (arm7l)

[rppoor]

(Edit: after looking through open issues, I see that this is similar to issue #9213.)

Trying to install an app package on Armbian Linux fails and it appears that electron-winstaller is trying to be installed as if this is a WIndows platform. (Edit: After a little research, it appears that 'electron-winstaller' is for Windows (or WSL) only. Why is it part of this package?)

My system: odroid-xu4, Armbian 26.2.1 noble (based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS), kernel 6.6.122 (arm7l), Node.js v18.19.1, NPM 9.2.0.

(N.B. I upgraded Node.js to version 22.22.0 using NVM and the results are the same.)

$ npm install --platform=linux --arch=arm7l electron-builder@latest

resulting log file (clipped):

....
1157 silly audit bulk request {
1157 silly audit 'electron-builder-squirrel-windows': [ '26.8.1' ],
...
1691 info run electron-winstaller@5.4.0 install node_modules/electron-winstaller node ./script/select-7z-arch.js
1692 info run electron-winstaller@5.4.0 install { code: 1, signal: null }
1693 timing reify:rollback:createSparse Completed in 954ms
1694 timing reify:rollback:retireShallow Completed in 0ms
1695 timing command:install Completed in 33191ms
1696 verbose stack Error: command failed
1696 verbose stack at ChildProcess. (/usr/share/nodejs/@npmcli/promise-spawn/lib/index.js:53:27)
1696 verbose stack at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:517:28)
1696 verbose stack at maybeClose (node:internal/child_process:1098:16)
1696 verbose stack at ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:303:5)
1697 verbose pkgid electron-winstaller@5.4.0
1698 verbose cwd /root
1699 verbose Linux 6.6.122-current-odroidxu4
1700 verbose node v18.19.1
1701 verbose npm v9.2.0
1702 error code 1
1703 error path /root/node_modules/electron-winstaller
1704 error command failed
1705 error command sh -c node ./script/select-7z-arch.js
1706 error Selecting 7-Zip for arch arm
1707 error /root/node_modules/electron-winstaller/script/select-7z-arch.js:16
1707 error throw err;
1707 error ^
1707 error
1707 error Error: ENOENT: no such file or directory, copyfile 'vendor/7z-arm.exe' -> 'vendor/7z.exe'
1707 error at Object.copyFileSync (node:fs:2982:3)
1707 error at Object. (/root/node_modules/electron-winstaller/script/select-7z-arch.js:14:8)
1707 error at Module._compile (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1356:14)
1707 error at Module._extensions..js (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1414:10)
1707 error at Module.load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1197:32)
1707 error at Module._load (node:internal/modules/cjs/loader:1013:12)
1707 error at Function.executeUserEntryPoint [as runMain] (node:internal/modules/run_main:128:12)
1707 error at node:internal/main/run_main_module:28:49 {
1707 error errno: -2,
1707 error syscall: 'copyfile',
1707 error code: 'ENOENT',
1707 error path: 'vendor/7z-arm.exe',
1707 error dest: 'vendor/7z.exe'
1707 error }
1707 error
1707 error Node.js v18.19.1
1708 verbose exit 1