npm wsl EAI_AGAIN

Running npm ci on WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux) failed with:

npm ERR! syscall getaddrinfo
npm ERR! errno EAI_AGAIN
npm ERR! request to http://registry.npmjs.org/nodemon failed, reason: getaddrinfo EAI_AGAIN registry.npmjs.org

dig registry.npmjs.org

^ confirmed that my Ubuntu WSL can't reach registry.npmjs.org

Solution

In WSL:

rm /etc/resolv.conf
bash -c 'echo "nameserver 8.8.8.8" > /etc/resolv.conf'
bash -c 'echo "[network]" > /etc/wsl.conf'
bash -c 'echo "generateResolvConf = false" >> /etc/wsl.conf'
chattr +i /etc/resolv.conf

^ use 8.8.8.8 (Google's DNS). Stop recreating resolv.conf on startup

In Windows:

Set-Content -Path "C:\Users\{user}\.wslconfig" -Value "[wsl2]`nnetworkingMode=mirrored"

Works now, also on my company's VPN.

kudos https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/5420#issuecomment-646479747

more info https://gist.github.com/machuu/7663aa653828d81efbc2aaad6e3b1431

update 2025-03-18

Today the above solution didn't work - I could not reach 8.8.8.8 - I tested it with dig registry.npmjs.org. This fixed it today :confused:

WSL:

chattr -i /etc/resolv.conf
rm /etc/resolv.conf
rm /etc/wsl.conf

Windows:

rm "C:\Users\{user}\.wslconfig"