keybase / keybase/client

Recover Account Workflow Failed (log send failed)

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Description

I wanted to give keybase messenger another try today. I figured that the best first step was to login to the website, since I haven't done anything with keybase in a year or two.

Upon realizing that I couldn't recall which passphrase I used for my account, I clicked "Recover Account" on the login form and was instructed to run `keybase passphrase recover`. That is where the trouble began.

```
$ keybase passphrase recover
/usr/bin/env: ‘node’: No such file or directory
```

At this point I figured that maybe I needed to update the client, as I had originally installed it in probably 2016 or early 2017. I followed the instructions for Debian on `keybase.io/docs/the_app/install_linux`, downloading the deb and running the required commands:

```
$ run_keybase
Shutting down keybase service...
Launching keybase service...
Mounting the file system...
Launching Keybase GUI...
Success!
```

However, I got the same problem:

```
$ keybase passphrase recover
/usr/bin/env: ‘node’: No such file or directory
```

After some research I installed the `nodejs-legacy` package (I wish this had been in the keybase docs!). This got me to a new error:

```
$ keybase passphrase recover
usage: keybase [-h] [-v] [-p PASSPHRASE] [-c CONFIG] [-i] [-d] [-q] [-C]
[--port PORT] [--no-tls] [--host HOST]
[--api-uri-prefix API_URI_PREFIX] [-B] [--preserve-tmp-keyring]
[--homedir HOMEDIR] [-g GPG] [-x PROXY]
[--proxy-ca-certs PROXY_CA_CERTS] [-O] [-M MERKLE_CHECKS]
[--tor-proxy TOR_PROXY]
[--tor-hidden-address TOR_HIDDEN_ADDRESS] [--tor-leaky] [-S]
[-T]

{btc,bitcoin,cert,dir,code-sign,config,decrypt,dec,encrypt,enc,help,id,identify,join,signup,keygen,gen,generate,list-signatures,list-sigs,list-tracking,login,logout,pull,push,prove,proof,reset,nuke,revoke,revoke-signatures,revoke-sig,search,sign,sig,status,switch,track,untrack,unverify,update,verify,version,vers}
...
keybase: error: argument "subcommand_name": Invalid choice: passphrase (choose from [btc, bitcoin, cert, dir, code-sign, config, decrypt, dec, encrypt, enc, help, id, identify, join, signup, keygen, gen, generate, list-signatures, list-sigs, list-tracking, login, logout, pull, push, prove, proof, reset, nuke, revoke, revoke-signatures, revoke-sig, search, sign, sig, status, switch, track, untrack, unverify, update, verify, version, vers])
```

I also tried removing and re-installing the keybase package via apt to no change. Not sure where to go from here. Some additional diagnostics:

```
$ which keybase
/usr/bin/keybase
```

```
$ keybase version
keybase (keybase.io CLI) v0.8.12
- node.js v8.9.3
- gpg (GnuPG) 2.2.5
- libgcrypt 1.8.2
Identifies as: 'keybase.io node.js client v0.8.12 linux'
```

```
$ keybase log send
usage: keybase [-h] [-v] [-p PASSPHRASE] [-c CONFIG] [-i] [-d] [-q] [-C]
[--port PORT] [--no-tls] [--host HOST]
[--api-uri-prefix API_URI_PREFIX] [-B] [--preserve-tmp-keyring]
[--homedir HOMEDIR] [-g GPG] [-x PROXY]
[--proxy-ca-certs PROXY_CA_CERTS] [-O] [-M MERKLE_CHECKS]
[--tor-proxy TOR_PROXY]
[--tor-hidden-address TOR_HIDDEN_ADDRESS] [--tor-leaky] [-S]
[-T]

{btc,bitcoin,cert,dir,code-sign,config,decrypt,dec,encrypt,enc,help,id,identify,join,signup,keygen,gen,generate,list-signatures,list-sigs,list-tracking,login,logout,pull,push,prove,proof,reset,nuke,revoke,revoke-signatures,revoke-sig,search,sign,sig,status,switch,track,untrack,unverify,update,verify,version,vers}
...
keybase: error: argument "subcommand_name": Invalid choice: log (choose from [btc, bitcoin, cert, dir, code-sign, config, decrypt, dec, encrypt, enc, help, id, identify, join, signup, keygen, gen, generate, list-signatures, list-sigs, list-tracking, login, logout, pull, push, prove, proof, reset, nuke, revoke, revoke-signatures, revoke-sig, search, sign, sig, status, switch, track, untrack, unverify, update, verify, version, vers])
```

```
$ sudo uname -a
Linux hostname 4.14.0-2-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 4.14.7-1 (2017-12-22) x86_64 GNU/Linux
```

Would love to get back to using keybase, but can't think of any additional steps beyond re-installing.

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

Research direction

Start by reproducing `keybase passphrase recover` and `keybase log send` with the reported Keybase CLI v0.8.12 on Debian, then compare the available subcommands with the recovery and log-send workflows described in the issue. Done means the intended workflow is supported on the documented installation, or the required version and package state are clearly identified.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
debian, linux, node.js
Domain
cli, operating-systems
Issue type
Bug
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
20/100

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