Error writing input to command

Neovim version (nvim -v)

NVIM v0.6.0-dev+210-g6751d6254

Vim (not Nvim) behaves the same?

No.

Operating system/version

macOS 10.15.7

Terminal name/version

iTerm2

$TERM environment variable

xterm-256color

Installation

Github Releases

How to reproduce the issue

The following is my neovim folder:

$ tree 
.
├── init.lua
├── lua
│  └── kd
│     ├── config.lua
│     └── plugins.lua
└── plugin
   └── packer_compiled.lua

The following is the init.lua file:

-- ./init.lua
require("kd/plugins")
require("kd/config")

The following is the plugins.lua file:

-- ./lua/kd/plugins.lua
M = {}

local install_path = vim.fn.stdpath("data") .. "/site/pack/packer/start/packer.nvim"

if vim.fn.empty(fn.glob(install_path)) > 0 then
  vim.fn.system({ "git", "clone", "https://github.com/wbthomason/packer.nvim", install_path })
  vim.api.nvim_command("packadd packer.nvim")
end

local packer = require("packer")
local use = packer.use

packer.reset()

packer.startup({
  function()
    use("wbthomason/packer.nvim")

    use({
      "ibhagwan/fzf-lua",
      requires = {
        "vijaymarupudi/nvim-fzf",
        "kyazdani42/nvim-web-devicons",
      },
    })

  end,
})

return M

The config.lua is located at the link below and is entirely commented:

https://github.com/kdheepak/dotfiles/blob/4ac28a0017f586f2188ac1628f6d4796b7e72a0d/nvim/lua/kd/config.lua

If the file is empty then the issue does not occur. If the file has content that is more than the screen height (???), the issue occurs, even if all the content is commented.

Open neovim with the above configuration and run :PackerCompile.

Opening neovim lua/kd/config.lua and then running :lua require("fzf-lua").files({cwd = "~/gitrepos/dotfiles"}) gives me the following error:

E5677: Error writing input to shell-command: EPIPE
E5677: Error writing input to shell-command: EPIPE

The error appears to originate from internal neovim:

Opening neovim without any file arguments and then running :lua require("fzf-lua").files({cwd = "~/gitrepos/dotfiles"}) does not result in any error.

Deleting the contents of lua/kd/config.lua and then opening neovim lua/kd/config.lua and then running :lua require("fzf-lua").files({cwd = "~/gitrepos/dotfiles"}) does not cause the error.

Here’s screencase of this error:

fzf-lua-minimal-error-1080p.mov

When the contents of the config.lua file are all commented, I get the error. When I delete the contents of the config.lua file, I don’t get any error.

After the error occurs, fzf-lua appears to run normally. Every time I run fzf-lua.files I get the same error.

This was originally discussed here: ibhagwan/fzf-lua#89

Expected behavior

Error does not occur.

Actual behavior

Vim internal error

E5677: Error writing input to shell-command: EPIPE
E5677: Error writing input to shell-command: EPIPE

1. dd Input/output error writing image to sd card
   

   I’m trying to set up a second RaspberryPi, so have done this a couple of times before at least with no hassle. But now I’m getting repeated errors trying to write the .img file to a micro sd card. I’ve tried two different cards, one only used once, the other brand new (but bought several months ago), both samsung, one 8Gb the other 16. I had problems initially with the external usb card reader I was using, so swapped that for a usb ‘cradle’ that came with one of the micro cards (they slot into the end of it). I’ve been able to access the cards using this and have tried both ImageWriter and, when that crashed (non-functioning progress bar doesn’t inspire confidence) tried Etcher. Same problem: writes a bit, then finishes prematurely. So I went a bit out of my comfort zone and tried dd on the command line. I’ve tried that four or five times now and it makes more progress than the other methods, but still ends before completion with an error message. Here’s the output from my last attempt:

   Code:

   nick@nick-build-1:~$ sudo dd if=/home/nick/RaspberryPi/Volumio1.55PI.img bs=4M | pv -s 2G | sudo dd of=/dev/sdh 
   [sudo] password for nick: [sudo] password for nick:    0B 0:00:01 [   0B/s] [>     0B 0:00:07 [   0B/s] [> 
   
   dd: writing to `/dev/sdh': Input/output error                  ]  6% ETA 9:51:38 
   262625+0 records in 
   262624+0 records out 
   134463488 bytes (134 MB) copied, 2790.32 s, 48.2 kB/s 
    128MB 0:46:37 [  47kB/s] [=>                                 ]  6%

   I’ve reformatted the cards (FAT32) before each new attempt and checking them after the failed write process there are always folders and files on the card, such as «overlays» «System Volume Information» bootcode.bin install-kernel.sh kernel.img start.elf etc etc. Investigating with GParted after my most recent attempt, it shows a FAT32 partition of 75Mb (24 used) at /dev/sdh1, an «unknown» (with orange exclamation triangle) partition of 5.85GB at /dev/sdh3 and 5.85GB unallocated.

   Writing an image file to an sd card should be a piece of cake, even on old equipment like mine (self-built 3ghz P4 running Ubuntu 12.04). The fact that the same problem appears to occur every time suggests to me that there’s something obvious I’ve got wrong. Can someone kindly help me find it?

   Last edited by nickdc; June 15th, 2016 at 07:13 PM.

   Reason: change tag

   ---

2. Re: dd Input/output error writing image to sd card
   

   I don’t think you should invoke dd twice.

   I think the easiest way to get things right is to use mkusb as a ‘safety belt’ and ‘wizard’ to get the dd command line right. See this link

   https://help.ubuntu.com/community/mkusb

   Good luck

   ---

3. Re: dd Input/output error writing image to sd card
   

   Thanks for the advice, I’ll take a look at mkusb, though if it’s a hood for dd I anticipate getting the same errors. I used the second dd command after reading help pages for pv. I only turned to pv after several failures with dd on its own (and just using the command at the beginning of the string) and wanting more info on its progress.

   ---

4. Re: dd Input/output error writing image to sd card
   

   In that case maybe the SD card cannot be written to (for some other reason).

   In many such cards there is a small mechanical switch, which you can use to make it read-only alias ‘lock’ or read/write. Check if you happened to touch it and set it in the read-only position.

   There might also be other problems with the card. Check if you can get write access to it from another computer or via another adapter or slot. For example, you can try to format it (which is a write operation). See also these links:

   Pendrive lifetime

   Repair the partition table and file system of a pendrive

   ---

5. Re: dd Input/output error writing image to sd card
   

   Thanks. Yes, have checked they’re not locked — as I said, this is happening on two different cards, both of which are formatting ok each time after a failed burn. Both cards can be put into my tablet where they perform as expected. I’m now wondering if it’s a hardware problem with my desktop pc as I’ve been getting sudden mouse freezes and having to do a power shutdown. I replaced the power supply a few months ago because it became very unstable and the new psu seemed to fix things, but now I’m wondering if it was a mbo or other hardware issue which is now recurring. The image writing is probably the longest running single process I use the machine for.

   ---

6. Re: dd Input/output error writing image to sd card
   

   If you can borrow another computer, maybe you can run a live DVD or USB drive and run the dd command line there, I think safer if you install mkusb (temporarily) and use it to flash from the image (img) file to the card.

   It is also possible to use Win32 Disk Imager, if you can borrow a computer with Windows.

   Win32DiskImager makes an Ubuntu family USB boot drive in Windows

   It works with img files as well as with iso files.

   ---

7. Re: dd Input/output error writing image to sd card
   

   Hooray! I’ve had success with mkusb — many thanks, sudodus, for suggesting I try that. Worked first time, and on my old machine — didn’t have to beg or borrow another pc. I certainly endorse your recommendation of mkusb, an excellent utility.

   ---

8. Re: dd Input/output error writing image to sd card
   

   I’m glad you found a solution (and thanks for marking the thread as solved to help other people)

   ---

9. Re: dd Input/output error writing image to sd card
   

   Oh dear! Problem not entirely solved, and I’m not sure if I should continue here or start a new thread under mkusb….?
   Having successfully written one of the images, it still wouldn’t boot my Pi. OK, so that’s not entirely unexpected as others having similar problems, almost certainly related to the image file itself. So I take another micro sd card, 16gb this one, and use mkusb to write a different image of around 4gb, that others have had success with. Mkusb seemed to be doing fine, kept going much longer than all the earlier attempts with dd etc, but ended in a fail:»No space left on device». Exactly the same on a second try. I realise this would not be a failure message had I been attempting to completely wipe the whole drive, but this is an install, and I got a success message with the other image on the other card. Clearly there’s plenty of space on the drive, so I’m puzzled why the process is failing.

   ---

10. Re: dd Input/output error writing image to sd card
    

    I think we can continue here (in this thread).

    No space left on device indicates just that: I would assume that the target is too small for the image. Is this also an img file, or is it a compressed image file, for example filename.img.gz or filename.img.xz?

    If it is a ‘plain’ img file, the target drive must be of exactly the same size or larger. Flash cards and pendrives are not exactly the nominal size, some are slightly larger, some are slightly smaller. If you compare the size it must be measured in the same units, for example {Megabytes (base 10) or Mibibytes (base 2)} or {Gigabytes (base 10) or Gibibytes (base 2)}.

    Example: 8 GB ~ 7.45 GiB

    Code:

    $ bc
    bc 1.06.95
    Copyright 1991-1994, 1997, 1998, 2000, 2004, 2006 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
    This is free software with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY.
    For details type `warranty'. 
    4000000000/1024/1024/1024
    3
    scale=9
    4000000000/1024/1024/1024
    3.725290298
    8000000000/1024/1024/1024
    7.450580596
    16000000000/1024/1024/1024
    14.901161193

    Please post an output showing the kind of and size of the image files and of the target drives (the SD cards).

    If uncompressed,

    Code:

    ls -l filename.img  # size in bytes
    
    ls -lh filename.img  # size in human readable units / MiB or GiB

    should do.

    If compressed with xz, try

    Code:

    xz --robot --list filename.img.xz

    to get the result in bytes,

    or

    Code:

    xz -l filename.img.xz

    to get the result in MiB.

    If compressed with gzip (a gz file), the listing of the compressed size might be borked due to overflow in the representation of numbers.

    The size of the SD cards can be listed with

    Code:

    sudo parted -ls  # size in MB or GB
    sudo lsblk -fm  # size in MiB or GiB

    Last edited by sudodus; June 20th, 2016 at 10:38 AM.

    ---

public class MyEchoClient {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException{
        Socket clientSocket = null; 
        PrintWriter out = null;
        BufferedReader in = null;
        String host = args[0], msg, tmp;
        int port = Integer.decode(args[1]).intValue(), len;
        System.out.println("Connecting to " + host + ":" + port);

        try {  
            clientSocket = new Socket(host, port); 
            out = new PrintWriter(new OutputStreamWriter(clientSocket.getOutputStream(), "UTF-8"), true);
        } catch (UnknownHostException e) {
              System.out.println("Unknown host: " + host);
              System.exit(1);
        } catch (IOException e) {
            System.out.println("Couldn't get output to " + host + " connection");
            System.exit(1);
        }

        try { 
            in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(clientSocket.getInputStream(),"UTF-8"));
        } catch (IOException e) {
            System.out.println("Couldn't get input to " + host + " connection");
            System.exit(1);
        }

        System.out.println("Connected to server!");

        BufferedReader userIn = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(System.in));
        try{
            while(true){
                while(!userIn.ready()){
                    if (in.ready()){ 
                        tmp=in.readLine();
                        len=tmp.length();
                        System.out.print(tmp);
                        if ((len>0 && tmp.charAt(tmp.length()-1)=='>') ||  tmp.contains("UNIDENTIFIED"))
                            System.out.println();
                    }
                }
                System.out.println();
                msg = userIn.readLine();
                if (msg==null) { break; }
                out.println(msg);
                tmp=in.readLine();
                if (tmp.contains("~")) { break; }
                System.out.println(tmp);
            }
        }
        catch(IOException e){ System.out.println("Error with server connection."); }
        System.out.println("Exiting...");
        out.close();
        in.close();
        userIn.close();
        clientSocket.close();
    }
}

CodeProject,
20 Bay Street, 11th Floor Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5J 2N8
+1 (416) 849-8900