Fix "Cannot find module 'libnpx' " on react-native init

Question

With a fresh project, after running react-native init {project}, during the phase "Installing required Cocoapods dependencies", this error is thrown:

Error: Cannot find module 'libnpx'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:649:15)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:575:25)
    at Module.require (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:705:19)
    at require (internal/modules/cjs/helpers.js:14:16)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm/bin/npx-cli.js:3:13)
    at Module._compile (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:799:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:810:10)
    at Module.load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:666:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:606:12)
    at Function.Module._load (internal/modules/cjs/loader.js:598:3)

(node:27038) UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning: Error: Failed to install CocoaPods dependencies for iOS project, which is required by this template.
Please try again manually: "cd ./RNimage/ios && pod install".

Following the suggestion to run pod install, the same error is thrown in addition to

[!] Invalid 'Podfile' file 767: unexpected token at ''. 
 #  from /Users/.../Desktop/Development/RNproject/ios/Podfile:42
 #  -------------------------------------------
 #  
 >    use_native_modules!
 #  end
 #  ------------------------------------------- 

I haven't even touched the project why is this happening and how do i fix it?

Before this i ran sudo chown -R 501:20 "/Users/vorousjames/.npm". I dont know if thats significant to this issue but it has broken alot.

Answer 1

In my case, I just updated nodejs using sudo n stable. After a successful upgrade, it showed the warning that the executable path for node has changed and I need to restart the current shell. I forgot to restart the shell, and got this error message. It worked fine after restarting.

Answer 2

I had to reset the shell location hash with "hash -r"