Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova Remote Build Node.js Version Issue

Recently when I tried to do remote build of my Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova application from my Visual Studio 2015 to Mac machine, I had this error message "TACO0204: Error installing taco-remote-multiplexer via npm" on my Visual Studio and "Cannot find module 'internal/fs'" on my Mac machine.

After googling, it seemed that the Node.js on the Mac machine had been upgraded for some reason. I checked the version with these commands:
node -v
I found out that the version is 8.4.0 now.

I needed to remove it and install the compatible version for my Visual Studio. So I deleted the 'npm' folder in '/usr/local/lib/node_modules/' folder by running this:
rm -rf /usr/local/lib/node_modules/npm
Then went to node.js website, downloaded and installed a version that is compatible (i.e.; version 0.12.x is the most compatible).

Some Visual Studio 2015 Apache Cordova Project iOS Deployment Issues

Recently, I tried to deploy my Visual Studio Tools for Apache Cordova project into iOS mobile device. The project is built in Visual Studio 2015 using Cordova CLI 6.0.0. The Visual Studio is on a Windows machine. I also have a Mac laptop with XCode 8.3. After following the steps on this page https://taco.visualstudio.com/en-us/docs/ios-guide, I ran into some issues.

The first error message I received is "Remotebuild requires your projects to use cordova-ios 4.3.0 or greater with XCode 8.3. Please update your cordova-ios version".
It seemed that the iOS version of the project is less than 4.3.0 and XCode expected the version to be at least 4.3.0.
The solution:
1. on my Windows machine, went to command prompt and installed Cordova; npm install -g cordova
2. changed package.json file in the project to have the later version of iOS:

{
  "android": "5.1.1",
  "ios": "4.3.0"
}

3. then on the command prompt, went to the 'platforms' folder of the project and deleted and recreated the iOS version of the project. I ran the command; cordova platform add ios@4.3.0

After passing that, I got another error, "Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State Error Warning developmentTeam is missing from your build.json.".
The solution:
- added some configuration settings on my build.json file based on the information on this link https://cordova.apache.org/docs/en/latest/guide/platforms/ios/#using-flags.
So my build.json had something like this:

{
  "android": {
    . . .
  },
  "ios": {
    "debug": {
      "codeSignIdentity": "iPhone Developer",
      "provisioningProfile": "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx",
      "developmentTeam": "XXXXXXXXXX",
      "packageType": "development"
    },
    "release": { }
  }
}

According to the article, codeSignIdentity should use "iPhone Developer" value for both debug and release mode. provisioningProfile is the profile that I set on Apple Developer website. The filename of the downloaded profile has the same key value. developmentTeam is the team name that is set on Apple Developer website. packageType values are either 'development', 'enterprise', 'ad-hoc', and 'app-store'.

Once this is solved, I got another error:
Severity Code Description Project File Line Suppression State
Error Error: Remote build error from the build server Build failed with error ios-deploy was not found. Please download, build and install version 1.9.0 or greater from https://github.com/phonegap/ios-deploy into your path, or do 'npm install -g ios-deploy' - 1
Solution:
- on my Windows machine I ran; npm install -g ios-deploy.

Then another error:
No certificate matching 'iPhone Development' for team 'XXXXXXXXXX': Select a different signing certificate for CODE_SIGN_IDENTITY, a team that matches your selected certificate, or switch to automatic provisioning.
Code signing is required for product type 'Application' in SDK 'iOS 10.3'
Solution:
- on the Mac computer, I went to Applications > Utilities > KeyChain Access folder and found there were more than one certificates related to the profile downloaded. This was due to a mistake I did earlier when generating provisioning profile. So I deleted the incorrect one.

Finally I got this error:
Failed to launch iOS remote for build C:\myProjectDirectory\bld\ios\Debug\buildInfo.json to http://192.168.1.118:3000/cordova :
Http 404: Error mounting developer disk image
------ Cordova tools 6.0.0 already installed.
Requesting debug on remote iOS device for buildNumber 23139 on server http://192.168.1.118:3000/cordova...
Failed to Debug iOS remote for build C:\myProjectDirectory\bld\ios\Debug\buildInfo.json to http://192.168.1.118:3000/cordova :
Http 500: No devices found to debug. Please ensure that a device is connected and awake and retry.
Solution:
- on my Mac machine I ran; brew upgrade libimobiledevice --HEAD


References and further details:
https://github.com/Microsoft/remotebuild/issues/5
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/43944273/apache-cordova-visual-studio-2015-xcode-8-3-cannot-remotebuild