sample webpack angular4 application throwing errors - angular2-webpack-starter

Question

I am trying to create a sample angular-webpack application instucted in https://angular.io/docs/ts/latest/guide/webpack.html but it is throwing me about 26 errors. Even after changing typescript version to "~2.2.1", these errors are coming.
can anyone help me to fix these errors please?
[at-loader] Checking finished with 26 errors chunk {0} vendor.js
(vendor) 2.64 MB {2} [initial] [rendered]
chunk {1} app.js, app.css (app) 3.57 kB {0} [initial] [rendered]
chunk {2} polyfills.js (polyfills) 577 kB [entry] [rendered]
WARNING in ./~/#angular/core/#angular/core.es5.js
5870:15-36 Critical dependency: the request of a dependency is an expression
WARNING in ./~/#angular/core/#angular/core.es5.js
5886:15-102 Critical dependency: the request of a dependency is an expression
ERROR in [at-loader] ./node_modules/#angular/common/src/platform_id.d.ts:8:42
TS1039: Initializers are not allowed in ambient contexts.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./node_modules/#angular/common/src/platform_id.d.ts:9:41
TS1039: Initializers are not allowed in ambient contexts.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./node_modules/#angular/common/src/platform_id.d.ts:10:45
TS1039: Initializers are not allowed in ambient contexts.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./node_modules/#angular/common/src/platform_id.d.ts:11:44
TS1039: Initializers are not allowed in ambient contexts.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./node_modules/#angular/compiler/src/util.d.ts:8:36
TS1039: Initializers are not allowed in ambient contexts.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./node_modules/#angular/core/src/animation/animation_metadata_wrapped.d.ts:12:33
TS1039: Initializers are not allowed in ambient contexts.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./node_modules/#angular/core/src/animation/dsl.d.ts:34:33
TS1039: Initializers are not allowed in ambient contexts.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./node_modules/#angular/core/src/errors.d.ts:9:33
TS1039: Initializers are not allowed in ambient contexts.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./node_modules/#angular/core/src/errors.d.ts:10:43
TS1039: Initializers are not allowed in ambient contexts.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./node_modules/#angular/core/src/errors.d.ts:11:42
TS1039: Initializers are not allowed in ambient contexts.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./node_modules/#angular/core/src/errors.d.ts:12:43
TS1039: Initializers are not allowed in ambient contexts.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./node_modules/#angular/core/src/errors.d.ts:13:35
TS1039: Initializers are not allowed in ambient contexts.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./node_modules/#angular/core/testing/src/before_each.d.ts:1:59
TS1039: Initializers are not allowed in ambient contexts.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./node_modules/#angular/http/src/backends/browser_jsonp.d.ts:1:33
TS1039: Initializers are not allowed in ambient contexts.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./node_modules/#angular/platform-browser/src/dom/dom_renderer.d.ts:14:41
TS1039: Initializers are not allowed in ambient contexts.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./node_modules/#angular/router/src/shared.d.ts:15:37
TS1039: Initializers are not allowed in ambient contexts.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./src/app/app.component.spec.ts:3:1
TS2304: Cannot find name 'describe'.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./src/app/app.component.spec.ts:4:3
TS2304: Cannot find name 'beforeEach'.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./src/app/app.component.spec.ts:7:3
TS2304: Cannot find name 'it'.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./src/app/app.component.spec.ts:9:5
TS2304: Cannot find name 'expect'.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./src/app/app.component.ts:5:13
TS2304: Cannot find name 'require'.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./src/app/app.component.ts:6:12
TS2304: Cannot find name 'require'.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./src/main.ts:4:5
TS2304: Cannot find name 'process'.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./src/polyfills.ts:3:1
TS2304: Cannot find name 'require'.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./src/polyfills.ts:5:5
TS2304: Cannot find name 'process'.
ERROR in [at-loader] ./src/polyfills.ts:10:3
TS2304: Cannot find name 'require'.
Child html-webpack-plugin for "index.html":
chunk {0} index.html 325 bytes [entry] [rendered]
Child extract-text-webpack-plugin:
chunk {0} extract-text-webpack-plugin-output-filename 1.92 kB [entry] [rendered]
webpack: Failed to compile.

Answer 1

The TSXXX errors seems definitely related to using a TypeScript prior to version 2.1 as explained
for example here and here.
Please verify:
the TypeScript version declared in you package.json file ("typescript": "~2.2.1" will be OK)
the TypeScript version that you are effectively using to compile the project. You can verify that from the output of the npm start command. You should see something like this [at-loader] Using typescript#2.0.10 from typescript and "tsconfig.json" from /usr/src/ng2-projects/angular-webpack/src/tsconfig.json; the typescript# part will show the version used for compilation.
The TS2304 errors seems linked to a misconfiguration of the required type declarations. See here for a clear explanation of how configure them.

Answer 2

I ran into this problem as well.. after spending 2 days and with some assistance i was able to get it to work. Actually I can't take full credit for the fix, someone else did help out a lot.
check the typescript version installed on your system.
compare the version you have in the package.json.
I can't remember if i update the typescript or not but at the time it was 2.2.2 so i updated the package.json to reflect the version installed on my system.
worked for me.

Answer 3

Maybe it will help someone:
I had a lot of different errors regarding typescript. I moved my tsconfig.json to root folder and errors gone.

Answer 4

I had the same issue. I changed to typescript 2.3 ("typescript": "~2.3" in package.json) and now I don't get the errors anymore.