Tried everything. Tried all the steps below, didn't work so I nuked my droplet and rebuilt to start over and try again. I'm Using Ubuntu. First thing once I ssh into my droplet was install node and npm via:
https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager/
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
Then
npm -v
5.6.0
node -v
v8.11.3
Then I try to install a package globally. I tried electron and it failed so I began messing with the node modules folder as I was getting the permission error with the fix documented here:
No luck. So I tried the solution documented here: NPM global install "cannot find module"
echo $NODE_PATH
/usr/lib/nodejs:/usr/lib/node_modules:/usr/share/javascript:/home/username/.npm-global/lib/node_modules
So that didn't work either. This is the error now when I try and install any package globally:
npm install -g electron
I get:
Error: Cannot find module '/root/.npm-global/lib/node_modules/nightmare/node_modules/electron/install.js'
at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:547:15)
at Function.Module._load (module.js:474:25)
at Function.Module.runMain (module.js:693:10)
at startup (bootstrap_node.js:191:16)
at bootstrap_node.js:612:3
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! electron@1.8.7 postinstall: `node install.js`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the electron@1.8.7 postinstall script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! /root/.npm/_logs/2018-08-03T03_26_03_827Z-debug.log
This error for any package I try to install. Not sure what else to try. Don't want to wipe out the droplet and start over...