Error installing node-gyp on ubuntu

Question

npm http 200 https://registry.npmjs.org/weak/-/weak-0.2.2.tgz
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/bindings
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/bindings

> [email protected] install node_modules/weak
> node-gyp rebuild

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/gyp/gyp_main.py", line 18, in <module>
    sys.exit(gyp.script_main())
AttributeError: 'module' object has no attribute 'script_main'
gyp ERR! configure error 
gyp ERR! stack Error: `gyp` failed with exit code: 1
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.onCpExit (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/configure.js:337:16)
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.EventEmitter.emit (events.js:98:17)
gyp ERR! stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (child_process.js:789:12)
gyp ERR! System Linux 3.11.0-15-generic
gyp ERR! command "node" "/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js" "rebuild"

gyp ERR! node -v v0.10.15
gyp ERR! node-gyp -v v0.12.1
gyp ERR! not ok 
npm ERR! [email protected] install: `node-gyp rebuild`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Failed at the [email protected] install script.
npm ERR! This is most likely a problem with the weak package,
npm ERR! not with npm itself.
npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
npm ERR!     node-gyp rebuild
npm ERR! You can get their info via:
npm ERR!     npm owner ls weak
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.

npm ERR! System Linux 3.11.0-15-generic
npm ERR! command "node" "/usr/bin/npm" "install" "[email protected]"
npm ERR! node -v v0.10.15
npm ERR! npm -v 1.3.23
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE

npm ERR! not ok code 0

I don't have a direct dependency on weak or node-gyp but I guess it is required by my other dependencies (express,phantom,ejs,aws-sdk,moment). Anyone faced such an issue and was able to fix?

Improper

Answer 1

This is what worked. You need python 2.6 during the installation.

#!/bin/bash
#On Ubuntu Saucy:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:fkrull/deadsnakes
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install python2.6
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python2.6 20
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python2.7 10

#you can switch between 2.6 & 2.7 using:
sudo update-alternatives --config python

#Btw I installed node using ppa:chris-lea/node.js

https://github.com/TooTallNate/node-gyp/issues/363

Improper

What does exactly sudo update-alternatives --config python ? it switch from 2.6 => 2.7 => 2.6 => 2.7 ... ? and how to know which python are we currently using ? – Essex

you can evaluate every command line tool to its version by using which $(readlink -f `which python`) – Inspiration

You can figure out the python version in use with the command python --version – Improper

Answer 2

If your python version isn't the source of error, check if you have "gyp" installed. This is conflicting with the gyp version in node-gyp.

apt-get remove gyp

https://github.com/TooTallNate/node-gyp/issues/363#issuecomment-32234646

Salesclerk

Should be an accepted answer. Downgrading to 2.6 and using PPA is the last resort. – Gammadion

I'm having this error when running npm install. the gip package is a dependency of npm, so removing it doesn not solve the issue for me as it removes npm as well... I'm on Ubuntu 14.04. – Topminnow

For those with similar problems, this resolves the following error for me on Ubuntu. "error: no such option: --no-parallel" – Offspring

Answer 3

This command sudo apt-get install build-essential helped in my case.

Afc

in ubuntu 18.04 there are no build-essentials but in earlier editions of ubuntu did not have this problem thanks for your support – Rebekah

The command on Linux Mint 20.3 works fine! – Ingulf

This answer worked for me on ubuntu 20 – Julie

the answer does not work on Ubuntu 22.04 – Grig

Answer 4

FWIW, I had a similar problem trying to install Protractor on Ubuntu 14.04 (DigitalOcean). Reinstalling node-gyp fixed the it:

apt-get install node-gyp

Catherin

worked for me on ubuntu 22, node 18 – Aiaia

Answer 5

on Ubuntu 18, I had to install required build libs to get it working

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Update: April 2024. On Fresh Ubuntu you had to run

sudo apt update

Then

sudo apt-get install build-essential

Hijoung

On a fresh Ubuntu 20 installation I had to run sudo apt update before installing build-essential. – Penley

Answer 6

Here are the steps to install node-gyp successfully on a Ubuntu system:

1.First of all, install the "make" build tool in Ubuntu with the following commands:

sudo apt-get update && \
sudo apt-get install build-essential software-properties-common -y;

2. Then you need to install the a proper C/C++ compiler toolchain. We will be installing GCC here with the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntu-toolchain-r/test -y && \
sudo apt-get update && \
sudo apt-get install gcc-snapshot -y && \
sudo apt-get update && \
sudo apt-get install gcc-6 g++-6 -y && \
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-6 60 --slave 
/usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-6 && \
sudo apt-get install gcc-4.8 g++-4.8 -y && \
sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/gcc gcc /usr/bin/gcc-4.8 60 --slave 
/usr/bin/g++ g++ /usr/bin/g++-4.8;

3. Install python 2.7 version. (Note: Python 3 is not supported by node-gyp).

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install python2.7 python-pip

4. And finally install, node-gyp npm package:

npm install -g node-gyp

Additional but not important: If you have any atom keyboard-layout related issue with node-gyp then install the following one more package:

sudo apt-get install libxkbfile-dev

Thats all! It should be working fine now.

Gpo

Answer 7

I faced this issue on Ubuntu 16.04 while trying to install the wikimedia extension mathoid.

I tried everything that was suggested and nothing worked until I did:

sudo apt-get install librsvg2-2 librsvg2-dev

Dubbin

Answer 8

On Ubuntu 10.04, Installing libicu solved my problem.

sudo apt-get install libicu-dev

Blotch

Answer 9

On Fedora 20, reinstalling gyp fixed this for me.

sudo yum reinstall gyp

Orpheus

Answer 10

I already had build-essential installed. I just had to run:

sudo apt install python

Sibel

Answer 11

In my-case it was failing on Linux-mint 19.2, for some reasons on run-time gcc++ was not accessible. So by installing the build-essentials error was resolved. PS:

build-essential package is a reference for all the packages needed to compile a Debian packages. It generally includes the GCC/g++ compilers and libraries and some other utilities. Informational for list of build-essential packages can be found on build-essentials

Arun

Answer 12

If the error is due to " fatal error: dns_sd.h: No such file or directory 32 | #include <dns_sd.h> ", solve it by

" sudo apt-get install libavahi-compat-libdnssd-dev " , else if it is due to python2 follow @Manish Jangir method

Semela

Answer 13

Fedora Silverblue

rpm-ostree install make automake gcc gcc-c++

Chasidychasing

Answer 14

What you need is just to:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

You should install nvm and a new Node version.

Clerk

Can you provide more details (complete set of commands) and make sure to format your answer properly? – Strega

This is not a possible solution to the error messages listed in this question. If you resolved a different error message using an update/upgrade, then you should post that as a separate question/answer pair instead. Thanks! – Hobble

This does not provide an answer to the question. Once you have sufficient reputation you will be able to comment on any post; instead, provide answers that don't require clarification from the asker. - From Review – Albarran