Installing newer version of NodeJS on Pi 3

[E3V3A]

All nodejs related out-of-the-box software on the RaspberryPi3 are usually outdated. The recovery from this old junk is rather cumbersome if you are not used to dealing with these issues. I recently made a fresh Stretch install and managed to get all node stuff into top shape by fist removing all dated nodejs junk by doing the following:

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# Remove outdated ( node -v ==> v4.8.2)
sudo apt-get remove nodejs nodejs-legacy nodered
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_9.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

# nvers ==> nodejs: v9.3.0   npm: v5.5.1 --> need update
sudo npm install [email protected] -g

In addition, it's highly recommended to also install these node tools.

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sudo npm install -g node-gyp
sudo npm install -g npm-check
sudo npm install -g npm-check-updates

Then re-install node-red again with:

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sudo npm install -g --unsafe-perm node-red

Feel free to try to leave out the "--unsafe-perm" option.
Also, notice how we removed the Debian dpkg package but used npm to reinstall it!

[Heater]

My prefered method of installing node.js is to use the Node Version Manager, nvm.

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$ wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.8/install.sh | bash

$ nvm install node

The first step only needs to be done once. The second step will install the latest node.js (Or perhaps latest LTS release, I forget)

After that you can install newer versions of node as they come along with nvm. Or you can revert to older versions if something ever breaks in a new one.

nvm has lots of nice features you can read about here:
https://github.com/creationix/nvm

There is no need to uninstall the version of node installed by Raspbian. You can even use nvm to switch to using it if you really want to.

Sorry, I have no idea about node-red. It's neat but I never found a use for it.

[asandford]

All that 'junk' was the reason that node.js was wrapped into the image, it was only included for node-red, so be thankful for it.

The "-g --unsafe-perm" option is pretty much required otherwise it gets messy.

Also bear i mind which versions of nodejs work with Node-red; it's not bleeding edge by any means.

[Heater]

I'm not particularly keen on the OP's suggestion because it adds a 'foreign' repo to the apt sources list and requires root privileges to run the installer. That has security consequences.

I think putting node.js in the Raspbian packages was a mistake. It has always been far behind the latest developments of node. Node has been moving forward very rapidly.

Even worse is putting all those node.js packages into deb packages. Again, they are always massively out of date but the main point is that node.js comes with a very good package manager, npm, which is the proper way of dealing with node modules and their version management in a node project.

I have not tried node-red for a long time but as far as I can tell it works with the latest node versions. If it does not, that is not a problem, nvm easily installs any required old node.js version.

[prodata]

Looking to use Node Red, it looks like I made a mistake in trying the update-nodejs-and-nodered script. This is on a Pi 3 attached to a recent Pi-Top laptop (which is going to be returned because of what appears to be a design fault with the USB connector, but that's another story) and running the SD card supplied with the Pi-Top. Other than some hardware-specific tweaks I think this gives the latest OS version, whatever that might be.

The first time I ran the script, it seemed to complete OK, but then reported that (IIRC) the NR installation was incomplete and to re-run the same script. On doing this, it stopped at:

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Node.js LTS Failed to install Node.js: Exit

which is all a bit curious, given that it didn't baulk at this step first time around, though I don't recall seeing the LTS suffix the first time BICBW.

Anyone able to offer any advice as to how best to recover from here please? This is a Pi that was previously running NR OK, but in starting a new project I wanted to check that my NR version was as up to date as possible. Sorry, but I'm not an experienced Linux user - my whole interest is focused on using NR so would appreciate the simplest solution to recovering a working (but hopefully updated) NR installation

[Heater]

Is that the only message it put out? I'm willing to bet there are some clues in whatever came before that.

Personally I would try forgetting all that install node red the proper way.

Firstly install node.js using nvm as I described above.

Then install node-red as described here: https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-red
and here: https://github.com/node-red/node-red

$ sudo npm install -g node-red
$ node-red

Then open http://localhost:1880

[prodata]

Thanks, but for installing nvm, if you mean:

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$ wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.8/install.sh | bash

$ nvm install node

Then that doesn't seem to install nvm on my Pi. (I'm guessing the wget argument after the 'q' is the letter O and not the digit 0 - the zero gives an error anyway). The command seems to get accepted with no obvious errors, but trying to call up nvm thereafter just gives an nvm: command not found error.

Any ideas where I'm going wrong please?

[mattmiller]

I think that is slight typo
last time heater suggested how to install it they said use

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curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.8/install.sh | bash 

[prodata]

Thanks, and yes as it happens I had started to go down the curl route after checking the github page. Still got NR to download but nvm now seems to have installed OK as is node (after a terminal close and reopen that I had to do).

[Heater]

Use curl or wget. The examples shown have been correct.

Sorry, I always forget to mention that need to exit and restart the shell.

Or I think you can just do this to set the path to nvm:

$ source ~/.profile

[prodata]

Use curl or wget. The examples shown have been correct.

Just to be clear, all I can say is that on my particular Pi installation, wget failed but curl worked OK. (And I tried 2 or 3 times with wget, carefully checking the syntax each time, but with no success.)

[Heater]

Very odd. I have used both many times on Pi and PC and elsewhere.

What are the error messages on failure?

[prodata]

There were no error messages on the terminal, just a shortish pause while wget appeared to be doing something, but then simply popped up the command prompt again. Maybe there's a log message, but must admit I haven't checked.

TBH I'm starting to wonder if this isn't something to do with the Pi-Top flavour of Jessie (I think it is) that the Pi is currently running. Some other oddities are starting to appear, like node has been installed but not, apparently, npm, which I thought always co-installed with node these days.

I'm getting to the point where the Pi-Top is going to be returned for other reasons and so I might just start over with default Pi install. All a bit of a nuisance, but hmm.

[Heater]

I have no idea about whatever OS the Pi-top uses. But if it is based on Debian/Raspbian then as far as I can tell it is normal not to get npm with a node.js install. Which is really weird and stupid but there we are. At least that was the case last time I checked.

[scruss]

The best way I have found to install node.js is to use the Node Version Manager, nvm, as mentioned above.

Seems kind of a long way around compared to the official method, Debian and Ubuntu based Linux distributions —

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curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs build-essential

Alternatively, for Node.js 9:

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curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_9.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs build-essential

Only works for a Raspberry Pi 2 or 3, though.

[Heater]

"Long way around" ?

In terms of the commands you have to type it seems much the same to me.

The nvm method has some advantages:

1) It does not replace your operating systems idea of node. Should you or some other package ever need that.

2) It makes it very easy to install new node versions as they come. Or older versions if you need. Or hop between them if something breaks as node is developed.

3) All versions installed with nvm are available, although not normally on you path, so a stable setup can continue to run whilst you experiment with a new node versions.

4) It does not add any foreign repos to you operating systems package sources.

Take you pick!

[asandford]

Is that the only message it put out? I'm willing to bet there are some clues in whatever came before that.

Personally I would try forgetting all that install node red the proper way.

That is the proper way to upgrade node-red, with other goals, according to the developers

The intention of the script is to…

upgrade an existing user to LTS 6.x or 8.x Node.js and latest Node-RED
migrate any existing globally installed nodes into the users ~/.node-red space so they can be managed via the palette manager
optionally (re)install the extra nodes that are pre-installed on a full Raspbian Pi image

FWIW, here is the output:

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[email protected]:~# update-nodejs-and-nodered

Fetching Node-RED update.

Root user detected. Typically install as a normal user. No need for sudo.

Are you really sure you want to install as root ? (y/N) ? y


This script will remove versions of Node.js prior to version 6.x of Node.js and Node-RED
and if necessary replace them with Node.js 8.x LTS (carbon) and the latest Node-RED from Npm.

It also moves any Node-RED nodes that are globally installed into your user
~/.node-red/node_modules directory, and adds them to your package.json, so that
you can manage them with the palette manager.

It also tries to run 'npm rebuild' to refresh any extra nodes you have installed
that may have a native binary component. While this normally works ok, you need
to check that it succeeds for your combination of installed nodes.

To do all this it runs commands as root - please satisfy yourself that this will
not damage your Pi, or otherwise compromise your configuration.
If in doubt please backup your SD card first.

Are you really sure you want to do this ? [y/N] ?y

Running Node-RED update for user root at /root

This can take 20-30 minutes on the slower Pi versions - please wait.

  Stop Node-RED                       ✔
  Remove old version of Node-RED      ✔
  Remove old version of Node.js       -
  Update Node.js LTS                  ✔   Node v8.9.4   Npm 5.6.0
  Clean npm cache                     ✔
  Install Node-RED core               ✔   0.17.5
  Move global nodes to local          ✔
  Install extra Pi nodes              -
  Npm rebuild existing nodes          ✔
  Add menu shortcut                   ✔
  Update systemd script               ✔
  Update update script                ✔

Any errors will be logged to   /var/log/nodered-install.log

All done.
  You can now start Node-RED with the command  node-red-start
  or using the icon under   Menu / Programming / Node-RED
  Then point your browser to localhost:1880 or http://{your_pi_ip-address}:1880

Started  Sun 14 Jan 22:54:04 UTC 2018  -  Finished  Sun 14 Jan 22:57:00 UTC 2018

[email protected]:~#

[Heater]

I guess the node-red developers are very confused then. Because that is not what it says here:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-red

Or here:

https://github.com/node-red/node-red

[asandford]

I guess the node-red developers are very confused then. Because that is not what it says here:

https://www.npmjs.com/package/node-red

Or here:

https://github.com/node-red/node-red

I was just quoting what was said here, which is a page dedicated to the Pi.

The generic upgrade instructions are here

[zioalex]

Hi guys,
I just had the same problem on a RPi3 with Raspbian.

Solved easily with this:

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# Remove old stuff 
apt-get remove nodered -y
apt-get autoremove
apt-get remove nodejs nodejs-legacy -y
apt-get remove npm  -y
# install the updated apt repo
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_6.x | sudo bash
# install nodejs
apt-get install nodejs
# Install node-red globally
npm install node-red -g

The you can start it with

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/usr/bin/node-red

[asandford]

Hi guys,
I just had the same problem on a RPi3 with Raspbian.

Solved easily with this:

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# Remove old stuff 
apt-get remove nodered -y
apt-get autoremove
apt-get remove nodejs nodejs-legacy -y
apt-get remove npm  -y
# install the updated apt repo
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_6.x | sudo bash
# install nodejs
apt-get install nodejs
# Install node-red globally
npm install node-red -g

The you can start it with

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/usr/bin/node-red

I think I posted something like that 18 months ago.

[E3V3A]

LOL!

People are stubborn insisting on using outdated and even wrong instructions and ignoring the fact that the basic node stuff has to be installed as root and then never need to use it again, except to update those basic packages.

I'm telling you, my instructions above: viewtopic.php?p=1256048#p1256048
does not fail.

[Heater]

E3V3A,

LOL!

People are stubborn insisting on posting incorrect information as "fact".

It is NOT a fact that node.js, npm, or any of it has to be installed as root.

I have made dozens of node installs without using root privileges. Mostly using nvm as I described above.

I'm telling you, my instructions above: viewtopic.php?p=1256048#p1256048 does not fail.

I'm sure that is true. However I try to avoid having my Debian/Raspbian installs polluted with "foreign" packages.

[E3V3A]

It is NOT a fact that node.js, npm, or any of it has to be installed as root.

Generally speaking you are right, but that create a bunch of problems with the already installed (from distro stuff). Which is why my instructions specifically telly you to remove those outdated packages, which again require root (or sudo).

So, yes, it is if you want to be able to use those packages, also as root or other user OR if you plan to use the PM2 to run stuff properly, and if you want the broken packages replaced to not interfere.

[Heater]

Not so.

I use nvm to install node.js. nvm does not need root privs. to work. nvm does not care if the OS already has node installed from it's packages. Infact with nvm one can switch between using whatever latest node version one has installed with it and the operating system's old version. No need to remove the old OS version of node.