Why does installing node 6.x on Ubuntu 16.04 actually install node 4.2.6?

Question

These were my steps to install node on Ubuntu 16.04:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_6.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs 
sudo apt-get install -y npm

which are the official instructions:

https://nodejs.org/en/download/package-manager/#debian-and-ubuntu-based-linux-distributions

After doing this, running nodejs --version returns v4.2.6.

As I used setup_6.x I was assuming a version beginning with 6 would be installed?

I thought perhaps setup_6.x should be setup_6.2.1, but that page returns a 404, see:

https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_6.x (there is a page there)

https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_6.2.1 (returns a 404)

How do I install the latest stable version of node on Ubuntu 16.04?

Edit:

These are results after running sudo apt-get install -y nodejs:

sudo apt-get install -y nodejs 
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  gyp libboost-python1.58.0 libjs-inherits libjs-node-uuid libjs-underscore
  libssl-dev libssl-doc libuv1-dev linux-headers-4.4.0-18
  linux-headers-4.4.0-18-generic linux-headers-4.4.0-21
  linux-headers-4.4.0-21-generic linux-image-4.4.0-18-generic
  linux-image-4.4.0-21-generic linux-image-extra-4.4.0-18-generic
  linux-image-extra-4.4.0-21-generic linux-signed-image-4.4.0-18-generic
  linux-signed-image-4.4.0-21-generic python-configobj python-pycurl
  python-pyexiv2 python-pyexiv2-doc
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  nodejs
0 to upgrade, 1 to newly install, 0 to remove and 0 not to upgrade.
Need to get 0 B/3,162 kB of archives.
After this operation, 13.2 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Selecting previously unselected package nodejs.
(Reading database ... 329473 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../nodejs_4.2.6~dfsg-1ubuntu4_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking nodejs (4.2.6~dfsg-1ubuntu4) ...
Processing triggers for doc-base (0.10.7) ...
Processing 1 added doc-base file...
Registering documents with scrollkeeper...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.5-1) ...
Setting up nodejs (4.2.6~dfsg-1ubuntu4) ...
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/nodejs to provide /usr/bin/js (js) in auto mode

Edit:

Results of apt-cache policy nodejs:

apt-cache policy nodejs
nodejs:
  Installed: 4.2.6~dfsg-1ubuntu4
  Candidate: 4.2.6~dfsg-1ubuntu4
  Version table:
 *** 4.2.6~dfsg-1ubuntu4 500
        500 http://au.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

Answer 1

The core reason is that the setup script didn't run correctly. Therefore, thanks to the updated data from the OP which supports this, the data from the NodeSource repository was never seen by apt because it was not properly configured by the script.

The script, therefore, may not have found your distribution, or it may have messed up when configuring the repository, or there may have been a network interruption, or any of a thousand reasons it was disrupted and didn't do its job.

The fact you are seeing version 4.x getting installed means that the script didn't do its job right, so the script is not necessarily at fault. This just means we have to potentially do this a harder way.

I should point out: the script doesn't actually do any installing - all it does is determine the Debian/Ubuntu version you're on, and configure the repository for it to get data from. The installation part is actually the sudo apt-get install step you ran by hand.

---

Also of note: this will remove the npm package but that's because nodejs with this upstream packaging will include npm with it - no need for the npm package.

---

Rather than rely on the script, we can do what the script is doing the old-school way: by hand, ourselves, set up the repository configuration and install NodeJS.

Here's the manual way of making this work, and it is basically what the script does (except for Step 4, which is to make sure you are getting accurate version data):

1. Create a new file: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list

   You'll need to create this file with sudo, but when you create the file, put this inside it:

   deb https://deb.nodesource.com/node_6.x xenial main
   deb-src https://deb.nodesource.com/node_6.x xenial main
   

   Then, save the file. (replace node_6.x with node_7.x or node_8.x, etc. for newer Node versions)

2. Download the GPG Signing Key from Nodesource for the repository. Otherwise, you may get NO_PUBKEY errors with apt-get update (use wget in this command if curl isn't installed, and if neither are installed, install one of them):

   curl -s https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -
   

3. Manually run sudo apt-get update.

   This refreshes the data from the nodesource repo so apt knows a newer version exists.

   If you get a NO_PUBKEY GPG error, then go back to Step 2

4. Check apt-cache policy nodejs output.

   This is not done by the script, but you want to make sure you see an entry that says something like this in the output (though the version might be different if you are not using 6.x as the version string; the only thing we care about is that there's a newer version number provided via nodesource):

   Version table:
       6.2.1-1nodesource1~xenial1 500
          500 https://deb.nodesource.com/node_6.x xenial/main amd64 Packages
       4.2.6~dfsg-1ubuntu4 500
          500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu xenial/universe amd64 Packages
   

   If you do not see entries like this, and only see 4.2.6, start over. Otherwise, proceed.

5. Install the nodejs binary. Now that you have confirmed 6.x is available on your system, you can install it: sudo apt-get install nodejs

6. nodejs --version should now show v6.2.1 or similar on output (as long as it starts with v6. you're on version 6 then; this may be a higher version number if you're using a newer version than 6 but as long as it is not 4.2.6 you should be good to go).

Answer 2

I had an older version of node. All I needed to do was to purge the old one:

sudo apt-get purge nodejs npm

And then, replacing 6 in v=6 with 7, 8, 9 as needed for the respective versions (see official installation instructions):

v=6
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_$v.x | sudo -E bash -

(be sure you have curl installed.)

And lastly,

sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Boom, latest version of node.

Answer 3

For the Ubuntu 16.04.2 version user(with a little bit change from Thomas'post and thank for him )

1.open the software updater

2.setting

3.other software

4.Add the sources but remember to choose all new sources option later exp:

---

deb https://deb.nodesource.com/node_6.x xenial main
deb-src https://deb.nodesource.com/node_6.x xenial main

---

5.reload

6.sudo apt-get update

7.apt-cache policy nodejs //to get the new version table and check if the source is setup done

8.sudo apt install nodejs

9.nodejs --version

NOW It is all set.......

warning: do not change your Linux default driver for your nvidia card from the updater panel ....the system will be crashed....!!!

Answer 4

I had the same issue. But in my case I had to upgrade my curl command. You can see the issue by running with the -S option.

curl -s -S https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource.gpg.key | sudo apt-key add -

Which showed the issue

curl: (1) Protocol "https" not supported or disabled in libcurl
gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found.

So I fixed this issue by running the following.

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

Answer 5

By adding @Thomas Ward answer those who are facing issue in installing nodejs 8.x with https URL or the code keep on installs v4.2.6 by showing certificate error try adding nodesource.list with below lines

deb http://deb.nodesource.com/node_8.x xenial main
deb-src http://deb.nodesource.com/node_8.x xenial main

next step : Run

sudo curl -sL http://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x | sudo -E bash -

Then

sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

This will solve your problem by installing updated nodejs version and npm version as it solved mine for Ubuntu 16.04 LTS...

Answer 6

I found this link and it help me to install Nodejs8____https://www.ubuntuupdates.org/ppa/nodejs_7.x . I had to join Nojs8https in that line because it was saying that I needed to be level two to be able to post more than two links. I thinks that is random but whatever.

Before installing it I ran the command: apt-get remove --purge version nodejs

To verify you don't have any version installed run: apt-cached policy nodejs and or nodejs --version

I was able to install Node js 8 by just changing the 7 to 8 and I ended up with version 8.1.3. To do that I ran the commands that are in that page I posted above but here are the commands anyways:

Download the the repository key with:

curl -s https://deb.nodesource.com/gpgkey/nodesource.gpg.key | apt-key add -

Then setup the repository::

sudo sh -c "echo deb https://deb.nodesource.com/node_7.x zesty main \ > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list"

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install nodejs

Again, if you want node js 8 you can change number 7 in that command line to 8 and voila!

Answer 7

I attempted to follow the instructions on https://github.com/nodesource/distributions for version 8, but that did not work for me. I visited https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_8.x directly in browser and copied and pasted the script into a file on my system nodejs.sh. Then I executed the following commands

sudo -E bash nodejs.sh
apt-cache policy nodejs
sudo apt-get install nodejs

The command apt-cache showed two versions with a preference for installing 8. You may delete the install file afterwards. Not sure why copying the file locally helped because the curl command showed the script properly.

Answer 8

Hey guys if you have Ubuntu 16 try this instructions. It worked for me perfectly.Also provide your account password whenever asked in this process.

1. sudo su -c "echo 'deb https://deb.nodesource.com/node_8.x xenial main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list"

2. sudo su -c "echo 'deb-src https://deb.nodesource.com/node_8.x xenial main' >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/nodesource.list"

3. sudo apt-get update

4. apt-cache policy nodejs Check if the versions listed has node 8

5. sudo apt-get install nodejs

6. nodejs -v check the node version installed

This shall successfully install nodejs version 8 on your system. If you wish any other version, then change the version on step 1 and 2 it shall work successfully.