How to remove npm and reinstall npm completely in 18.04?

Question

I was using ubuntu16.04 upgraded to ubuntu 18.04. followed some tutorial to remove npm, but now stuck. I have:

~$ npm list -g 
bash: /usr/bin/npm: No such file or directory

and:

     sudo apt-get install npm
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 npm : Depends: nodejs but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-abbrev (>= 1.0.4) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-ansi (>= 0.3.0-2) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-ansi-color-table but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-archy but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-block-stream but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-fstream (>= 0.1.22) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-fstream-ignore but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-github-url-from-git but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-glob (>= 3.1.21) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-graceful-fs (>= 2.0.0) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-inherits but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-ini (>= 1.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-lockfile but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-lru-cache (>= 2.3.0) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-minimatch (>= 0.2.11) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-mkdirp (>= 0.3.3) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-gyp (>= 0.10.9) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-nopt (>= 3.0.1) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-npmlog but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-once but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-osenv but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-read but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-read-package-json (>= 1.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-request (>= 2.25.0) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-retry but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-rimraf (>= 2.2.2) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-semver (>= 2.1.0) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-sha but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-slide but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-tar (>= 0.1.18) but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-underscore but it is not going to be installed
       Depends: node-which but it is not going to be installed
      E: Unable to correct problems, you have held broken packages.

azbatuk · Accepted Answer · 2022-03-14T00:54:45.290

Follow up: Latest instructions to install nodejs on Ubuntu. Official Nodejs docs

Original answer is below.

I was having the same problem. After a lot of search online I managed to find a solution.

The following is what solved it for me:

Remove old nodejs installation and update packages.

sudo apt-get remove nodejs npm
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

For 8.x node installations:

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

For 12.x node installations:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_12.x | sudo -E bash -

Install:

sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Test the installation:

~$ nodejs -v
v8.11.3 // <- node 8.x
v12.13.1  // <- node 12.x
~$ npm -v
5.6.0 // <- node 8.x 
6.12.1 // <- node 12.x

How to remove npm and reinstall npm completely in 18.04?

1 Answers1