E: Unable to locate package npm

Question

When I try to install npm with sudo apt-get install npm, I got following error:

E: Unable to locate package npm

Why can't apt find npm? I'm using Debian 9 and already did run

sudo apt-get install nodejs

Answer 1

From the official Node.js documentation:

A Node.js package is also available in the official repo for Debian Sid (unstable), Jessie (testing) and Wheezy (wheezy-backports) as "nodejs". It only installs a nodejs binary.

So, if you only type sudo apt-get install nodejs , it does not install other goodies such as npm.

You need to type:

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_14.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo apt-get install -y nodejs

Optional: install build tools

To compile and install native add-ons from npm you may also need to install build tools:

sudo apt-get install -y build-essential

More info: Docs NodeJs

Answer 2

Encountered this in Ubuntu for Windows, try running first

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

then

sudo apt-get install npm

Answer 3

I ran into the same issue on Debian 9.2, this is what I did to overcome it.

Installation

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

Check installed versions

node --version
npm --version

Originally sourced from "How to install Node.js LTS on Debian 9 stretch" http://linuxbsdos.com/2017/06/26/how-to-install-node-js-lts-on-debian-9-stretch/

Answer 4

Your system can't find npm package because you haven't add nodejs repository to your system..

Try follow this installation step:
Add nodejs PPA repository to our system and python software properties too

sudo apt-get install curl python-software-properties 
// sudo apt-get install curl software-properties-common

curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo bash -
sudo apt-get update

Then install npm

sudo apt-get install nodejs

Check if npm and node was installed and you're ready to use node.js

node -v
npm -v

If someone was failed to install nodejs.. Try remove the npm first, maybe the old installation was broken..

sudo apt-get remove nodejs
sudo apt-get remove npm

Check if npm or node folder still exist, delete it if you found them

which node
which npm

Answer 5

For Debian Stretch (Debian version 9), nodejs does not include npm, and to install it as a separate package, you have to enable stretch-backports.

echo 'deb http://deb.debian.org/debian stretch-backports main' |
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/stretch-backports.list
apt-get update -y
apt-get -t stretch-backports install -y npm

In Buster (Debian 10), npm is a regular package, so going forward, this should just work. But some of us will still be stuck partially on Stretch boxes for some time to come.