In WSL2: Ubuntu 20.04 for Windows 10 nodejs is installed but npm is not working

Question

I am using WSL2: Ubuntu 20.04 in my Windows 10 operating system. I have installed nodejs using the command sudo apt-get install -y nodejs when I do node -v command I get v12.18.3

mrd@DESKTOP-2EO5K4H:/mnt/c/Users/musfi$ node -v
v12.18.3

but when I do npm -v command I get this below command

mrd@DESKTOP-2EO5K4H:/mnt/c/Users/musfi$ npm -v
-bash: /mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm: /bin/sh^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

I also do whereis command. Hope this will help to find solution.

mrd@DESKTOP-2EO5K4H:/mnt/c/Users/musfi$ whereis node
node: /usr/bin/node /usr/include/node /mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/node.exe /usr/share/man/man1/node.1.gz

mrd@DESKTOP-2EO5K4H:/mnt/c/Users/musfi$ whereis npm
npm: /usr/bin/npm /mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm /mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm.cmd /usr/share/man/man1/npm.1

I have tried almost all the stackoverflow solutions and github issues but nothing is worked for me.
Hope any kind soul has the solution to this problem. Thanks in advance.

score 23 · Accepted Answer · answered Sep 03 '20 at 04:07

23

Try this

export PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin
sudo apt install npm

answered Sep 03 '20 at 04:07

Jatin Mehrotra

5,637
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1

It has worked. Can you explain to me which PATH you export? And what was the problem? – Md. Musfiqur Rahaman Sep 03 '20 at 04:27
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PATH is env variable which tells where to look for commands,in your case the npm bin was not at the right path. – Jatin Mehrotra Sep 03 '20 at 04:56

score 5 · Answer 2 · edited Jan 10 '21 at 14:26

5

Solution for following error: -bash: /mnt/c/Program Files/nodejs/npm: /bin/sh^M: bad interpreter: No such file or directory

Edit ~/.bashrc Append at end of file:

# strip out problematic Windows %PATH%
PATH=$(echo "$PATH" | sed -e 's/:\/mnt.*//g')

Now npm init will work.

edited Jan 10 '21 at 14:26

Tobi Akanji

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answered Dec 27 '20 at 17:37

Subhasish Paul

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score 5 · Answer 3 · answered Aug 11 '21 at 04:58

5

A better way is configuring /etc/wsl.conf in your Windows User directory.

Adding this into the /etc/wsl.conf, so Windows Path will not take the precedence

[interop]
appendWindowsPath=false

For more config details check the Microsoft Dev Blog here.

answered Aug 11 '21 at 04:58

Kidd Tang

1,161
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score 1 · Answer 4 · answered Sep 18 '20 at 18:14

1

For all Unix/Linux/MacOS operating systems, I would always rather go with the "Node Version Manager". It normally works flawlessly on Linux and MacOS (and there's a Windows port for it as well) and enables a very simple way of installing node and npm correctly without the need of being root.

See here: https://github.com/nvm-sh/nvm

I can confirm here on my machine that it also works on Ubuntu 20.04 on WSL2.

answered Sep 18 '20 at 18:14

donmartin

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`nvm` (and `n`) are anti-patterns – Cameron Tacklind Aug 10 '21 at 02:53

In WSL2: Ubuntu 20.04 for Windows 10 nodejs is installed but npm is not working

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