install electron with Error: EACCES: permission denied, mkdir '/usr/lib/node_modules/electron/electron-tmp-download-4860-1517066058438'

[wan-ghuan]

node -v
v8.9.4

npm -v
5.6.0

sudo npm install electron -g
/usr/bin/electron -> /usr/lib/node_modules/electron/cli.js

> electron@1.7.11 postinstall /usr/lib/node_modules/electron
> node install.js

/usr/lib/node_modules/electron/install.js:48
  throw err
  ^

Error: EACCES: permission denied, mkdir '/usr/lib/node_modules/electron/electron-tmp-download-4860-1517066058438'
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! electron@1.7.11 postinstall: `node install.js`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR! 
npm ERR! Failed at the electron@1.7.11 postinstall script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.

[welcome]

👋 Thanks for opening your first issue here! If you're reporting a 🐞 bug, please make sure you include steps to reproduce it. We get a lot of issues on this repo, so please be patient and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

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[MarshallOfSound]

You need to set the permissions of /usr/lib/node_modules to be writable by your user.

For more info on these NPM errors please see: Troubleshooting Installation

[thangntt]

npm install -g electron --unsafe-perm=true --allow-root

[obendesmond]

@wan-ghuan try this
sudo npm install -g electron --unsafe-perm=true.

Hope that helped

[pawanraocse]

sudo npm install -g electron --unsafe-perm=true --allow-root
This helped to solve the issue, thanks

[jesobreira]

I still have this issue and the command posted by @obendesmond also worked.
What I find interesting is that I have had that issue on my Ubuntu 18.04 notebook, my Macbook Pro and two newly-created Ubuntu AWS instances, completely different environments, which makes me think a huge portion of the users may be facing this issue as well. Obviously I may be wrong, but here I leave the question: isn't the portion of the environments where the unsafe-perm switcher too expressive enough to make a point on the documentation about it (to save new users from some Googling)? Or actually the environments where this is required are inexpressive (and I'm just out of luck)?

[alvaromoli]

npm install -g electron --unsafe-perm=true --allow-root

npm install -g electron --unsafe-perm=true --allow-root

It worked! Thanks!

[aniruddhashevle]

It works for the 1st time only. After again reopening the app, it still shows the error EACCES: permission denied!

[jewel-rana]

You need to set the permissions of /usr/lib/node_modules to be writable by your user.

For more info on these NPM errors please see: Troubleshooting Installation

Thats worked for me

[dav1dnix]

npm install -g electron --unsafe-perm=true --allow-root

thank you! This worked 😄

[extremepayne]

On my Debian stretch Chromebook subsystem-thingy, I had the same issue; solved via sudo npm install electron -g --unsafe-perm=true --allow-root. I totally agree with @jesobreira this should go in the docs. If you need more evidence of other users facing similar issues, look no further than #10362, npm/npm#17268, and https://stackoverflow.com/questions/47247443/electron-js-install-error-error-eacces-permission-denied (some comments on the second link have over 500 +1s). I'll try and figure out where it should go and then open a PR.

[itsmyCareer]

npm install -g electron --unsafe-perm=true --allow-root

This problem is solved, too! THX :)

[chiglish]

@wan-ghuan try this
sudo npm install -g electron --unsafe-perm=true.

Hope that helped

It worked .thx

[jimbo8098]

unsafe-perm worked for me too. I've never touched that directory myself, only through apt so I'm a little confused. Electron was also already there previously, I needed to reinstall it following an attempt to install bue-devtools.

[Marcosul]

for me needed sudo

$ sudo npm install -g electron --unsafe-perm=true --allow-root