problem about installing nvm on ubuntu 1310

[amdoing]

I tried to install nvm on ubuntu 1310. first I run command below:
curl https://raw.github.com/creationix/nvm/v0.4.0/install.sh | sh

and then i activated nvm:
source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh

intsalled nodejs:
nvm install 0.10

finally I could use node normal. but after i had restarted system, the nvm didn't work,when run command such as "nvm ls", i got error prompt:

user@ubuntu:~$ nvm ls
sbin
mkdir: cannot create directory ‘/usr/sbin/alias’: Permission denied

[ljharb]

i'm not familiar with "sbin". What shell are you using?

[amdoing]

It's bash which is default shell on ubuntu.and Thanks for reply.

[koenpunt]

You did activate nvm after you restarted? Because source ~/.nvm/nvm.sh has to run in every instance of the shell you use, thus the recommendation to add it to your .profile or alike.

[vicnala]

Hi!,

I think I have the same problem. In Ubuntu 14.04 I run:

git clone https://github.com/creationix/nvm.git ~/.nvm

And then I add source $HOME/.nvm/nvm.sh to .bashrc, restart shell and run:

$ echo $NVM_DIR 
/usr/sbin

Then nvm install (and others) command fails due permission errors.

I think the NVM_DIR env variable is setting wrong.

If I add export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm" just before the source ... line in .bashrc, the install (and all the other) commands works as expected.

I have to add a nvm use ... in .bashrc to enable at least one version when shell starts (because there is none by default).

Recap: I have to add 3 lines to my .bashrc in Ubuntu:

export NVM_DIR="$HOME/.nvm"
source $HOME/.nvm/nvm.sh
nvm use 0.11

[ljharb]

@vicnala can you use the install script? ./install.sh in the cloned repo.

[vicnala]

Hi @ljharb, the ./install.sh works fine setting NVM_DIR.

I only have to move the line added from .profile to .bashrc (I think Ubuntu does not load it).

Thanks!

[inetufo]

+1 ubuntu 12.04 echo $NVM_DIR is /usr/sbin, don't know why.

[inetufo]

use ./install.sh still gets the $NVM_DIR to /usr/sbin.It's very weird

[koenpunt]

what does the line in your .profile look like?

[pervezfunctor]

This problem still persists for me. $NVM_DIR is /usr/sbin. The line in my .profile
[ -s "/home/pervez/.nvm/nvm.sh" ] && . "/home/pervez/.nvm/nvm.sh"

[pau4o]

Similar problem in Debian after fresh install.
In my case error is:

nvm ls
        gdm3
mkdir: cannot create directory '/etc/gdm3/alias': Permission denied

And $NVM_DIR is incorrectly set to /etc/gdm3

[koenpunt]

A temporary fix would be to add export NVM_DIR=/home/pervez/.nvm to your profile before the source line:

export NVM_DIR=/home/pervez/.nvm
[ -s "/home/pervez/.nvm/nvm.sh" ] && . "/home/pervez/.nvm/nvm.sh"

But it seems that directory discovery is not working correctly in all shells...