Tutorial

How To Install a MEAN.JS Stack on an Ubuntu 14.04 Server

Published on November 26, 2014

Not using Ubuntu 14.04?Choose a different version or distribution.

Ubuntu 14.04

Introduction

MEAN.JS is a full-stack JavaScript development solution that pulls together some of the best JavaScript technologies so that you can get applications into production quickly and easily. MEAN.JS consists of MongoDB, ExpressJS, AngularJS, and Node.

In this guide, we will install each of these components onto an Ubuntu 14.04 server. This will give us the applications and structure we need to create and deploy MEAN apps easily.

Prerequisites

To begin this guide, you will need to have access to an Ubuntu 14.04 server.

You will need a non-root user account with sudo privileges to correctly install and configure the components we will be working with. Follow our Ubuntu 14.04 initial server setup guide to set up an account of this type.

When you are finished with the initial configuration of your server, log in with your non-root user and continue with this guide.

Download and Install MongoDB and Dependencies through Apt

Throughout this guide, we will be installing software using a number of different techniques depending on each project’s requirements. The first set of installations will use apt, Ubuntu’s package management system.

Before we can begin installing software, we will be adding an additional repository with up-to-date MongoDB packages. This repository is provided by the MongoDB project itself, so it should always have recent, stable versions of MongoDB.

First, we must add the MongoDB team’s key to our system’s list of trusted keys. This will allow us to confirm that the packages are genuine. The following command will add the correct key to our list (if you wish, you can verify the key ID through MongoDB’s official documentation):

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv 7F0CEB10

Now that we trust packages signed by the MongoDB maintainers, we need to add a reference to the actual repository to our apt configuration. We can create a separate file that will be sourced by apt with the correct repository reference by typing:

echo 'deb http://downloads-distro.mongodb.org/repo/ubuntu-upstart dist 10gen' | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb.list

Our system is now configured with the new MongoDB repository. We can update our system’s local package cache so that it knows about the new packages, and then we can install the software we need.

We will be installing MongoDB packages to use as our database, git to help us with later installations, and some packages that we will need as dependencies and build dependencies for Node:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mongodb-org git build-essential openssl libssl-dev pkg-config

Once the installation is complete, we can move on to building Node.

Download, Build, and Install Node from Source

Node is a very fast-moving project that cuts releases frequently. In order to get an up-to-date copy of Node, built to run on our specific system, we will be downloading the most recent source and compiling the binary manually. This is a rather straight forward procedure.

First go to the download section of the Node website. In the main section of the page, there are download links separated by operating system, as well as a link for the source code in the upper-right corner of the downloads:

Node source code link

Right-click on the source code link and select “Copy link address” or whatever similar option your browser provides.

Back on your server, move into your home directory and use the wget command to download the source code from the link you just copied. Your Node source URL will likely be different from the one shown below:

cd ~
wget http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.10.33/node-v0.10.33.tar.gz

Once the file has been download, extract the archive using the tar command:

tar xzvf node-v*

This will create the directory structure that contains the source code. Move into the new directory:

cd node-v*

Since we already installed all of the Node dependencies using apt in the last section, we can begin building the software right away. Configure and build the software using these commands:

./configure
make

Once the software is compiled, we can install it onto our system by typing:

sudo make install

Node is now installed on our system (along with some helper apps). Before we continue, we can get rid of both the source code archive and the source directory to keep our system clean:

cd ~
rm -rf ~/node-v*

Install the Rest of the Components with NPM, Git, and Bower

Now that we have Node installed, we have access to the npm package manager, which we can use to install some of the other software we require.

MEAN.JS uses a separate package manager, called bower, to manage front-end application packages. It also uses the Grunt Task Runner to automate common tasks. Since these are management packages that should be available to assist us with every app we create, we should tell npm that we need these globally installed:

sudo npm install -g bower grunt-cli

Now, we finally have all of the prerequisite packages installed. We can move onto installing the actual MEAN.JS boilerplate used to create applications. We will clone the official GitHub repository into a directory at /opt/mean in order to get the most up-to-date version of the project:

sudo git clone https://github.com/meanjs/mean.git /opt/mean

Enter the directory and tell npm to install all of the packages the project references. We need to use sudo since we are in a system directory:

cd /opt/mean
sudo npm install

Finally, since we are operating in a system directory, we need to call bower with sudo and the --allow-root option in order to install and configure our front-end packages:

sudo bower --allow-root --config.interactive=false install

See the Results

MEAN.JS is now completely installed. We can start up the sample application using the Grunt Task Runner within our project directory. This will run the application and allow it to begin accepting requests:

cd /opt/mean
grunt

Once the process starts, you can visit your server’s domain name or IP address in your web browser on port “3000”:

http://server_domain_or_IP:3000

You should see the sample MEAN.JS application:

MEAN.JS sample application

Conclusion

Now that you have the necessary components and the MEAN.JS boilerplate, you can begin making and deploying your own apps. Check out the documentation on MEAN.JS website for specific help on working with MEAN.JS.

After you get your application up and running, you’ll probably want to configure a reverse proxy to your application server in order to feed your app connections. We will cover this in a later guide.

Thanks for learning with the DigitalOcean Community. Check out our offerings for compute, storage, networking, and managed databases.

Learn more about our products

About the author(s)

Justin Ellingwood

See author profile

Category:

Tutorial

Tags:

Still looking for an answer?

Ask a question Search for more help

Was this helpful?

32 Comments

This textbox defaults to using Markdown to format your answer.

You can type !ref in this text area to quickly search our full set of tutorials, documentation & marketplace offerings and insert the link!

jurikolo • February 20, 2015

In case you get something like: jurikolo@ubuntu:/opt/mean$ sudo bower --allow-root --config.interactive=false install bower bootstrap#~3 not-cached git://github.com/twbs/bootstrap.git#~3 bower bootstrap#~3 resolve git://github.com/twbs/bootstrap.git#~3 bower angular#~1.2 not-cached git://github.com/angular/bower-angular.git#~1.2 bower angular#~1.2 resolve git://github.com/angular/bower-angular.git#~1.2 bower angular-resource#~1.2 not-cached git://github.com/angular/bower-angular-resource.git#~1.2 bower angular-resource#~1.2 resolve git://github.com/angular/bower-angular-resource.git#~1.2 bower angular-animate#~1.2 not-cached git://github.com/angular/bower-angular-animate.git#~1.2 bower angular-animate#~1.2 resolve git://github.com/angular/bower-angular-animate.git#~1.2 bower angular-mocks#~1.2 not-cached git://github.com/angular/bower-angular-mocks.git#~1.2 bower angular-mocks#~1.2 resolve git://github.com/angular/bower-angular-mocks.git#~1.2 bower angular-bootstrap#~0.12.0 not-cached git://github.com/angular-ui/bootstrap-bower.git#~0.12.0 bower angular-bootstrap#~0.12.0 resolve git://github.com/angular-ui/bootstrap-bower.git#~0.12.0 bower angular-ui-utils#~0.1.1 not-cached git://github.com/angular-ui/ui-utils.git#~0.1.1 bower angular-ui-utils#~0.1.1 resolve git://github.com/angular-ui/ui-utils.git#~0.1.1 bower angular-ui-router#~0.2.11 not-cached git://github.com/angular-ui/ui-router.git#~0.2.11 bower angular-ui-router#~0.2.11 resolve git://github.com/angular-ui/ui-router.git#~0.2.11

bower bootstrap#~3 ECMDERR Failed to execute “git ls-remote --tags --heads git://github.com/twbs/bootstrap.git”, exit code of #128

Additional error details: fatal: unable to connect to github.com: github.com[0: 192.30.252.128]: errno=Connection timed out

Try following workaround: jurikolo@ubuntu:/opt/mean$ sudo git config --global url."https://".insteadOf git:// This will tell Git to use HTTPS instead of GIT.

iluzziona • March 16, 2015

Smooth install of mean.js on xubuntu 14.04, thanks!

thiagodebastos • April 2, 2015

It all went ok until I tried running grunt!

vagrant@vagrant-ubuntu-precise-64:/opt/mean$ grunt
Loading "jshint.js" tasks...ERROR
>> Error: Cannot find module 'jshint'
Loading "grunt-karma.js" tasks...ERROR
>> SyntaxError: Error parsing /opt/mean/node_modules/karma/node_modules/socket.io/node_modules/socket.io-client/package.json: Unexpected end of input
Warning: Task "jshint" not found. Used --force, continuing.

Running "concurrent:default" (concurrent) task
Loading "jshint.js" tasks...ERROR
>> Error: Cannot find module 'jshint'
Loading "jshint.js" tasks...ERROR
>> Error: Cannot find module 'jshint'
Loading "grunt-karma.js" tasks...ERROR
>> SyntaxError: Error parsing /opt/mean/node_modules/karma/node_modules/socket.io/node_modules/socket.io-client/package.json: Unexpected end of input

Running "watch" task
Waiting...
Loading "grunt-karma.js" tasks...ERROR
>> SyntaxError: Error parsing /opt/mean/node_modules/karma/node_modules/socket.io/node_modules/socket.io-client/package.json: Unexpected end of input

Running "nodemon:dev" (nodemon) task
[nodemon] v1.2.1
[nodemon] to restart at any time, enter `rs`
[nodemon] watching: app/views/**/*.* gruntfile.js server.js config/**/*.js app/**/*.js
[nodemon] starting `node --debug server.js`
Debugger listening on port 5858
NODE_ENV is not defined! Using default development environment
module.js:338
    throw err;
          ^
Error: Cannot find module './commands/base_command'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:336:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:278:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:365:17)
    at require (module.js:384:17)
    at /opt/mean/node_modules/mongoose/node_modules/mongodb/lib/mongodb/index.js:26:17
    at Array.forEach (native)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/opt/mean/node_modules/mongoose/node_modules/mongodb/lib/mongodb/index.js:25:25)
    at Module._compile (module.js:460:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:478:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:355:32)
[nodemon] app crashed - waiting for file changes before starting...
^Cvagrant@vagrant-ubuntu-precise-64:/opt/mean$ cd /opt/mean
vagrant@vagrant-ubuntu-precise-64:/opt/mean$ grunt
Loading "jshint.js" tasks...ERROR
>> Error: Cannot find module 'jshint'
Loading "grunt-karma.js" tasks...ERROR
>> SyntaxError: Error parsing /opt/mean/node_modules/karma/node_modules/socket.io/node_modules/socket.io-client/package.json: Unexpected end of input
Warning: Task "jshint" not found. Used --force, continuing.

Running "concurrent:default" (concurrent) task
Loading "jshint.js" tasks...ERROR
>> Error: Cannot find module 'jshint'
Loading "jshint.js" tasks...ERROR
>> Error: Cannot find module 'jshint'
Loading "grunt-karma.js" tasks...ERROR
>> SyntaxError: Error parsing /opt/mean/node_modules/karma/node_modules/socket.io/node_modules/socket.io-client/package.json: Unexpected end of input

Running "watch" task
Waiting...
Loading "grunt-karma.js" tasks...ERROR
>> SyntaxError: Error parsing /opt/mean/node_modules/karma/node_modules/socket.io/node_modules/socket.io-client/package.json: Unexpected end of input

Running "nodemon:dev" (nodemon) task
[nodemon] v1.2.1
[nodemon] to restart at any time, enter `rs`
[nodemon] watching: app/views/**/*.* gruntfile.js server.js config/**/*.js app/**/*.js
[nodemon] starting `node --debug server.js`
Debugger listening on port 5858
NODE_ENV is not defined! Using default development environment
module.js:338
    throw err;
          ^
Error: Cannot find module './commands/base_command'
    at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:336:15)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:278:25)
    at Module.require (module.js:365:17)
    at require (module.js:384:17)
    at /opt/mean/node_modules/mongoose/node_modules/mongodb/lib/mongodb/index.js:26:17
    at Array.forEach (native)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/opt/mean/node_modules/mongoose/node_modules/mongodb/lib/mongodb/index.js:25:25)
    at Module._compile (module.js:460:26)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:478:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:355:32)
[nodemon] app crashed - waiting for file changes before starting...

komhuy • June 16, 2015

it work thanks

coordinacionweb • June 19, 2015

I discharge node, unzipped it and enter the folder but ./configure I get -bash: ./configure: No such file or directory

camillejanicki • April 16, 2017

Same here! Did you find a solution?

LadySaint • June 22, 2015

Working fine with the ip, how do it change it to the domain name?

erictrose • July 9, 2015

I’m getting an error when trying to run grunt at the end of the process:

bootstrap#3.3.5 public/lib/bootstrap └── jquery#2.1.4

jquery#2.1.4 public/lib/jquery erictrose@skinserver4:/opt/mean$ grunt /opt/mean/node_modules/grunt/node_modules/grunt-legacy-log/node_modules/lodash/dist/lodash.js:2346 /** ^^^ SyntaxError: Unexpected token ILLEGAL at exports.runInThisContext (vm.js:73:16) at Module._compile (module.js:443:25) at Object.Module._extensions…js (module.js:478:10) at Module.load (module.js:355:32) at Function.Module._load (module.js:310:12) at Module.require (module.js:365:17) at require (module.js:384:17) at Object.<anonymous> (/opt/mean/node_modules/grunt/node_modules/grunt-legacy-log/index.js:20:9) at Module._compile (module.js:460:26) at Object.Module._extensions…js (module.js:478:10)

Thanks in advance for any help.

yooneekmedia • July 12, 2015

is anyone else getting: /usr/bin/env: python: No such file or directory

After running ./configure ?

There is a configure file listed in the directory, not sure what I need to do to run it. To get the source, I ran: wget https://nodejs.org/dist/v0.12.7/node-v0.12.7.tar.gz

Jonathan Dumont • February 2, 2016

I don’t know about the Python Error, but I didn’t succeed to compile Node.js, but I succeed by this installer. They have compiled version for

Debian and Ubuntu based Linux distributions

```
Enterprise Linux and Fedora
```
```
Gentoo
```
```
openSUSE and SLE
```
```
Arch Linux
```
```
Void Linux
```
```
FreeBSD and OpenBSD
```
```
OSX
```
```
Windows
```

ryanhammang • July 17, 2015

This is one of the best tutorials I have ever read. I will likely use this as a template for all of my technical writing. Thank you.

I might suggest a small edit. Your sentence: “Enter the directory and tell npm to install all of the packages the project references.”

Did you mean to write: “Enter the directory and tell npm to install all of the packages and the project references.”

Either way. Thank you so much for the great article.

sarfarazh • July 29, 2015

on sudo npm install step I am getting this error: npm WARN cannot run in wd meanjs@0.3.3 bower install --config.interactive=false (wd=/opt/mean)

and on grunt step i get this: Running “jshint:all” (jshint) task

57 files lint free.

Running “csslint:all” (csslint) task

2 files lint free.

Running “copy:localConfig” (copy) task Warning: Unable to write “config/env/local.js” file (Error code: EACCES). Used --force, continuing.

Running “concurrent:default” (concurrent) task Running “nodemon:dev” (nodemon) task Running “watch” task Waiting… [nodemon] v1.2.1 [nodemon] to restart at any time, enter `rs` [nodemon] watching: app/views//. gruntfile.js server.js config//*.js app/**/*.js [nodemon] starting `node --debug server.js` debugger listening on port 5858 NODE_ENV is not defined! Using default development environment [nodemon] watching 25,409 files - this might cause high cpu usage. To reduce use “–watch”.

MEAN.JS - Development Environment application started Environment: development Port: 3000 Database: mongodb://localhost/mean-dev

Could not connect to MongoDB! Error: failed to connect to [localhost:27017]

Tried various solutions suggested on other forums, but couldn’t fix this. Can anyone help?

Kamal Nasser

DigitalOcean Employee

• July 30, 2015

Could not connect to MongoDB! Error: failed to connect to [localhost:27017]

Try starting MongoDB and then running grunt again:

sudo start mongod

coordinacionweb • August 17, 2015

:( Warning: You need to have Ruby and Sass installed and in your PATH for this task to work

what can i do?

KennethBlack • August 25, 2015

@coordinacionweb sudo apt-get install ruby-compass worked for me

from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20176410/how-to-resolve-you-need-to-have-ruby-and-sass-installed-and-in-your-path-for-th

akiersky • September 3, 2015

Installed jshint, uglify, etc… also used @KennethBlack 's ruby-compass addon (thanks!). jshint still fails, which I can get around with --force. All seems to boot up correctly, but the app crashes upon launch. here’s my stackdump:

Running "env:dev" (env) task

Running "sass:dist" (sass) task

Running "less:dist" (less) task

Running "jshint:all" (jshint) task

   modules/articles/server/policies/articles.server.policy.js
      9 |acl = new acl(new acl.memoryBackend());
                   ^ A constructor name should start with an uppercase letter.
   modules/users/server/policies/admin.server.policy.js
      9 |acl = new acl(new acl.memoryBackend());
                   ^ A constructor name should start with an uppercase letter.

>> 2 errors in 101 files
Warning: Task "jshint:all" failed. Used --force, continuing.

Running "csslint:all" (csslint) task
>> 3 files lint free.

Running "mkdir:upload" task
Warning: Unable to create directory "/opt/mean/modules/users/client/img/profile/uploads" (Error code: EACCES). Used --force, continuing.

Running "copy:localConfig" (copy) task
Warning: Unable to write "config/env/local.js" file (Error code: EACCES). Used --force, continuing.

Running "concurrent:default" (concurrent) task
    Running "watch" task
    Waiting...
    Running "nodemon:dev" (nodemon) task
    [nodemon] v1.3.8
    [nodemon] to restart at any time, enter `rs`
    [nodemon] watching: server.js config/**/*.js modules/*/server/**/*.js
    [nodemon] starting `node --debug server.js`
    Debugger listening on port 5858


    --
    MEAN.JS - Development Environment
    Environment:			development
    Port:				3000
    Database:				mongodb://localhost/mean-dev
    --
    /opt/mean/node_modules/multer/index.js:26
      mkdirp(dest, function(err) { if (err) throw err; });
                                                  ^
    Error: EACCES, mkdir '/opt/mean/uploads'
        at Error (native)
    [nodemon] app crashed - waiting for file changes before starting...

Any hints? Do I need more memory or something? Thanks! ak

akiersky • September 6, 2015

Ok, after a few tries in different ways, I finally got it working! This tutorial seems to be a bit out of date, I’d recommend installing each from the respective sources. My process was something like this:

install nvm so you don’t run into permission issues and have to sudo everything, instructions here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16151018/npm-throws-error-without-sudo/24404451#24404451 also had to add nvm manually (http://askubuntu.com/a/386511)
install npm and nodejs via nvm
install mongodb (https://docs.mongodb.org/getting-started/shell/installation/)
install git (sudo apt-get install git)
install express (npm install -g express)
install bower (npm install -g bower)
install yo (npm install -g yo)
install grunt (npm install -g grunt-cli) then you should be set to follow instructions here: http://meanjs.org/generator.html

One catch was if you followed the digitalocean firewall setup (which you should to keep your precious work safe) for ubuntu you’ll need to open port 300 to actually see your page.

I think that about covers it, this tutorial seems to give a false sense of providing THE way to do things, when in fact, like they mention about nodejs, many of these projects move quickly and it is always best to refer to their respective setup guides to ensure proper usage.

Hope this helps someone else! ak

ps. My setup still needs some tweaking as it is very slow. I get this warning when I run ‘grunt’

NODE_ENV is not defined! Using default development environment
[nodemon] watching 25,820 files - this might cause high cpu usage. To reduce use "--watch"

Where would I put the “–watch” flag? how do I change to a production environment? If anyone has any tips on how to improve performance that would be greatly appreciated!

mattmcfad • May 26, 2017

This should be the recommended installation approach! Definitely want to use nvm

akiersky • September 6, 2015

Arg! seems like something from my steps is incorrect. Each time I log out I am seemingly reverted back to step 1. It appears that mongo still exists, but nvm, npm, node, and all installed with npm is gone. Is using nvm where I am going wrong? It seems better since sudo is not necessary on everything, but could it be that is causing it not to install properly? Also, when I try to re-download/install npm, I get “=> fatal: destination path ‘/home/aaron/.nvm’ already exists and is not an empty directory.” so it is still there, but just not available? Has anyone else had similar problems? Any advice at all? Some words of encouragement? :) thanks! ak

gihts • September 21, 2015

Try sudo install grunt-env sudo apt-get install ruby-compass

then sudo grunt

you should be good to go

kylanhurt • September 19, 2015

I ran into errors with the grunv “env” issue, which was solved by running the following code:

npm install grunt-env

then

apt-get install ruby-compass

Also I originally ended up with an issue related to the make file not being present, but when I did the instructions on a clean install it worked. Strange because I don’t think I did anything different, really.

Valeriy Donika • September 28, 2015

Hello, i create droplet with Mean js. how i can see my page with installed mean?

tklose • October 15, 2015

Everything works great until I try to run grunt… I get this:

module.js:339 throw err; ^

Error: Cannot find module ‘coffee-script’ at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js: at Function.Module._load (module.js:287:25) at Module.require (module.js:366:17) at require (module.js:385:17) at Object.<anonymous> (/opt/mean/node_modules/g at Module._compile (module.js:435:26) at Object.Module._extensions…js (module.js:442 at Module.load (module.js:356:32) at Function.Module._load (module.js:311:12) at Module.require (module.js:366:17)

I tried installing coffee-script with ‘sudo npm install -g coffee-script’ and although it installs successfully, I keep getting this error.

Jonathan Dumont • February 2, 2016

In case your doing like me and try to follow this tuto on Debian 8 aka Jessie I succeed install MongoDB by using those instructions.

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv EA312927
echo "deb http://repo.mongodb.org/apt/debian wheezy/mongodb-org/3.2 main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-3.2.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mongodb-org git build-essential openssl libssl-dev pkg-config

and for Node.js by thoses instructions

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_5.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs

For the rest, everything was working fine. Of course your Debian user needs to be a sudoer. ;)

ayogi • February 26, 2016

I downloaded node.js from https://nodejs.org/dist/v4.3.1/node-v4.3.1-linux-x64.tar.xz. After untar using tar xpvf node-v4.3.1-linux-x64.tar.xz i do not see any configure file. I could not run ./configure

coordinacionweb • August 17, 2015

:( Warning: You need to have Ruby and Sass installed and in your PATH for this task to work

what can i do?

KennethBlack • August 25, 2015

@coordinacionweb sudo apt-get install ruby-compass worked for me

from http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20176410/how-to-resolve-you-need-to-have-ruby-and-sass-installed-and-in-your-path-for-th

akiersky • September 3, 2015

Running "env:dev" (env) task

Running "sass:dist" (sass) task

Running "less:dist" (less) task

Running "jshint:all" (jshint) task

   modules/articles/server/policies/articles.server.policy.js
      9 |acl = new acl(new acl.memoryBackend());
                   ^ A constructor name should start with an uppercase letter.
   modules/users/server/policies/admin.server.policy.js
      9 |acl = new acl(new acl.memoryBackend());
                   ^ A constructor name should start with an uppercase letter.

>> 2 errors in 101 files
Warning: Task "jshint:all" failed. Used --force, continuing.

Running "csslint:all" (csslint) task
>> 3 files lint free.

Running "mkdir:upload" task
Warning: Unable to create directory "/opt/mean/modules/users/client/img/profile/uploads" (Error code: EACCES). Used --force, continuing.

Running "copy:localConfig" (copy) task
Warning: Unable to write "config/env/local.js" file (Error code: EACCES). Used --force, continuing.

Running "concurrent:default" (concurrent) task
    Running "watch" task
    Waiting...
    Running "nodemon:dev" (nodemon) task
    [nodemon] v1.3.8
    [nodemon] to restart at any time, enter `rs`
    [nodemon] watching: server.js config/**/*.js modules/*/server/**/*.js
    [nodemon] starting `node --debug server.js`
    Debugger listening on port 5858


    --
    MEAN.JS - Development Environment
    Environment:			development
    Port:				3000
    Database:				mongodb://localhost/mean-dev
    --
    /opt/mean/node_modules/multer/index.js:26
      mkdirp(dest, function(err) { if (err) throw err; });
                                                  ^
    Error: EACCES, mkdir '/opt/mean/uploads'
        at Error (native)
    [nodemon] app crashed - waiting for file changes before starting...

Any hints? Do I need more memory or something? Thanks! ak

akiersky • September 6, 2015

install nvm so you don’t run into permission issues and have to sudo everything, instructions here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/16151018/npm-throws-error-without-sudo/24404451#24404451 also had to add nvm manually (http://askubuntu.com/a/386511)
install npm and nodejs via nvm
install mongodb (https://docs.mongodb.org/getting-started/shell/installation/)
install git (sudo apt-get install git)
install express (npm install -g express)
install bower (npm install -g bower)
install yo (npm install -g yo)
install grunt (npm install -g grunt-cli) then you should be set to follow instructions here: http://meanjs.org/generator.html

One catch was if you followed the digitalocean firewall setup (which you should to keep your precious work safe) for ubuntu you’ll need to open port 300 to actually see your page.

Hope this helps someone else! ak

ps. My setup still needs some tweaking as it is very slow. I get this warning when I run ‘grunt’

NODE_ENV is not defined! Using default development environment
[nodemon] watching 25,820 files - this might cause high cpu usage. To reduce use "--watch"

Where would I put the “–watch” flag? how do I change to a production environment? If anyone has any tips on how to improve performance that would be greatly appreciated!

mattmcfad • May 26, 2017

This should be the recommended installation approach! Definitely want to use nvm

akiersky • September 6, 2015

gihts • September 21, 2015

Try sudo install grunt-env sudo apt-get install ruby-compass

then sudo grunt

you should be good to go

kylanhurt • September 19, 2015

I ran into errors with the grunv “env” issue, which was solved by running the following code:

npm install grunt-env

then

apt-get install ruby-compass

Valeriy Donika • September 28, 2015

Hello, i create droplet with Mean js. how i can see my page with installed mean?

tklose • October 15, 2015

Everything works great until I try to run grunt… I get this:

module.js:339 throw err; ^

I tried installing coffee-script with ‘sudo npm install -g coffee-script’ and although it installs successfully, I keep getting this error.

Jonathan Dumont • February 2, 2016

In case your doing like me and try to follow this tuto on Debian 8 aka Jessie I succeed install MongoDB by using those instructions.

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp://keyserver.ubuntu.com:80 --recv EA312927
echo "deb http://repo.mongodb.org/apt/debian wheezy/mongodb-org/3.2 main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-3.2.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mongodb-org git build-essential openssl libssl-dev pkg-config

and for Node.js by thoses instructions

# Using Debian, as root
curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_5.x | bash -
apt-get install -y nodejs

For the rest, everything was working fine. Of course your Debian user needs to be a sudoer. ;)

ayogi • February 26, 2016

tferguson • March 10, 2016

I have gone through reset after reset, install after install, and I’m still unable to get this tutorial to work. I’m not getting the following error:

Error: Cannot find module ‘grunt-legacy-log-utils’

I’ve tried fresh installs, cache clears, the works. Any thoughts?

irfanraza • March 11, 2016

I followed the same steps on ubuntu 14 64bit but got a warning message like - npm WARN deprecated graceful-fs@2.0.3: graceful-fs version 3 and before will fail on newer node releases. Please update to graceful-fs@^4.0.0 as soon as possible.

also grunt is not working and giving an error - module.js:327 throw err; ^

Error: Cannot find module ‘coffee-script’ at Function.Module._resolveFilename (module.js:325:15) at Function.Module._load (module.js:276:25) at Module.require (module.js:353:17) at require (internal/module.js:12:17) at Object.<anonymous> (/opt/mean/node_modules/grunt/lib/grunt.js:16:1) at Module._compile (module.js:409:26) at Object.Module._extensions…js (module.js:416:10) at Module.load (module.js:343:32) at Function.Module._load (module.js:300:12) at Module.require (module.js:353:17)

can anyone suggest what should i do…