Cannot install firebase CLI with npm - npm

Question

When I try to install firebase-tools with:
npm install -g firebase-tools
I get the following error:
npm WARN deprecated request#2.88.2: request has been deprecated, see https://github.com/request/request/issues/3142
npm WARN deprecated mkdirp#0.5.4: Legacy versions of mkdirp are no longer supported. Please update to mkdirp 1.x. (Note that the API surface has changed to use Promises in 1.x.)
/usr/local/bin/firebase -> /usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/lib/bin/firebase.js
npm WARN lifecycle The node binary used for scripts is /snap/bin/node but npm is using /snap/node/2609/bin/node itself. Use the `--scripts-prepend-node-path` option to include the path for the node binary npm was executed with.
> protobufjs#6.8.9 postinstall /usr/local/lib/node_modules/firebase-tools/node_modules/protobufjs
> node scripts/postinstall
2020/03/31 16:23:53.220338 cmd_run.go:884: WARNING: cannot create user data directory: cannot create "/nonexistent/snap/node/2609": mkdir /nonexistent: permission denied
cannot create user data directory: /nonexistent/snap/node/2609: Permission denied
npm WARN optional SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: fsevents#~2.1.2 (node_modules/firebase-tools/node_modules/chokidar/node_modules/fsevents):
npm WARN notsup SKIPPING OPTIONAL DEPENDENCY: Unsupported platform for fsevents#2.1.2: wanted {"os":"darwin","arch":"any"} (current: {"os":"linux","arch":"x64"})
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno 1
npm ERR! protobufjs#6.8.9 postinstall: `node scripts/postinstall`
npm ERR! Exit status 1
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the protobufjs#6.8.9 postinstall script.
npm ERR! This is probably not a problem with npm. There is likely additional logging output above.
npm ERR! A complete log of this run can be found in:
npm ERR! /home/david/.npm/_logs/2020-03-31T21_23_53_670Z-debug.log
I have googled this error but haven't found anything related. What can I do to install firebase-tools?

Answer 1

Reason: You used used snap to install node and snap does not allows apps to write to /usr/local and this is where all the global packages are installed.
What you can do to fix this?
snap remove node - uninstall the snap version of node
sudo apt-get install nodejs - install nodejs
npm install -g firebase-tools - this should work now

Answer 2

i had the same problem but i fixed it by not installing it globally
try this
npm install firebase-tools
or
sudo npm install -g firebase-tools