The was a problem how locale is specified and during upgrades old locale settings remain.
Thanks to firefox for complaining about locale. There were no error messages from ubuntu. ** Changed in: npm (Ubuntu) Status: New => Fix Released -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1644416 Title: npm output is unreadable characters To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/npm/+bug/1644416/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs