Try going back to npm 4.x

src/freedombone-utils-nodejs

@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ VARIANTS='mesh'
 # have specifically the correct versions
 NODEJS_VERSION='8.11.1'
 NODEJS_N_VERSION='2.1.7'
-NPM_VERSION='5.6.0'
+NPM_VERSION='4'
 
 # This file keeps track of the apps needing nodejs
 # so that it can be removed if tere are no apps which need it