using this sample repo

check environment

make sure you have node 7 and npm 4 installed. If not install them

• apt-get update
• apt-get install build-essential libssl-dev -y
• curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.33.2/install.sh | bash

close terminal window and open new window

• nvm install 7

initialize

once the version issue is out of the way you can install truffle, make sure to run this with sudo:

• sudo npm install -g truffle