Step-by-Step Guide to Install Hardhat on Ubuntu | Simplify Ethereum Development

Hardhat is an Ethereum development environment that enables developers to compile, deploy, test, and debug smart contracts using Solidity. It is a popular framework used for creating and deploying decentralized applications (dApps) and smart contracts on the Ethereum network. Hardhat comes with a built-in blockchain network that allows for local testing of smart contracts. The framework can also be integrated with other popular blockchain networks, including mainnet and testnets. Hardhat also offers other features like task automation, debugging, and support for popular developer tools like Truffle. Overall, it provides developers with a comprehensive and flexible toolkit for Ethereum development.

You can follow the below steps to install Hardhat on Ubuntu:
Open a terminal window on your Ubuntu machine.

Install Node.js and npm (Node Package Manager) by running the command:
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install nodejs
$ sudo apt-get install npm

In the event that you encounter an error regarding missing NPM dependencies such as "node-agent-base," "node-aproba," "node-archy," etc. and they are not set to be installed, you can utilize aptitude to address the issue:
$ sudo apt-get install aptitude
$ sudo aptitude install npm
Aptitude is a command-line tool for package management in Debian-based Linux distributions like Ubuntu. It is used to install, remove, and upgrade software packages and their dependencies. It provides a text-based interface that allows users to easily browse and search through the available packages, as well as to view and modify their installation status. Aptitude uses the Advanced Packaging Tool (APT) system to manage packages, which makes it a powerful and flexible tool for managing software on Linux systems.

Verify the installation of Node.js and npm using the commands:
$ node -v
$ npm -v

Install Hardhat globally using npm by running the command:
$ sudo npm install -g hardhat

If you receive the error message "npm ERR! request to https://registry.npmjs.org/hardhat failed, reason: connect ENETUNREACH 2606:4700::6810:1623:443," it may be due to an attempt to connect to IPv6 addresses, which may not work if IPv6 is not configured on your system. To resolve this, you can add the following line to the /etc/hosts file: 104.16.16.35 registry.npmjs.org. After adding this line, you can retry running the command $ sudo npm install -g hardhat.

Verify the installation of Hardhat using the command:
$ hardhat

This command will display the list of available Hardhat commands, confirming that Hardhat is installed successfully on your Ubuntu machine.