Install build tools

Several tools will be needed. Run the following command:

apt-get install make g++ libssl-dev git

Download Node.js source

It is recommended to download the source from the node.js website. The git repository source may not be stable, considering it receives changes after the latest mainstream version. To download from the website, run these commands:

cd /tmp
wget http://nodejs.org/dist/v0.10.32/node-v0.10.32.tar.gz
tar -xvf node-v0.10.32.tar.gz
cd node-v0.10.32

If you really must use the unstable mainstream version, run the following command:

git clone https://github.com/joyent/node
cd node

Upon success, you can proceed to the next step.

Configure and Build

Depending on your server, you may want to replace X with the number of CPUs of your server. If your VPS has 2 virtual CPUs, you would replace X with 2. This will help speed up the building process.

./configure
make -jX

If everything was successful, you can now run the following command to install node js onto your system:

make install

Once it is installed, run node -v and check the version output. If a version is displayed similar to v0.10.32 (version will vary), then you then have successfully installed node.js. Congratulations.