diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 4caacda2..336db5e3 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
-sudo: false
-
 language: python
+sudo: required
+dist: trusty
+
+node_js:
+  - "4.2"
 
 addons:
   postgresql: "9.4"
@@ -24,6 +27,7 @@ env:
 before_script:
   - psql -c "create database lemur;" -U postgres
   - psql -c "create user lemur with password 'lemur;'" -U postgres
+  - npm config set registry https://registry.npmjs.org
   - npm install -g bower
 
 script:
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index aeb7a40c..e9e96b7c 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1,9 +1,16 @@
 NPM_ROOT = ./node_modules
 STATIC_DIR = src/lemur/static/app
 
+USER := $(shell whoami)
+
 develop: update-submodules setup-git
 	@echo "--> Installing dependencies"
+ifeq ($(USER), root)
+	@echo "WARNING: It looks like you are installing Lemur as root. This is not generally advised."
+	npm install --unsafe-perm
+else
 	npm install
+endif
 	pip install "setuptools>=0.9.8"
 	# order matters here, base package must install first
 	pip install -e .
@@ -82,4 +89,4 @@ coverage: develop
 publish:
 	python setup.py sdist bdist_wheel upload
 
-.PHONY: develop dev-postgres dev-docs setup-git build clean update-submodules test testloop test-cli test-js test-python lint lint-python lint-js coverage publish
\ No newline at end of file
+.PHONY: develop dev-postgres dev-docs setup-git build clean update-submodules test testloop test-cli test-js test-python lint lint-python lint-js coverage publish