npm won't create a symlink for webdriver-manager while using JHipster DevBox - selenium-webdriver

Question

I'm trying to use JHipster with the DevBox at work, so with a proxy.
I think I have everything configured accordingly, but I still can't use JHipster properly.
I want to generate a microservice gateway with Protractor, but when I use yo jhipster or npm install, it gives me the following error:
> example-gateway#0.0.0 postinstall /home/vagrant/workspace/example/example-gateway
> webdriver-manager update
sh: 1: webdriver-manager: not found
npm WARN optional Skipping failed optional dependency /chokidar/fsevents:
npm WARN notsup Not compatible with your operating system or architecture: fsevents#1.0.12
npm ERR! Linux 3.13.0-88-generic
npm ERR! argv "/usr/bin/nodejs" "/usr/bin/npm" "install"
npm ERR! node v4.4.5
npm ERR! npm v3.9.6
npm ERR! file sh
npm ERR! code ELIFECYCLE
npm ERR! errno ENOENT
npm ERR! syscall spawn
npm ERR! example-gateway#0.0.0 postinstall: `webdriver-manager update`
npm ERR! spawn ENOENT
npm ERR!
npm ERR! Failed at the example-gateway#0.0.0 postinstall script 'webdriver-manager update'.
npm ERR! Make sure you have the latest version of node.js and npm installed.
npm ERR! If you do, this is most likely a problem with the example-gateway package,
npm ERR! not with npm itself.
npm ERR! Tell the author that this fails on your system:
npm ERR! webdriver-manager update
npm ERR! You can get information on how to open an issue for this project with:
npm ERR! npm bugs example-gateway
npm ERR! Or if that isn't available, you can get their info via:
npm ERR! npm owner ls example-gateway
npm ERR! There is likely additional logging output above.
And with sudo:
npm WARN lifecycle example-gateway#0.0.0~postinstall: cannot run in wd %s %s (wd=%s) example-gateway#0.0.0 webdriver-manager update /home/vagrant/workspace/example/example-gateway
However, I found webdriver-manager in the node_modules/protractor/bin directory, but npm seems to be unable to use it.
Actually, I already succeeded once in generating a microservice gateway with Protractor, but I don't know how: the error about webdriver-manager just disappeared one day. Indeed, there was several other errors (packages that didn't want to be installed), and running npm install over and over again while sometimes installing manually some packages seemed to fix them. However I'm trying to use JHipster on another computer so I need to know how to fix the webdriver-manager error.
I took a look in the node_modules folder of the completed gateway project, and discovered a webdriver-manager symlink inside .bin that wasn't in the same directory of the incomplete gateway project, so I supposed npm used it instead of the one in the node_modules/protractor/bin directory. I created one linking the two in the node_modules/.bin directory of the incomplete gateway project with ln -s ../protractor/bin/webdriver-manager webdriver-manager, and it apparently worked.
The problem is that I'm trying to make the installation and the configuration of the JHipster DevBox somehow automated, so people at work wanting to use it don't have to do it manually. If they have to remember to create a symlink each time they encounter that error, it won't be very practical.
Do you know why npm won't create that symlink himself (or sometime fails to install some packages), and how to fix it in a "clean" way?

Answer 1

Ok I found a solution, but I still don't know exactly why it does this and if their is a cleaner way to fix it.
http://perrymitchell.net/article/npm-symlinks-through-vagrant-windows/
I just replaced the node_modules directory by a symlink to somewhere inside the guest machine, so not in the shared folder with Windows. That way, I skip all the problems caused by Windows. The downside is I have to create the link before generating any project, and to fix that link and download again all the dependencies each time I update the DevBox, because I need to destroy the DevBox to update it.