Installation instructions on Ubuntu.
Make, Curl, Unzip, GDAL/OGR
sudo apt-get install build-essential zip unzip gdal-bin
sudo apt-get install python-software-properties python g++ make
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:chris-lea/node.js
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install nodejs
npm install -g topojson
See step 1 and 2 of Mapbox OSM ubuntu quickstart