installing socket.io with node.js v0.6.18. ws failes during install

I am trying to install socket.io using npm on a beaglebone (linux angstrom)

/> npm install socket.io

it worked great on older versions of node with older kernel. I am using node v0.6.18 now.

There seems to be a problem when npm tring to install ws which is supposed to install with socket.io

I get the same error if I try:

npm install ws --ws:verbose

Here is the result:

root@beaglebone:~# npm install ws --ws:verbose
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/ws
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/ws
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/commander
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/tinycolor
npm http GET https://registry.npmjs.org/options
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/commander
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/tinycolor
npm http 304 https://registry.npmjs.org/options

> ws@0.4.18 install /home/root/node_modules/ws
> node install.js

[ws v0.4.18] Attempting to compile blazing fast native extensions.
info it worked if it ends with ok 
spawn python [ '/home/root/.node-gyp/0.6.18/tools/gyp_addon',
  'binding.gyp',
  '-I/home/root/node_modules/ws/build/config.gypi',
  '-f',
  'make' ]
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/home/root/.node-gyp/0.6.18/tools/gyp_addon", line 14, in <module>
    import gyp
  File "/home/root/.node-gyp/0.6.18/tools/gyp/pylib/gyp/__init__.py", line 8, in <module>
    import gyp.input
  File "/home/root/.node-gyp/0.6.18/tools/gyp/pylib/gyp/input.py", line 5, in <module>
    from compiler.ast import Const
ImportError: No module named compiler.ast
ERR! Error: `gyp_addon` failed with exit code: 1
    at ChildProcess.onCpExit (/usr/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/configure.js:226:16)
    at ChildProcess.emit (events.js:70:17)
    at maybeExit (child_process.js:362:16)
    at Process.onexit (child_process.js:398:5)
ERR! not ok
[ws v0.4.18] Native extension compilation failed.
[ws v0.4.18] On Windows, native extensions require Visual Studio and Python.
[ws v0.4.18] On Unix, native extensions require Python, make and a C++ compiler.
[ws v0.4.18] Start npm with --ws:verbose to show compilation output (if any).
ws@0.4.18 ./node_modules/ws
├── tinycolor@0.0.1
├── options@0.0.3
└── commander@0.5.2
root@beaglebone:~#

I am using Kernel 3.2.18

root@beaglebone:~# uname -a
Linux beaglebone 3.2.18 #1 Thu Jun 14 23:26:20 CEST 2012 armv7l GNU/Linux
root@beaglebone:~# 

Any idea?