diff --git a/.npmignore b/.npmignore
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000..e69de29bb2d1d
diff --git a/README.dev.md b/README.dev.md
index 50b6a620ece6c..638694680336b 100644
--- a/README.dev.md
+++ b/README.dev.md
@@ -500,3 +500,22 @@ Possible testing issues
   ][lxc-sf].
 
 [lxc-sf]: https://github.com/fgrehm/vagrant-lxc/wiki/FAQ#help-my-shared-folders-have-the-wrong-owner)
+
+Troubleshooting development environment setup
+=============================================
+
+If you are building the development environment on a network where a
+proxy is required to access the Internet, you will need to set the
+proxy in the environment as follows:
+
+- On Ubuntu, set the proxy environment variables using:
+ ```
+ export https_proxy=http://proxy_host:port
+ export http_proxy=http://proxy_host:port
+ ```
+
+- And set the npm proxy and https-proxy using:
+ ```
+ npm config set proxy http://proxy_host:port
+ npm config set https-proxy http://proxy_host:port
+ ```