GNU/Linux Installation

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Installing the App Inventor Setup Software for GNU/Linux

You'll need sudo privileges to do the installation.

For systems that can install Debian packages

Use these instructions for systems that can install Debian packages (e.g. Debian or Ubuntu):

  1. Download the Appinventor Setup installer Debian package. This is a file named appinventor-setup_1.1_all.deb (about 86 Megabytes). It is a Debian package installer file. The place it will end up on your computer depends on how your browser is configured. Typically, it will go into your Downloads folder.
  2. If your system can install packages simply by clicking on the package file, then do that.
  3. If your system doesn't support clickable package installers, then navigate to the directory where the file is located and run the command
    sudo dpkg --install appinventor-setup_1.1_all.deb
    With either method, you might need to ensure that the deb file as well as the directory it's in are world readable and world executable. On some systems, sudo does not have the default privileges to read and execute all files.
  4. The software will be installed under /usr/google/appinventor-setup.
  5. You'll also need to configure your system to detect your device. See the Android developer instructions at Setting up a device for development. Follow the instructions under the step "set up your system to detect your device" in the bullet under "If you're developing on Ubuntu Linux".

For other GNU/Linux systems

  1. Download the Appinventor Setup installer tar file. This is a file named appinventor-setup_1.1.tar.gz (about 86 Megabytes). It is a Gzip compressed tar file.
  2. Install the files using a method appropriate to your operating system. You need to extract just the appinventor-setup_1.1/appinventor directory, which needs to end up on your system with the full path name /usr/google/appinventor. If you have installed this correctly, the file /usr/google/appinventor/commands-for-Appinventor/adb will exist.

Locating the Setup directory

In most cases, App Inventor should be able to locate the installed Setup software on its own. If it does ask you where the software is located, the directory path you should enter is /usr/google/appinventor/commands-for-Appinventor

Something not working right? Visit the troubleshooting page, or check the App Inventor User Forum for help.

Ready to move on to the next Step?

3. Start App Inventor

Back to Setup Menu