getting started

• Jul 18, 2020 - 16:35

i downloaded to my Chromebook. So far it will not open any songs and I have not been able to find a screen that looks like the windows screen where i can start writing.

Please help

Comments

• Jul 18, 2020 - 17:49

Indeed, the written instructions are a bit terse :-)

Step 1 in the instructions I linked to is "Install Linux Virtual Machine called Crostini. Go to Settings > Linux > Turn On". The first sentence tells you what will be accomplished, the second tells how to do it. "Settings" are the regular settings for your Chromebook - the gear icon you see if you click the area in the lower right of your screen with the time and so forth. When the settings dialog appears, look on the left hand side for where it says "Linux". Click that, then click where it tells you to turn it on.

Eahc of the steps is organized the same way: first sentence tells you what will be accomplished, the second sentence tells you how to do it. So when you get to step 3, you don't already need to know how to configure the AppImage - the second sentence explains how. But it's definitely missing some details, it doesn't tell you where to type that command. Once you turn on Linux, a terminal window will appear; that's where you do it.

If you watch the video at the bottom of the page it become much more clear. You can actually ignore the part where it tells you about installing extra stuff, that should no longer be needed.

And this is a good reminder for me to think about updating that page...

Reply

• Jul 18, 2020 - 18:23

Normally when you start Linux, the terminal window (which is what I assume you mean by "black screen") appears automatically. Maybe you closed it? If so, just click the launcher button at bottom left (same thing you'd click to start any other program) and type "Terminal" into the search box then hit Enter.

Or maybe you simply covered it with another window. Look at the shelf at the bottom of your screen and you may see a black icon that looks like ">_"; just click that to get back to the terminal window.

Reply

• Jul 18, 2020 - 19:28

As I said, the library step should no longer be needed, although I guess it doesn't hurt either. MuseScore opens when you type the command to open it: "./MuseScore-3-etc.AppImage". Although I strong recommend you follow the final "optional" step to install it, so you don't need to use the command line in the future. So be sure to type that command followed by the word "install". You'll see a message on the screen that it has been installed. Now you can open it like any other app, from the launcher, no need to mess with the terminal anymore.

Reply

• Jul 18, 2020 - 19:42

Nothing happens? Like, the cursor doesn't even move to the next line and give you a new prompt? Or it moves to the next line and gives you a new prompt but doesn't display any other messages like it should?

If you can record yourself trying with something like Screencastify, we can probably figure out what is going wrong more quickly.

Reply

• Jul 18, 2020 - 20:02

It seems you took me took literally. I didn't mean to actually type "etc", I meant, the actual name of the AppImage. Or as suggested in the video, just type the first few letters than press Esc to complete filename automatically.

So you do that once with the word "install" afterwards (separated from the filename by a space). This will print out some messages and tell you it is installed. Then you can just go to the launcher from then on to start MuseScore - it will be listed like any other app.

Reply

• Jul 18, 2020 - 20:19

You are on the terminal screen because unfortunately, the Linux app feature in Chrome OS is still a bit experimental, and Google hasn't added what they would need to in order to make the process of running Linux apps easier. Probably this will happen over time - the ability to run Linux apps at all is still quite new.

But again, I do hope you follow my advice and run it with the "install", then you won't need to use the terminal any more (except to install updates, unfortunately).

Reply

• Jul 21, 2020 - 02:57

Since I don't know where you saved the file, I can't tell you exactly. I can only say what I said before: whatever it is you do type - some version of

./MuseScore-something-something.AppImage

you need to add a space and the word "install". So:

./MuseScore-something-something.AppImage install

This will fully install MuseScore so in the future you can start it like any other program, using icons etc and no longer needing the terminal.

The "something-something" is specific to the version you downloaded. But as explained in the original instructions, you don't actually need to type the full filename. Just the ./MuseScore, then hit Esc and it will offer to complete the filename for you. Then you can type a space and the word "install".

After that you will have both MuseScore and the similarly-named Android app installed. I recommend you remove the Android app since you don't seem to want it and it is just causing confusion. But you will be able to tell the difference between the Android app just says MuseScore but the real program says something like "MuseScore 3.5 Portable AppImage"

Reply

Do you still have an unanswered question? Please log in first to post your question.