Install on Linux

Updated 2 months ago

This page shows old instructions for MuseScore 3.
For MuseScore 4 users, see Install on Linux.

Distribution packages for various Linux and BSD variants are available. Building from source is another possibility.

Download

Consider your production needs to choose a MuseScore version that best suits you. For example MuseScore 3.6.2 support JACK, which has implications for automation and video synchronization, JACK support is missing from MuseScore 4.0.2.

The Download page contains basic info on how to download, install and use MuseScore.

Current page contains info for MuseScore 4, its Older and unsupported versions section contains info for MuseScore up to 3.2.3
Archived page on Internet Archive contains complete info for MuseScore 3.6.2, links on it may not work.
Working direct download link for MuseScore 3.6.2 stable:
- AppImages: https://ftp.osuosl.org/pub/musescore-nightlies/linux/3x/stable/ (musescore-$(your system architecture).AppImage, what is my system architecture?)

More info on AppImage

AppImage is the recommended way to use Musescore. An AppImage is a software that runs on all Linux (see https://appimage.org). It works like a portable app, all the files needed are contained within the AppImage itself.

To run MuseScore AppImage on your system:

Watch the how-to video, or follow these steps:

Step 1: Download a suitable version for your system architecture

AppImages come in different versions. Make sure you download the right one for your system. To check the architecture of your system:

Open the Terminal.
Type

    arch

    uname -m

The output will be something like "i686", "x86_64" or "armv7":

i686 (or similar) - 32-bit Intel/AMD processor (found on older machines).
x86_64 (or similar) - 64-bit Intel/AMD processor (modern laptop and desktop computers, most Chromebooks).
armv7 (or later) - ARM processor (phones & tablets, Raspberry Pi 2/3 running Ubuntu Mate, some Chromebooks, usually 32-bit at present).

Download (jump to) a suitable version.

Step 2: Give the file permission to execute

There are two ways to do this:

From the File Manager:

Right-click on the AppImage and select "Properties".
Open the "Permissions" tab.
Enable the option labelled "Allow executing file as a program".

The process may be slightly different in other file managers.

From the Terminal:

This command works on all Linux systems (Note: The code below assumes that the AppImage is in the Downloads folder. If not the case then amend the file path accordingly):

    cd ~/Downloads
    chmod u+x MuseScore*.AppImage

Step 3: Run the AppImage

To run the program, just double-click it.

Note: You can move the AppImage to wherever it is most convenient. And to "uninstall" it, just delete it.

Step 4: Install the AppImage

The above procedure allows you to run the MuseScore AppImage but doesn't integrate it with the rest of your system: it doesn't appear in your App menu, and MuseScore files are neither associated with the program nor do they have the correct icon on them.

To remedy this, you need to actually install the program as follows:

Open the Terminal.
Type the following (Note: The code below assumes that the AppImage is in the Downloads folder. If not the case then amend the file path accordingly):

    cd ~/Downloads
    ./MuseScore*.AppImage install

Or, alternatively, you can combine the operation into one command:

    ~/Downloads/MuseScore*.AppImage install

Use the "--help" and "man" options to get more information about the available command line options:

    ./MuseScore*.AppImage --help   # displays a complete list of command line options
    ./MuseScore*.AppImage man      # displays the manual page (explains what the options do)

More info sorted by Linux and BSD

Debian

(Ideally before, otherwise while or after) installing MuseScore itself, you can install one or more soundfont packages (if none is installed, the dependencies will pull in a suitable soundfont automatically):

musescore-general-soundfont-small: the standard MuseScore_General soundfont in SF3 format, as shipped with MuseScore for other operating systems
musescore-general-soundfont: the MuseScore_General HQ soundfont in SF3 format, as available via the Extensions manager
musescore-general-soundfont-lossless: the MuseScore_General HQ soundfont in uncompressed SF2 format: takes up a lot more space on your hard disc, but offers the highest sound quality and extremely fast startup times
fluidr3mono-gm-soundfont: the old soundfont shipped with MuseScore 2.0 (antecessor of MuseScore_General), use only if resources are very tight or you need it
timgm6mb-soundfont: the old soundfont shipped with MuseScore 1.3; cannot substitute the others; use only if you need it; extremely tiny

Note: only the MuseScore_General soundfont (HQ or regular) supports single-note dynamics (SND), and you need at least version 0.1.6 of those soundfonts (from unstable or backports) for SND support!

The command sudo update-alternatives --config MuseScore_General.sf3 can be used at any time to select the default soundfont used by MuseScore if you install more than one (note timgm6mb-soundfont cannot be selected here).

Then, install the musescore3 package for MuseScore 3.x (the current stable version) or musescore for MuseScore 2.x (there’s also musescore-snapshot for the unstable developer preview). The packages are available in the following distributions:

musescore3: sid (unstable), bullseye (testing/Debian 11), buster-backports (stable/Debian 10), stretch-backports-sloppy (oldstable/Debian 9)
musescore: buster (stable/Debian 10), stretch-backports (oldstable/Debian 9), jessie-backports-sloppy (oldoldstable/Debian 8)
musescore-snapshot: experimental (usable on unstable)

See https://backports.debian.org/Instructions/ for instructions on how to add an official Debian backports repository to your system and install packages from there.

Note: without the appropriate backports, older versions may be available: MuseScore 2.0.3 on stretch, MuseScore 1.3 on jessie. Using the latest 2.3.2 version for 2.x-format scores instead (or conversion to 3.x) is strongly recommended!

KDE neon 20.04 (focal)

Message https://musescore.com/mirabilos if the regular or PPA packages don’t work.

KDE neon 18.04 (bionic)

KDE neon switched from bionic to focal in 2021, so the following should not be necessary any more, but keeping it for now for reference:

The KDE bionic-neon packages are built on a different repository than the normal Ubuntu PPAs, as this is the only way for us to build packages for KDE neon. Due to limitations of the OpenSuSE Buildservice used, this currently only provides amd64 (64-bit PC) packages, no ARM packages (Slimbook or Pinebook remix).

All commands listed below must be entered in a terminal, in one line each.

Remove the Ubuntu PPAs (all three of them) from your system if you’ve ever configured it before. This is generally in /etc/apt/sources.list or one of the files below /etc/apt/sources.list.d/; if you used add-apt-repository (the recommended way) to enable the PPA, you can remove them with: sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mscore-ubuntu-ubuntu-mscore*

KDE bionic-neon is not compatible with the Ubuntu PPAs!
Install a few standard packages (usually they are already there, but just in case they aren’t) to be able to securely download the repository signature key:

  sudo apt-get install wget ca-certificates

Download (via secure HTTPS connection) and install the repository signing key:

  wget -O - https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/mirabile:/mscore/bionic-neon/Release.key | sudo apt-key add -

Enable the repository:

  echo deb https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/mirabile:/mscore/bionic-neon ./ | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mscore.list

Make the new packages available:

  sudo apt-get update

Now, it’s time to install one or more soundfont packages (ideally install the one you want before installing MuseScore):

musescore-general-soundfont-small: the standard MuseScore_General soundfont in SF3 format, as shipped with MuseScore for other operating systems
musescore-general-soundfont: the MuseScore_General HQ soundfont in SF3 format, as available via the Extensions manager
musescore-general-soundfont-lossless: the MuseScore_General HQ soundfont in uncompressed SF2 format: takes up a lot more space on your hard disc, but offers the highest sound quality and extremely fast startup times
fluidr3mono-gm-soundfont: the old soundfont shipped with MuseScore 2.0 (antecessor of MuseScore_General), use only if resources are very tight or you need it
timgm6mb-soundfont: the old soundfont shipped with MuseScore 1.3; cannot substitute the others; use only if you need it; extremely tiny

If you skip this step, a suitable soundfont will be automatically installed when you install MuseScore itself in the final step.

Note: only the MuseScore_General soundfont (HQ or regular) supports single-note dynamics (SND), and you need at least version 0.1.6 of those soundfonts (from our repository) for SND support!

Finally, you can install the latest stable version of MuseScore with sudo apt-get install musescore3 and the old 2.x version with sudo apt-get install musescore (the musescore-snapshot package with an instable developer preview is also available).

Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Xubuntu, …

WARNING: these instructions are not for KDE neon 18.04 (bionic) users (see above)! Later versions, such as KDE neon 20.04 (focal), should work though.

MuseScore 2.x (the old version) is available from 18.10 (cosmic) to 19.10 (eoan) out of the box. Older Ubuntu releases carry older versions (18.04 (bionic) has 2.1, 16.04 (xenial) has 2.0, 14.04 (trusty) and 12.04 (precise) have 1.3 and 1.2, respectively). Similar to the Debian instructions, we recommend using the latest 2.3.2 version for old 2.x scores instead, or migrating those scores to MuseScore 3.

Besides the versions supplied by the distribution itself, the MuseScore Debian packager provides newer versions of MuseScore for older Ubuntu releases in official PPAs (package archives).

Please activate the Stable releases of MuseScore 3 repository on your system and then install the musescore3 package, available for all releases from 18.04 (bionic) onwards. (It is not feasible to provide MuseScore 3 for older Ubuntu releases, as those lack the minimum Qt version required by MuseScore 3.)

If you wish to install the older MuseScore 2, activate the Stable releases of MuseScore 2 PPA and install the musescore package, available for 12.04 (precise), 14.04 (trusty), 16.04 (xenial), and 18.04 (bionic) onwards. (Some intermediate releases may have slightly older MuseScore versions still available, but it’s best to update to the next LTS.) On the ancient 12.04 (precise) and 14.04 (trusty) releases, this will upgrade the Qt library in your system, which may break unrelated software (and on 12.04 even the C++ libraries are upgraded), mind you; best to upgrade to a newer LTS.

There’s also a MuseScore Nightly Builds (unstable development builds) PPA, from which the daring can install the musescore-snapshot package, for LTS, that is, 18.04 (bionic) only.

WARNING: these PPAs are only suitable for Ubuntu/Kubuntu/Xubuntu/… but not for Debian or KDE bionic-neon!

As with Debian, you can install one or more soundfont packages (ideally install the one you want before installing MuseScore, but if you don’t, a suitable one will be installed alongside MuseScore):

musescore-general-soundfont-small: the standard MuseScore_General soundfont in SF3 format, as shipped with MuseScore for other operating systems
musescore-general-soundfont: the MuseScore_General HQ soundfont in SF3 format, as available via the Extensions manager
musescore-general-soundfont-lossless: the MuseScore_General HQ soundfont in uncompressed SF2 format: takes up a lot more space on your hard disc, but offers the highest sound quality and extremely fast startup times
fluidr3mono-gm-soundfont: the old soundfont shipped with MuseScore 2.0 (antecessor of MuseScore_General), use only if resources are very tight or you need it
timgm6mb-soundfont: the old soundfont shipped with MuseScore 1.3; cannot substitute the others; use only if you need it; extremely tiny

Note: only the MuseScore_General soundfont (HQ or regular) supports single-note dynamics (SND), and you need at least version 0.1.6 of those soundfonts (possibly from the PPA) for SND support!

See also the hints for the various distributions on the download page.

External links

How to run the MuseScore AppImage on Linux (MuseScore HowTo, video)