Skip to main content

Install Bloom on Linux

note

Bloom 5.4 is the final version of Bloom available on Linux in either a flatpak or debian package for the foreseeable future. The Bloom team is working to convert all of the Bloom user interface to a web-based system. Once that is achieved, we hope to be able to offer a cross-platform Bloom for Linux and MacOS as well as Windows. We do not have a time-table for when that will happen.

Installing Bloom on Newer Linux Systems (Ubuntu 22.04 and later)​

Bloom 5.4 is available as a flatpak package which will run on newer versions of Ubuntu and Wasta Linux, and probably other Linux distributions also. (The debian packages will not work on these newer releases of Linux because the system libraries are no longer compatible with some of the older software libraries used inside Bloom.)

If flatpak has been installed on your system, you can install Bloom with the following command in a terminal window:

flatpak install org.sil.Bloom

Updating Bloom is a similar:

flatpak update org.sil.Bloom

To run Bloom from the command line, enter the following command:

flatpak run org.sil.Bloom

Setting up a desktop icon that you can click is a bit trickier. If Bloom was installed globally (the default), then the following commands should work:

cp /var/lib/flatpak/exports/share/applications/org.sil.Bloom.desktop ~/Desktop
chmod +x ~/Desktop/org.sil.Bloom.desktop

If Bloom was installed just for the local user, then these commands are needed:

cp ~/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share/applications/org.sil.Bloom.desktop ~/Desktop
chmod +x ~/Desktop/org.sil.Bloom.desktop

Known Limitations of the flatpak Bloom​

  • Book history does not work in Team Collections on Linux in general, including flatpak.
  • Checking ePUB accessibility by ACE by Daisy does not work. At this point, there are no plans to try to get this working. It should be possible to save an ePUB from Bloom and check that file separately with the ACE by Daisy program outside of Bloom.

Installing Bloom on Older Linux Systems (Ubuntu 20.04 and 18.04)​

Bloom 5.4 is available as a Debian package for Ubuntu 20.04 (Wasta 20) and Ubuntu 18.04 (Wasta 18).

note

If your Linux distribution uses a package manager other than apt, make the appropriate changes to the directions below.

Step 1: Try to install the Bloom Editor program​

sudo apt install bloom-desktop

If this succeeds, you can skip to Step 4 below. If this fails because apt cannot locate the package, then the following steps are needed. (If this fails because of authorization issues or a missing sudo program, consult your local Linux administrator.)

Step 2: Add the SIL repository to your system​

See Enable access to SIL software and fonts in Ubuntu for alternative instructions on how to add the SIL repository to your system.

(for bionic or wasta 18):

 wget -qO - <https://packages.sil.org/sil.gpg> | sudo apt-key add -
 sudo add-apt-repository "deb <https://packages.sil.org/ubuntu> bionic main"
 sudo apt update

(for focal or wasta 20):

wget -qO - [https://packages.sil.org/sil.gpg](https://packages.sil.org/sil.gpg) | sudo apt-key add -
sudo add-apt-repository "deb [https://packages.sil.org/ubuntu](https://packages.sil.org/ubuntu) focal main"
sudo apt update

Step 3: Install the Bloom Editor program​

(This is just a repeat of step 1 now that you have access to the SIL software repository.)

sudo apt install bloom-desktop

Step 4: Copy the desktop launcher to your local area​

cp -i /usr/share/applications/bloom.desktop ~/Desktop
chmod +x ~/Desktop/bloom.desktop

Step 5: Launch the Application​

Double click the desktop launcher icon, or type the name of the program in a terminal window (or into the dashboard or startup menu): 

bloom

Once Bloom has been installed, updates will be downloaded and installed the same way your system is already installing updates to other software.