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Installing Bloom on Linux

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 (and probably other Linux distributions). For details on installing the flatpak version of Bloom, see https://flathub.org/apps/org.sil.Bloom. 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, then installing Bloom can be done with the following command in a shell window:

flatpak install org.sil.Bloom

Updating Bloom is a similar command:

flatpak update org.sil.Bloom

Running Bloom from the command line is also a similar command:

flatpak run org.sil.Bloom

Setting things up for a desktop icon that you can click on 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.
  • 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 be web-based, but has a long ways to go to get there. Once that is achieved, we hope to be able to offer a more cross-platform Bloom available on Apple OSX and Linux as well as Windows. We do not have a time-table for when that will happen.

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). This is the final version of Bloom available for these versions of Linux.

Step 1: Try to install the Bloom Editor program​

sudo apt install bloom-desktop

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

Step 2: Add the SIL repository to your system​

See the 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​

sudo apt install bloom-desktop

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

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​

(mouse)​

Double click the desktop launcher icon

(keyboard)​

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.