Installing on Ubuntu¶

This page gives instructions for installing SuperCollider on Ubuntu and its derived OSes (e.g. Mint / Elementary OS). It covers installing SuperCollider from a package and installing the plugins from source. It does not cover installing SuperCollider from source.

Note: the most recent PPA release is version 3.9.0, which is old. The default repo contains a SuperCollider package with version 3.10.0, but it is broken. For now, installing from source is the easiest way to get a recent and well-supported version of SuperCollider.

Adding the PPA¶

The PPA contains a working version of SuperCollider, unlike the default package source. Add the PPA by entering these lines into a terminal:

sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys FABAEF95
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:supercollider/ppa

Further information about the PPA can be found here.

Installing SuperCollider¶

Enter these lines into a terminal:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install supercollider-ide

When you are presented with a screen asking you if you would like to enable realtime access priority, choose ‘Yes’.

Checking the installation worked¶

First, open the SuperCollider IDE by searching for and running ‘SuperCollider IDE’. The IDE should open and give you three main panes:

• a large blank text window

• a help window

• a post window containing text about how the startup process went.

Secondly, boot the server using the command in the Language menu, or Ctrl+B.

Thirdly, enter the following into the blank text window:

{SinOsc.ar}.play

Ensure the cursor is on this line and hit Ctrl+Enter. You should now hear a sine tone. Kill the sine tone by hitting Ctrl+.. If you don’t hear the tone, remember to check your speakers, volume control – all the regular suspects!

Installing the plugins¶

The plugins are not required, but they’re a whole bunch of free stuff, so why wouldn’t you get them? Unfortunately they’re not available as a package so you need to build and install them for yourself. I have attempted to provide instructions for this which assume as little knowledge of Linux and building C++ code as possible.

Packages you need¶

You will need to install quite a bit of software to get the plugins. Below is a list of this software, along with the terminal commands to get it.

C++ compiler¶

    sudo apt-get install build-essential

cmake¶

    sudo apt-get install cmake

FFTW¶

    sudo apt-get install libfftw3-dev

git¶

    sudo apt-get install git

supercollider-dev¶

    sudo apt-get install supercollider-dev

Information you need¶

Where to install the plugins¶

When SuperCollider starts up, it looks for the plugins in a particular location. You need to know this location in order to control where the plugins get installed. Start the SuperCollider IDE, and look at the post window. The following is part of the post window output on my machine:

NumPrimitives = 679
compiling dir: '/usr/share/SuperCollider/SCClassLibrary'
compiling dir: '/usr/share/SuperCollider/Extensions'
pass 1 done

Look for the two lines starting ‘compiling dir:’. The second quotes the location we want. Remove the trailing ‘/share/SuperCollider/Extensions’ bit and make a note of it. So in my case, the location is ‘/usr’.

This location will be referred to as PluginLocation for the remainder of this article.

Where the header include files are¶

The header include files are added when you install the supercollider-dev package. You need to know where these files are when you install the plugins. To locate the directory containing the header include files, search your file system (not just your home folder) for a file called ‘SCVersion.txt’. The directory containing this file, usually ‘/usr/include/SuperCollider’, is the one you want.

This location will be referred to as HeaderIncludeFileLocation for the remainder of this article.

If SCVersion.txt is not present¶

If you find that SCVersion.txt is not on your file system, you will need to create it. Create a file of that name in ‘/usr/include/SuperCollider’.

Now fire up the IDE and read the introductory text that appears in the post window. You will see a line like this:

Welcome to SuperCollider 3.6.6. For help press Ctrl-D.

Make a note of the three numbers in the SuperCollider version. Now give SCVersion.txt the following contents:

set(PROJECT_VERSION_MAJOR {major version})
set(PROJECT_VERSION_MINOR {minor version})
set(PROJECT_VERSION_PATCH {build number})

So in my case, I would give SCVersion.txt the contents:

set(PROJECT_VERSION_MAJOR 3)
set(PROJECT_VERSION_MINOR 6)
set(PROJECT_VERSION_PATCH 6)

Getting the source code for the plugins¶

Simply clone the git repository:

    git clone https://github.com/supercollider/sc3-plugins.git

Cloning the repository will create a folder called sc3-plugins containing the source code. For installation purposes, it doesn’t matter where in the file system you clone the repository. However, do not clone it into the PluginLocation, that will lead to the IDE beeing confused about where to look for the plugins (because after installation you would have both the cloned sc3-plugins folder and the built plugins in the PluginLocation). You can clone it for example in /home/user/programs, or any other location in the file system. It is essential though, that you have write access there. If you don’t, when you attempt to clone you will see the error:

fatal: could not create work tree dir 'sc3-plugins'.: Permission denied

Getting the submodules¶

From within sc3-plugins, run the following:

git submodule init && git submodule update

Running cmake¶

Create a directory inside sc3-plugins called build. From within sc3-plugins/build, run the following:

cmake -DSC_PATH=**HeaderIncludeFileLocation** -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=**PluginLocation** -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..

So in my case, I would run:

cmake -DSC_PATH=/usr/include/SuperCollider -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release ..

Don’t miss out those two dots on the end!

Finally, building the plugins¶

From within sc3-plugins/build, run the following:

make
sudo make install
sudo ldconfig

Checking the installation worked¶

If you have the IDE open, close it. Now open it again and boot the server.

Enter the following into the blank text window and run it:

{VOSIM.ar(Impulse.ar(100), 500, 3, 0.99)}.play

You should hear a buzzing sound. If you don’t, double check and attempt the instructions again. To undo the build you just did, from within sc3-plugins, run the following:

make uninstall
rm -r *

If you still don’t have any luck, ask a question here, providing as much information as you can.