How to play Minecraft Bedrock Edition on Linux
Minecraft Bedrock Edition works on Linux with the help of the Minecraft Bedrock Launcher for Linux. It is an unofficial app that makes the game work on Linux with the Minecraft Android APK.
In this guide, we will go over how to set up Minecraft Bedrock Edition on Linux. However, keep in mind that Minecraft Bedrock Edition requires a Microsoft account, and you will also need to own the Android version of the game on the Play Store.
Installation instructions
To start the installation of the Minecraft Bedrock Edition launcher on your Linux PC, open up a Linux terminal on the desktop. Once the terminal window is open, follow the installation instructions outlined below that corresponds with the distribution you use.
Ubuntu
The unofficial Bedrock Edition launcher is available in Ubuntu. Unfortunately, the app software repository has not been updated to run on Ubuntu 20.04 or 20.10. As a result, if you want to play Bedrock on Ubuntu, you will need to use the Bedrock launcher AppImage instead.
To get the latest AppImage, open up a terminal window. Once the terminal window is open and ready to use, create a new folder with the name of “AppImages” in your home directory using mkdir.
mkdir -p ~/AppImages
After creating the new folder, use the wget downloader command to download the Minecraft Bedrock Edition AppImage file to your computer.
wget https://mcpelauncher.mrarm.io/appimage/Minecraft_Bedrock_Launcher.AppImage -O ~/AppImages/Minecraft_Bedrock_Launcher.AppImage
Once the download is complete, use the chmod command to update the AppImage file’s permissions. Permissions need to be updated so that the AppImage file can run as a program.
chmod +x ~/AppImages/Minecraft_Bedrock_Launcher.AppImage
With the file’s permissions changed, use the CD command to move into the “AppImages” directory where the launcher file is.
cd ~/AppImages/
Inside of the “AppImages” folder, you can launch Minecraft Bedrock Edition using the command below. Or, double-click on the Minecraft Bedrock Edition file in the “AppImages” folder with the Linux file manager.
./Minecraft_Bedrock_Launcher.AppImage
Debian
There’s currently no support for Debian with the Bedrock launcher via a DEB package. However, the AppImage file should work just fine. To get started, open up a terminal window and use the mkdir command to create a new directory called “AppImages.”
mkdir -p ~/AppImages/
After creating the new folder, you will need to download the Bedrock AppImage file from the internet. Using the wget command, grab the file from the internet.
wget https://mcpelauncher.mrarm.io/appimage/Minecraft_Bedrock_Launcher.AppImage -O ~/AppImages/Minecraft_Bedrock_Launcher.AppImage
Once the file is done downloading to your Debian Linux PC, you will need to update the file’s permissions using the chmod command.
chmod +x ~/AppImages/Minecraft_Bedrock_Launcher.AppImage
With the permissions up to date, enter the “AppImages” directory using the CD command.
cd ~/AppImages/
Inside of the “AppImages” folder, execute the Bedrock launcher using the command below. Alternatively, open up the “AppImages” directory using the Linux file manager and double-click on the AppImage file to start it up.
./Minecraft_Bedrock_Launcher.AppImage
Arch Linux
On Arch Linux, the Minecraft Bedrock Edition client is available in the AUR. The installation process is not complicated, thanks to the Trizen AUR helper. To install Bedrock on your Arch system, open up a terminal and enter the commands below.
sudo pacman -S git base-devel git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git cd trizen makepkg -sri trizen -S mcpelauncher-msa-git mcpelauncher-msa-ui-qt-git mcpelauncher-linux-git mcpelauncher-ui-git lib32-libpulse lib32-alsa-plugins
Fedora/OpenSUSE
Both Fedora and OpenSUSE Linux support Flatpak very well. As a result, it is ideal to follow the Flatpak installation instructions to get Bedrock working on your Linux system.
Flatpak
The Minecraft Bedrock launcher is available on Flathub as a Flatpak package. To start the installation process, you will need to install the Flatpak runtime on your computer. Once the runtime is set up, install the Bedrock launcher using the commands below.
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo flatpak install flathub io.mrarm.mcpelauncher
Setting up Minecraft Bedrock Edition
To set up Minecraft Bedrock Edition on your Linux PC, open up the Bedrock launcher on your computer via the app menu. Then, follow the step-by-step instructions below.
Note: If the game doesn’t load with the latest version, click on the pencil icon, select the drop-down menu next to “Versions,” and download an older release.
Step 1: Look for the “Sign in with Google” button in the launcher window, and click on it with the mouse. Upon selecting this button, a Google sign-in window will appear. Using this window, log into your Google account.
Step 2: After signing in, you’ll see the Bedrock launcher show the “DOWNLOAD AND PLAY” button, with version 1.16.100.04 on the screen. Select this button to download the latest version of the game.
Step 3: Select the “PLAY” button to start up Minecraft Bedrock Edition on your Linux PC to start up the game. When the game starts up, select “Sign In For Free” to log into your Microsoft account.
Upon signing in, you will be able to play Minecraft Bedrock Edition on your Linux PC!
This doesn’t work… the terminal gives an error
apk info: versionCode=961905101 versionName= “1.19.51.01” qml: extraction failed: The specified file is not compatible with the launcher
😔
Kids are disappointed – three of them just spent an hour going through the instructions to do it themselves (I only gave hints). Pretty much their experience every time they try anything Linux :-/
How would one make this work, if the download button closes the window, like you clicked on the x at the top? I own Minecraft on android as well as java addition… I was able to log into my google account, but when I click on download and play, the launcher just shuts down.
Doesn’t work. The script uses the old git:// protocol which has been deprecated and is no longer allowed by git.
Imagine not using flatpak in 2022
do you know how to remove all the files from it?
Get it direct from the source:
https://github.com/ChristopherHX/linux-packaging-scripts/releases
Someone should make this work on windows so people can get around using the microsoft store to play minecraft
or maybe people can switch to linux
That wouldn’t actually work, because the entire point of using android version is that it is linux based rather than windows based. If you want to run this on windows you either need the Microsoft store version (and there are already launchers for that) or you need a linux vm.
i can not see apk download link
i get this error
Apk info: versionCode= 961700002 versionName= “1.17.0.02”
qml: Extraction failed: The specified file is not compatible with the launcher
Hello, I had trouble completing the installation as when I tried to run the AppImage, it did not work. As being quite inexperienced with Linux I don’t know the fix and I looked around but couldn’t find a resolution. I tried starting it using the command ./Minecraft_Bedrock_Launcher.AppImage but that didn’t work, neither did ./home/ki****/AppImages/Minecraft_Bedrock_Launcher.AppImage – it just resulted in a message that said ‘No such file or directory’. I also tried going into the folder and I double clicked on the Minecraft Bedrock Launcher but it came up with some strange characters and at the end of the file name it said in brackets like the following: ‘(invalid encoding)’. I searched around and found a similar question to mine but the answer was not relevant. But for more information on what I meant about the error, here’s the link: https://askubuntu.com/questions/792414/ubuntu-gnome-16-04-32-bit-invalid-encoding-file-automatically-generated-in-home
I’m using Ubuntu 16.04 on a 32-bit machine.
I’m looking forward to a response since I want to play this with my friends.
And thanks in advance.
Hi there I tried downloading this package for Ubuntu and (not having much experience with Linux) I received an error through the terminal – “cannot execute binary file: Exec format error” on the last stage. Are there any additional commands? I’m running Ubuntu 16.04 and is a 32 bit system.
This worked! Thanks!
Waiting for the update to 20.04 Ubuntu pls do keep page posted till then thank you
Remember to install some libraries in case of ubuntu they can be found here:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1255220/error-while-loading-shared-libraries-libegl-so-1-cannot-open-shared-object-fil#1255388