How to install the Notes-Up note app on Linux
Notes-Up is an intuitive writing app for the Linux desktop. Its aim is to bring robust features while making it incredibly easy to use. In this guide, we’ll go over how to get the app working on all major Linux operating systems.
Ubuntu installation instructions
Notes-Up is developed with Elementary OS in mind. As Elementary OS is a derivative of Ubuntu Linux, it is insanely easy to get the Notes-Up app working. However, to install it, you will not be able to use the Ubuntu PPA that the developer provides on their GitHub page. Instead, you must add the Elementary OS AppCenter software repository. The reason? It provides all dependencies to run Notes-Up, and it should work on all major versions of Ubuntu, including 20.04 LTS.
To add the Elementary OS AppCenter software repository, start by opening up your terminal window on the Ubuntu desktop. To do that, press Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, with the terminal window open, use the bash command to add the repo to Ubuntu’s software sources.
sudo bash -c 'echo "deb http://packages.elementary.io/appcenter bionic main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/appcenter.list'
After adding the software repository to your Ubuntu Linux PC, you must download the AppCenter repo key. To do that, run the wget command. It will automatically download the key from Elementary.io, and add it to Ubuntu so you can use it.
sudo wget -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/appcenter.asc https://packages.elementary.io/key.asc
Once both the software source and the repo key have been added to your Ubuntu Linux PC, you must run the update command. This command will refresh Ubuntu’s software sources, allowing the repo to be usable on your system.
sudo apt update
Finally, when everything is up to date, Notes-Up can be installed. To install the app, run the following apt command below. Notes-Up was tested and is functional on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and 18.04 LTS, as well as distros based on these OSes. However, it should also work on newer releases of Ubuntu.
Note: if you have issues installing Notes-Up via the AppCenter repository, try the Flatpak installation instructions instead!
sudo apt install com.github.philip-scott.notes-up
Debian installation instructions
Notes-Up works on Ubuntu, so chances are, it will also work on Debian. If you’d like to get the app working, you’ll need to enable the Elementary OS AppCenter repository. To enable the repo, open up a terminal window and use the bash command to add the repo to your software sources.
sudo bash -c 'echo "deb http://packages.elementary.io/appcenter bionic main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/appcenter.list'
After adding the repo to your Debian Linux PC, you must download and set up the AppCenter repo key. The key is necessary, as, without it, Debian will refuse to install the software from the repo. To add the key file to your Debian PC, run the following wget command. It will download the key from Elementary.io, and set it up on the filesystem.
sudo wget -O /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/appcenter.asc https://packages.elementary.io/key.asc
Once both the software source and the repo key have been added to your Debian Linux PC, you will need to run the update command. Debian’s software sources need to be updated to reflect the changes made.
sudo apt-get update
When everything is up to date, you should be able to install Notes-Up on Debian with the following apt-get command. Keep in mind, the app may not function on some releases of Debian. If you have issues, try the Flatpak installation instructions instead!
sudo apt install com.github.philip-scott.notes-up
Arch Linux installation instructions
By far, the easiest way to get the latest release of Notes-Up on Arch Linux (as well as Manjaro) is the Arch Linux User Repository. To start the installation process, open up a terminal window. Once the terminal window is open, use the pacman command to install both the “Git” and “Base-devel” packages.
sudo pacman -S base-devel git
Once the two packages are installed, use the commands below to download and install the latest release of the Trizen AUR helper. This program will make installing Notes-Up way easier, as it will automatically compile the source code, and handle the dependencies.
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git cd trizen makepkg -sri
When the Trizen app is installed, the installation of Notes-Up can be done with the trizen -S command below.
trizen -S notes-up
Fedora installation instructions
Sadly, there is no RPM package available for Notes-Up on Fedora. If you want to use this app on your Fedora Linux PC, you must follow the Flatpak instructions.
OpenSUSE installation instructions
Notes-Up is available for installation on the OBS for all OpenSUSE Linux users. To install the app, click this link here. Then, select the “1 Click Install” button next to the version of OpenSUSE Linux that you use.
Flatpak installation instructions
Notes-Up is available as a Flatpak app. If you’d like to install it, you need to first, set up the Flatpak runtime on your system. Once that’s taken care of, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, use the two commands below to get Notes-Up installed!
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo flatpak install flathub com.github.philip_scott.notes-up
Not the right note-taking app for you? Check out our list of the best note taking apps for Linux and see if you can find something that suits your need.
I don’t know if leaving a comment is remotely productive, but I just wanted to let you know that I ran into trouble with the instructions in this article.
The problem was that the following command:
sudo bash -c ‘echo “deb https://packages.elementary.io/appcenter bionic main” >> /etc/apt/sources.list.d/appcenter.list’
specifies https instead of http, and the elementary repository does not support https. Editing appcenter.list to replace the https with http completely fixed the problem.
Because this was really frustrating for me, I would recommend that you fix the typo in the article so that other people do not experience the same frustration running into the same problem.
Thank you for this. We’ve fixed the typo. Your comment is more than appreciated!