How to Install StepMania 5.0.10 in Ubuntu 18.04/16.04 via PPA

Last updated: April 22, 2024

StepMania PPA

StepMania is a free dance and rhythm game for Windows, Mac, and Linux. It features 3D graphics, keyboard and “dance pad” support, and an editor for creating your own steps.

StepMania 5.0.10, the most recent stable release, has been released for more than a month. Due to lack of Ubuntu binaries, I’ve finally built this release into PPA available for Ubuntu 15.10, Ubuntu 15.04 and Ubuntu 14.04.

StepMania 5.0.10 in Ubuntu

Install StepMania 5 via PPA:

UPDATE: The PPA supports until Ubuntu 18.04! For Ubuntu 20.04 and later, please use Flatpak package instead, see this step by step guide for details

Before getting started, remove previous release and backup songs if any.

1. Add PPA.

Open terminal from Unity Dash, App Launcher, or via Ctrl+Alt+T shortcut keys. When it opens, paste below command and hit enter:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/stepmania

StepMania PPA

Type in your password (no visual feedback just type in mind) when it asks and hit Enter to continue.

2. After that, search for and install stepmania via Synaptic Package Manager after clicking Refresh.

Or run below commands one by one in terminal to refresh index and install the game:

sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get install stepmania

For those who don’t want to add PPA, grab the .deb packages from This Page. Ubuntu 14.04 and its derivatives need FFmpeg.

3. (Optional) To remove the PPA and uninstall the game, run:

sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/stepmania

sudo apt-get remove stepmania stepmania-data

In addition, after first launch the game will create .stepmania-5.0 folder in user root directory. Press Ctrl+H to view this hidden folder and install Themes, Songs, etc into sub-folders.

Song directory structure: root folder (.stepmania-5.0/Songs) -> group folder -> song/simfile folder -> *.png, *.mp3/*.ogg, *.sm/*.ssc/etc files

Get more songs: stepmania.com/forums/songs/

install songs

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I'm a freelance blogger who started using Ubuntu in 2007 and wishes to share my experiences and some useful tips with Ubuntu beginners and lovers. Please comment to let me know if the tutorial is outdated! And, notify me if you find any typo/grammar/language mistakes. English is not my native language. Contact me via [email protected] Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/ubuntuhandbook1 |

7 responses to How to Install StepMania 5.0.10 in Ubuntu 18.04/16.04 via PPA

  1. Thanks so much for making this package! Tracking down dependencies for stepmania was becoming a bit tedious. I’m running Linux Mint 17.2 64-bit and your package worked perfectly out of the box.

  2. Easy install on an old eeePC 901 with lubuntu.
    Thx a lot.

  3. You rock!!!! Thank you for this. I normally have to compile each new version which takes time away from my dancing. So thank you heaps for this!!!

  4. I too can confirm this works fine!

    because the program has ‘stepmania’ set as a system wide command, I can add it to ubuntu’s startup applications and it will autolaunch.

    makes for a real setup.

  5. Great! Works fine on LM 17.3

  6. Cheers for the repo! Especially because Stepmania is a very niche app.

  7. Doesn’t work. After doing all of the aforementioned steps, my terminal can’t find the directory.