How to Install Latest GNU Octave via Flatpak in Ubuntu 22.04 | 20.04 | 18.04

This quick tutorial shows you how to install the latest GNU Octave in all current Ubuntu releases via Flatpak packages.

Since there’s no stable PPA contains the latest Octave packages, Flatpak package is the easiest way to get the numerical computation software running on Ubuntu.

Similar to Snap, Flatpak is an universal Linux package format that runs in sandbox.

1. First open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and make sure Flatpak support is enabled by running command:

sudo apt-get install flatpak

Old Ubuntu 16.04 & Ubuntu 18.04 need to add the Flatpak PPA first to install Flatpak framework.

2. Then add the Flathub repository, the best place to get Flatpak apps:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

3. Finally install most recent GNU Octave as Flatpak package from the Flathub repository:

flatpak install flathub org.octave.Octave

It will take a few minutes downloading the flatpak package as well as dependency platform if you’re first time installing it.

Like normal applications, you can launch Octave from Gnome app launcher:

The flatpak co-exists with traditional Octave package. You can alternatively run it in command line:

flatpak run org.octave.Octave

Uninstall

You can remove the Octave flatpak package by running command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data org.octave.Octave

And remove flatpak support if you want:

sudo apt-get remove flatpak

By Ji m

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 Please comment to remind me outdated tutorial! And, notify me if you find any typo/grammar/language mistakes. English is not my native language. Contact me via ubuntuhandbook1@gmail.com Buy me a coffee: https://ko-fi.com/ubuntuhandbook1

10 comments

  2. I am a new Ubuntu user and I find your blogs really helpful. Thanks for the excellent work.

  3. this seems rather sketchy.
    the files downloaded are >500mb , where octave is just about 220mb with everything (as of packs and GUI included)
    -R

    1. Programs distributed using flatpaks, snaps and appimages, all contain the required dependencies bundled within the one package. This means that even though Octave itself might only require 220MB of data itself, the dependencies that normally assumes would be supplied by the Linux distro (such as libraries that Octave doesn’t supply) are instead bundled within the flatpak. So it’s bigger, but it means you don’t have rely on installing dependencies of a particular version which your distro might not supply.

  4. I get this error,
    error: Failed to install org.kde.Sdk/x86_64/5.11: While pulling runtime/org.kde.Sdk/x86_64/5.11 from remote flathub: Peer failed to perform TLS handshake
    ,
    please help me,this error i get at last command ie install octave

  5. Gtk-Message: Failed to load module “canberra-gtk-module”
    Gtk-Message: Failed to load module “canberra-gtk-module”
    GNU Octave, version 4.4.1
    Copyright (C) 2018 John W. Eaton and others.
    This is free software; see the source code for copying conditions.
    There is ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY; not even for MERCHANTABILITY or
    FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. For details, type ‘warranty’.

    Octave was configured for “x86_64-pc-linux-gnu”.

    Additional information about Octave is available at “https://www.octave.org”.

    Please contribute if you find this software useful.
    For more information, visit “https://www.octave.org/get-involved.html”

    Read https://www.octave.org/bugs.html to learn how to submit bug reports.
    For information about changes from previous versions, type ‘news’.

    octave:1>

  7. Impossible to install the last version of Octave using Flatpak in Ubuntu 18.04 :

    flatpak install flathub org.octave.Octave
    Required runtime for org.octave.Octave/x86_64/stable (runtime/org.kde.Sdk/x86_64/5.12) found in remote flathub
    Do you want to install it? [y/n]: y
    Installing in system:
    org.kde.Sdk/x86_64/5.12 flathub b323ebbc6bc6
    org.freedesktop.Platform.VAAPI.Intel/x86_64/18.08 flathub 5b626f46f00b
    org.freedesktop.Platform.html5-codecs/x86_64/18.08 flathub 337041240b18
    org.kde.Sdk.Locale/x86_64/5.12 flathub ab6a821a23cb
    org.octave.Octave/x86_64/stable flathub 693971e8d6c6
    permissions: ipc, network, pulseaudio, wayland, x11, dri
    file access: host, xdg-config/kdeglobals:ro, xdg-run/dconf, ~/.config/dconf:ro
    dbus access: com.canonical.AppMenu.Registrar, com.canonical.AppMenu.Registrar.*, org.freedesktop.Flatpak
    Is this ok [y/n]: y
    Installing: org.kde.Sdk/x86_64/5.12 from flathub
    error: Failed to install org.kde.Sdk/x86_64/5.12: min-free-space-size 500MB would be exceeded

  8. I have tried 3 times on ubuntu 18.04(Bionic Beaver) the thing fetches around 1.6GB of data and then fails on the last process

    :~$ flatpak install flathub org.octave.Octave
    Required runtime for org.octave.Octave/x86_64/stable (runtime/org.kde.Sdk/x86_64/5.12) found in remote flathub
    Do you want to install it? [y/n]: y
    Installing in system:
    org.kde.Sdk/x86_64/5.12 flathub 71fe04d2509b
    org.freedesktop.Platform.VAAPI.Intel/x86_64/18.08 flathub 5b626f46f00b
    org.freedesktop.Platform.html5-codecs/x86_64/18.08 flathub 337041240b18
    org.kde.Sdk.Locale/x86_64/5.12 flathub f21e7040975c
    org.octave.Octave/x86_64/stable flathub a7d9267c2f66
    permissions: ipc, network, pulseaudio, wayland, x11, dri
    file access: host, xdg-config/kdeglobals:ro, xdg-run/dconf, ~/.config/dconf:ro
    dbus access: com.canonical.AppMenu.Registrar, com.canonical.AppMenu.Registrar.*, org.freedesktop.Flatpak
    Is this ok [y/n]: y
    Installing: org.kde.Sdk/x86_64/5.12 from flathub

    [####################] 3339 metadata, 55445 content objects fetched; 1600057 KiB
    error: Failed to install org.kde.Sdk/x86_64/5.12: Message recipient disconnected from message bus without replying

Comments are closed.

Exit mobile version