UbuntuHandbook

This tutorial shows how to install Cinelerra video editor in current Ubuntu 22.04 and Ubuntu 24.04.

Cinelerra is a free open-source video editor for Linux. It supports advanced composition operations such as keying and mattes, and many other professional functions depending on the variant.

Cinelerra has a few variants, including GG, CV, HV. The GG variant, which supports up to 8K video, and can also create DVDs and Blu-rays, is presently under active development and the only one that works in my case in current Ubuntu releases.

Download & Install Cinelerra GG

The GG edition now provides the official binary package for AppImage package.

1. Ubuntu does not support AppImage out-of-the-box since 22.04. To enable it, press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, then run command:

sudo apt install libfuse2

2. Then, select download the latest version of the AppImage from its website:

Scroll down in that page and click download the latest package. At the moment of writing, it’s “CinGG-20240229-x86_64.AppImage” (for modern Intel/AMD CPUs).

3. After downloaded the package, right-click on it in file manager, then click go to its “Properties” dialog.

Next, navigate to Permissions tab and click enable “Allow executing file as program”. Finally, click Run the AppImage file to launch the video editor:

4. Create an App icon for Cinelerra.

If you want to launch the video editor from start menu or Gnome ‘Show Apps’ screen just like other normal apps. Then, click launch text editor first.

When text editor opens, create a new empty file (if it does not open a new one), then write following lines into it:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Cinelerra GG
Comment=MultiMedia Editor
Categories=AudioVideo;AudioVideoEditing;
Encoding=UTF-8
Exec=/home/ji/Apps/CinGG-20240229-x86_64.AppImage
Icon=Cinelerra
Terminal=false
Type=Application

IMPORTANT: In the lines above, you need to replace the value for “Exec”! In my case, I moved the AppImage file into my custom “Apps” folder in user home. So, it’s “/home/username/Apps/file-name.AppImage”. You have to change it to yours!

And for icon, you need to download one from web. Either .png or .svg file. Re-name to Cinelerra.png (or Cinelerra.svg depends on image type), and put it to “.local/share/icons” directory.

When done editing the text file, click “save” (or save as), then select save the file to .local/share/applications directory, whatever name as you want with “.desktop” extension.

If everything’s done properly, you’re able to search for and launch the video editor from menu a few moments later.

Uninstall Cinelerra GG

To uninstall the video editor, just delete the .AppImage file from your file manager. Then, also remove the .desktop file from ‘.local/share/applications’ directory, as well as the icon file from ‘.local/share/icons’.