UbuntuHandbook

How to Install StepMania 5.1.0 Beta2 in Ubuntu 24.04 | 22.04 | 20.04

Last updated: April 22, 2024

This quick tutorial shows how to install StepMania 5.1.0 Beta2, free dance and rhythm game, in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 20.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and Ubuntu 24.04

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.

If you’re looking for the latest stable StepMania 5.0.12, use the unofficial PPA repository instead.

StepMania 5.0.6 in Ubuntu 14.10

For Ubuntu 18.04 and higher, you can follow the steps below one by one to install StepMania 5.1.0 Beta 2 via the Flatpak package (runs in sandbox).

1. Open terminal either via Ctrl+Alt+T keyboard shortcut or by searching for ‘terminal’ from application menu.

When terminal opens, paste command below and hit run to install flatpak framework:

sudo apt-get install flatpak

2. Add flathub repository, which contains the game flatpak package:

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

4. Finally install StepMania via command:

flatpak install flathub com.stepmania.StepMania

Once installed, launch the software from application menu and enjoy (if the app icon is not visible, try log out and back in)!

NOTE: After installation, open “Files” (nautilus file manager), press Ctrl+H to show hidden folders, and navigate to .var/app/com.stepmania.StepMania/.stepmania-5.1, and put songs, themes, etc into relevant sub-folders to install them.

Uninstall:

To remove RetroArch flatpak package, run command in terminal:

flatpak uninstall com.stepmania.StepMania

In Howtos rhythm game, stepmania

StepMania, free dance and rhythm game, reached first beta of new major 5.1 series a day ago.

“Due to the amount of remaining work needed, the scope of changes, and in response to feedback about difficulty with new systems: StepMania 5.1 is now going to be postponed to 5.2, and to bring some of 5.2’s less invasive and more demanded features to people we’re going to be backporting things onto 5.0 for version 5.1.”

Features planned for 5.1 include:

Loading songs from profiles on USB drives
PacDrive support
Updated default theme
Profile improvements (including switching stats XML to an SQLite database)
Mouse support for all platforms (may not be used in the default theme – but available for others)
Stencil-based masking by default instead of zbuffer masking, so masking 3D objects behaves better without resorting to render to texture.

As the first beta release it brings following changes:

A new high-resolution (720P) default theme: Lambda
The DirectInput handler for Windows now supports XInput.
Songs can be loaded from profiles on USB drives.(For Linux, StepMania must run as root to save USB profile scores)
And many other changes, see release page for details.

StepMania 5.0.6 in Ubuntu 14.10

How to Install StepMania 5.1 Beta in Ubuntu:

~~The launchpad build farm is kinda busy, my unofficial StepMania binaries are waiting to build for 24 hours. I’ll updated the tutorial once they are available.~~

UPDATE: To install StepMania 5.1 Beta in Ubuntu 14.04, Ubuntu 16.04, Ubuntu 17.10, and Ubuntu 18.04, do following steps one by one:

1. Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the command below to add PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/stepmania

Type in your password when it asks and hit Enter.

2. Update package index and install the game:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install stepmania

Note that minimaid disabled in Ubuntu 17.10, 18.04 due to bug. And please ignore wrong version number in game screen because I forgot to remove old patch in v5.0.12.

Uninstall:

To remove the game, simply run command:

sudo apt-get remove --autoremove stepmania

And remove the PPA via “Software & Updates” utility under “Other Software” tab.

StepMania 5.0.12 Released with Enhancement and Bug Fixes

Last updated: August 14, 2016

StepMania, an open-source and advanced cross-platform rhythm game, has reached the 5.0.12 release after a month and two weeks of release candidate testing.

StepMania 5.0.12 is probably the last maintain release for the 5.0 series. The developers are no focusing on the development of StepMania 5.1 branch.

Changes in StepMania 5.0.12:

Fixed bug that allowed pausing by pressing Select then Back. Pausing requires pressing the same button twice.
Default theme ignores holding Select, or Start during gameplay. The pause menu must be used to back out of a song.
Select Music
Added AllowHoldForOptions preference. When this is set to 0 (off), going to the player options screen requires pressing Start a second time, instead of holding it.
Fixed bug that deleted a warp on the same beat as a stop when saving.
Ready and Go announcer sounds no longer play simultaneously.
Fixed cmake settings so that player profiles can be loaded from USB drives once again.
Fixed crash in loading profiles from USB drives.

How to install StepMania 5.0.12 in Ubuntu:

Besides running the official Linux binary (non-install version in previous link), an unofficial PPA with stepmania packages for Ubuntu 16.04 and Ubuntu 14.04 is available. And below is how to install the StepMania 5.0.12 via the PPA.

1. Open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run the command below to add PPA:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/stepmania

Type in your password when it asks and hit Enter.

2. Update package index and install the game:

sudo apt update && sudo apt install stepmania

For those who don’t want to add PPA, grab the .deb packages of stepmania-data and then stepmania for 5.0.12 from HERE.

In News stepmania, stepmania ppa

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

Last updated: April 22, 2024

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.

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

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/