How To Install VCV Rack Ubuntu

VCV Rack
21

Same problem for me! I’m new in Ubuntu. I downloaded the VCV Rack zip for Linux. I put it somewhere in MyDocuments.

But no idea about how to install it. Where to put the files? How to launch the installation?

Thank you! Alain

22

If you don’t know how to run an application from the commandline the easiest is to just browse to the folder using a file browser and double click on the Rack executable.

23

ok. But Where to put the files?

25

Just extract the file wherever you want.

26

ok. In My Document is ok ? Actually, I was looking for a program stuff directory, like BIN, usr/bin, usr/local… But I can’t find a response on the Web.

But even if I put the Rack2Free directory into Documents, and go to the Rack program, and launch it, nothing appends…

Alain

27

While programs themselves tend to go in /usr/bin, I’d probably recommend against that in Rack’s case given its structure. My Documents is supposed to be for documents; but nothing prevents you from storing whatever you want in there. I’d go to the root of my user folder; but that’s a personal preference.

(For more on that, check here: file-hierarchy(7) - Linux manual page)

Zip files, as far as I recall, don’t store UNIX file permissions, so, you may want to

chmod +x Rack

or

chmod 755 Rack

if you feel like going more old school.

This is done so Linux knows it’s an executable.

More on that here:

https://www.computerhope.com/unix/uchmod.htm

It would be useful to see what’s happening by looking at the log, if available, or running Rack from the command line and looking at the output.

To run from the command line: open a terminal and navigate to the directory where you extracted the Rack zip using cd; directories with spaces need to be quoted like so:

cd "My Folder"

and execute the program like this:

./Rack

Why the “./”? *NIX systems are stringent as to where they find their executables: they need to be part of the path, if they are not, the full path to the file must be supplied, hence the “./”: “.” points to the current folder and “/” is the *NIX directory separator.

I hope some of this helps you :slight_smile:

Ed: Rack has at least one requirement:

"

Installing on Linux (Installing & Running - VCV Rack Manual)

Unzip the ZIP file. Make sure zenity is installed on your system. "

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28

Thank you. That’s a beautifully succinct and accurate description of how this stuff works on Linux. (as a longtime Windows user still learning *nixisms)

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29

You’re most welcome :slight_smile:

30

you can simply do chmod +x Rack to make it executable (using the number system it’s easy to mess things up)

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31

True that :slight_smile:

Edited to mention the friendly way :slight_smile:

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32

I’m progressing… Thank you so much. At the same time, I try to remember some Unix stuff from the 80’s :grinning:

Now, when trying to execute the Rack program, I have :slight_smile: “./Rack: error while loading shared libraries: libjack.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory”.

I installed Rack in the following directory: /home/MyName/Rack2Free Alain

33

Ahh… that’s the problem! You need to either install jack or, if Ubuntu uses it by default and you left it alone, I recommend pipewire jack.

Look for either in the… App center, I think they call it? Sorry I haven’t used Ubuntu in over a decade.

Maybe these links will help:

Rack requires a jack of some kind to be present in order to run; but you’re not forced to use it if you prefer to use something else.

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34

I just tried to download RackFree-2.6.3-lin-x64.zip and then ran: unzip RackFree-2.6.3-lin-x64.zip. The extracted Rack2Free/Rack binary is executable by all users.

Alain, like probably others, probably just double-clicked the zip file, and it opened in some semi-crappy unarchiver, and then dragged the folder out, or the unarchiver extracted it badly.

Andrew probably just assumes that Linux users who install from zip know what they’re doing, and do it in a terminal. The Linux version could really do with a proper installer like the Windows and Mac versions, it’s not that hard to make one. Or a deb (and maybe RPM) repository, with instructions for how people can add it, so that required dependencies are automatically installed, and the package can be seemlessly updated.

Yeah, weird that it’s not listed under System Requirements on the download page.

@alainherbuel You probably just install it from the terminal, by running: sudo apt-get install zenity

Also weird that it is not listed on either the manual or download pages. Running on Linux really is left to the knowledgable it seems.

The solution is given further above. Run the following in a terminal: sudo apt-get install libjack0

I recommend you read this entire topic from the top, where other people have run into similar problems as you have.

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35

That I don’t know: since we didn’t have console output, I just assumed it was extracted without the bit, so I suggested the chmod just to be safe :wink:

On the whole, I agree: VCV should do a better job of communicating the actual system requirements of the program and don’t assume the user’s level of technical expertise with the OS. An installer script should be provided… though that would assume, at least, knowing how to run stuff from the terminal (and not being afraid of it).

You mention RPMs and debs; but I think a zst package should be provided as well, should that route be desired… depending on whose survey I check, Arch can be the most popular distro… what a mess (then again, Rack is available as an Arch AUR package; but it’s not the official build and I think it that package can misbehave… maybe it has been fixed?).

As Microsoft and Apple grow worse, I believe more people will be willing to try some form of Linux, if only just to not be spied on or price gouged, so better instructions should be provided in the official docs.

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36

I guess someone had to do it… so it might as well be me.

I made some scripts to ease installing Rack under Linux; they install dependencies and Rack itself.

Scripts for Manjaro, Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Fedora are available.

They can be found here, along with instructions:

They are really simple, offer no options or user interaction.

Rack ends up in the “Rack2Free” directory inside the user’s home directory.

Writing these was an interesting exercise, to, at least, know which distros I really, really dislike; with that in mind, those are the only distros I will write scripts for, if you want a different one or would like the scripts to do something else… pull requests are welcome.

Needless to say, I’m not responsible if something breaks while using them :stuck_out_tongue: .

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37

Great idea! Thank you :pray:

38

Thank you for all your detailed explanations. One library was missing for me. Alain

39

Thank you for all your detailed explanations!

40

Your explanation helped me to understand the context of my problems. Clear and detailed. Many thanks :pray:

41

I’ll try to write a detailed procedure to install Rack on Ubuntu, for Ubuntu newcomers like me :grinning: May be It could help other later…

Thank you all again. Alain