How to install Minetest on Linux

Minetest is an open-source, Minecraft-inspired video game for Linux, as well as other platforms. It is not specifically a “clone” of the Minecraft game. It has many differences compared to the famous building game. However, it is often suggested to users looking for an alternative to Minecraft. In this tutorial, we will show you how you can get the Minetest app up and running on your Linux PC. Let’s get started!

Ubuntu installation instructions

On Ubuntu Linux, users can easily install the Minetest video game through the Ubuntu Software Center. To get it working on your system, follow the step-by-step instructions below.

Step 1: Launch Ubuntu Software Center on your Ubuntu desktop. Then, when the Ubuntu Software Center is open, find the search box and click it with the mouse.

Step 2: Inside of the search box, type “Minetest,” and press the Enter key. Pressing this button will start a search in the Software Center.

Step 3: Look through the search for the “Minetest” result, and click on it with the mouse to access the Minetest software page.

Step 4: On the software page, find the “Install” button, and click it to start the installation.

In addition to installing Minetest through the Ubuntu Software Center, it is also possible to install it via a terminal window.

sudo apt install minetest

Debian installation instructions

Minetest is available to all Debian Linux users with one condition: due to how the project distributes software updates, you may not get the most recent version of the game.

To install the Minetest video game on your Debian Linux PC, start by launching a terminal window. To launch a terminal window press Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard.

Once the terminal window is open and ready to go, use the Apt-get command below to load up Minetest on your system.

sudo apt-get install minetest

As stated before, Debian’s version of Minetest is severely out of date. Thankfully, it’s not a big deal. If you want a more recent release of the game, skip the Debian instructions and follow the Snap or Flatpak installation instructions instead!

Arch Linux installation instructions

The Minetest video game is available to Arch Linux users so long as they have the “Community” software repository enabled. Sadly, some Arch Linux users do not have this repository enabled out of the box (for whatever reason,) so we will go over how to turn it on.

To start, launch a terminal window on the Arch desktop. To do this, press Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Once the terminal window is open, edit your pacman.conf file inside the Nano text editor.

sudo nano -w /etc/pacman.conf

Scroll through the configuration file and locate “Community.” Then, remove the # symbol from in front of it. Be sure to also remove any “#” symbols from lines directly below it.

After removing all “#” symbols in the config file, save the edits by pressing Ctrl + O. Exit the Nano text editor with Ctrl + X.

Once out of the Nano text editor, use Pacman to re-sync and install Minetest.

sudo pacman -Syy minetest

Fedora installation instructions

The Minetest video game is available to all Fedora Linux users starting from version 29 to 30, and 31. Additionally, the Minetest video game is also available to anyone currently running Fedora Rawhide.

To install Minetest on Fedora Linux, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. After that, use the dnf package manager to install the software.

sudo dnf install minetest

OpenSUSE installation instructions

If you’re a fan of OpenSUSE Linux, we’ve got good news! The Minetest program is currently available for installation on OpenSUSE Leap 15.0, 15.1, and even Tumbleweed via the “Oss all” software repository.

To gain access to the Minetest video game on an OpenSUSE Linux PC you use, start by launching a terminal window. You can open up a terminal by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T.

Once the terminal window is open on the OpenSUSE Linux desktop, use the Zypper package manager to install the latest version of Minetest!

sudo zypper install minetest

Snap package installation instructions

Like most open-source video games, there is a Snap package of Minetest. So, if you currently are using a Linux distribution that supports Snaps, you will have an easy time getting the game working.

To start the installation of Minetest, you must enable Snapd. To enable Snapd, follow our guide on how to set up Snap packages on Linux.

After enabling Snap packages on your Linux operating system, use the snap install command in a terminal window to install the latest version of the Minetest video game.

sudo snap install minetest

Flatpak installation instructions

There’s a Flatpak version of the Minetest video game currently on Flathub. So, if you’re running a Linux distribution that does not support Minetest, this is a great way to get it working.

To start the installation process, ensure you have the latest Flatpak runtime installed on your Linux PC. To enable Flatpak, please follow our guide on the subject.

Once Flatpak is up and running, enter the following commands into a terminal window to get the latest version of Minetest working on your Linux PC.

flatpak install flathub net.minetest.Minetest