How to set up the IntelliJ IDEA IDE on Linux

IntelliJ IDEA is an IDE for developing software. It supports many different languages, integrates version controls, supports many different frameworks, and more. It is created by JetBrains and comes with both a community and a paid edition. In this guide, we’ll show you how to get the free community release working on Linux.

Ubuntu installation instructions

On Ubuntu, you’ll be able to install IntelliJ IDEA Java IDE quite easily through an existing third-party PPA. As of now, it works with Bionic and Focal. Additionally, it is possible to install the app via Snap and Flatpak and a generic Linux binary.

To start the installation of IntelliJ on Ubuntu, use the apt install command to set up Curl. Curl is required to download the PPA key, which is required to access the software in Apt.

sudo apt install curl

After installing the Curl app on your Ubuntu system, use it to set up the PPA key on your system by entering the curl command below.

curl -s https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/jetbrains-ppa/0xA6E8698A.pub.asc | sudo apt-key add -

Now that the PPA key is set up on your system, make use of the following echo command in a terminal window to add the PPA URL to your Ubuntu PC.

echo "deb http://jetbrains-ppa.s3-website.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com bionic main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jetbrains-ppa.list > /dev/null

The PPA URL is added to Ubuntu. However, the repo is not accessible yet, as your software sources are not up to date. To update them, run the following update command.

sudo apt update

Following the update command, you will be able to install the latest IntelliJ with the following apt install command in a terminal window.

sudo apt install intellij-idea-communiItty

Debian installation instructions

As Debian is based on Ubuntu, Debian users will be able to take full advantage of the community PPA to install IntelliJ. To start the setup of the PPA, run the apt install command below to get Curl working on your system.

sudo apt-get install curl

Now that Curl is set up on your Debian Linux PC, use the curl command to set up the PPA’s signing key. The signing key is very important, and the PPA will not be accessible without it.

curl -s https://s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/jetbrains-ppa/0xA6E8698A.pub.asc | sudo apt-key add -

The key is set up on Debian. The next thing to do is to set up the PPA URL in your Apt software sources. To do that, execute the following echo command in a terminal window.

echo "deb http://jetbrains-ppa.s3-website.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com bionic main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/jetbrains-ppa.list > /dev/null

Once the PPA URL is added to your Linux PC, run the update command to refresh Debian’s software sources so that the PPA.

sudo apt-get update

With the update command run, the PPA is ready to use. From here, you’ll be able to install Webstorm on Debian with the following command.

sudo apt-get install intellij-idea-community

Arch Linux installation instructions

To get IntelliJ working on Arch Linux, your best bet is the Arch Linux User Repository. The users there have configured a native package for Arch, so you don’t have to fiddle with snaps, flatpaks, or anything like that.

To start the installation, open up a terminal window. Then, use the pacman command below to install both the “Base-devel” and “Git”. These two packages are critical for interacting with the Arch Linux AUR.

sudo pacman -S base-devel git

After installing the “Git” and “Base-devel” packages on your Arch Linux PC, use the git clone command to download the latest snapshot of Trizen. Trizen is an AUR helper program that will make installing Intellij much easier, as it will automatically collect and install all dependencies, so you don’t have to.

git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git

Once Trizen is done downloading, move into the “trizen” folder with the CD command, and install the program with the makepkg command.

cd trizen
makepkg -sri

Once the Trizen application is up and running, use the trizen -S command to get the latest Intellij app working on your Arch Linux PC.

trizen -S intellij-idea-community-edition-git

Flatpak installation instructions

Intellij is available as a Flatpak, which is good news for Linux users who do not use Ubuntu, Arch Linux, or Debian. To start the installation of the app on your system, follow this guide to learn how to set up the Flatpak runtime.

After the Flatpak runtime is set up on your system, enter the following commands to get Intellij working on your computer.

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo flatpak install flathub com.jetbrains.IntelliJ-IDEA-Community

Snap package installation instructions

Love Snaps? You’ll be able to install Intellij as a snap package. Here’s how to do it. First, open up a terminal window and follow our guide to learn how to set up Snapd, the Snap package runtime on your system.

After Snapd is up and running, enter the snap install command below to get the Intellij app working via Snap.

sudo snap install intellij-idea-community --classic

Generic Linux

Intellij is available as a generic Linux package. To install it, download the Intellij TarGZ archive here, extract it and run the install script included in the file.