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Installing Minecraft On Ubuntu

Minecraft has become one of the most popular games among geeks. Unlike many games, it runs fantastically (actually better in my case) than on Windows! However, the installation process is a bit more involved. This guide will help you get it installed and running smoothly.

Ubuntu Versions: Tested on 10.04 through 11.10, 32 and 64 bit.

Installation: Installation of Minecraft is surprisingly easy. First, we need to get the official version of Java from Oracle, then we download a Java .jar file, and run it!

Ubuntu comes with the OpenJDK, which doesn't work well with Minecraft. Let's download the official version, and set that as the default for Java.

# Run updates
sudo apt-get -y -q update && sudo apt-get -y -q upgrade
# Get some software so we can add the repository with Java in it, then update again
sudo apt-get install python-software-properties
sudo apt-get -y -q update
# Add the repository with Java in it, then update to get a list of packages
sudo add-apt-repository "deb http://archive.canonical.com/ lucid partner"
sudo apt-get -y -q update
# Finally, install Java!
sudo apt-get -y install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin
sudo update-alternatives --config java
# Select 2 here. It should be something like "/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun/jre/bin/java"

Now that we have Java installed, we can get the client. You can either go to Minecraft.net and download it, or you can just download it from the command line. We've already got the command line open, so let's use that. We're going to put it in the games folder so other users can easily access Minecraft also.

sudo mkdir /usr/local/games/minecraft
sudo wget -O /usr/local/games/minecraft/minecraft.jar https://s3.amazonaws.com/MinecraftDownload/launcher/minecraft.jar
# Make it executable, for good measure
chmod 755 /usr/local/games/minecraft/minecraft.jar

Now that we have the game files downloaded and in place, we need to run it to finish the install by simply starting the game! We're going to make an alias in bash to start Minecraft up. If you want to make a desktop shortcut, simply copy the part in quotations into the launcher.

nano ~/.bash_aliases

----
alias minecraft="java -Xmx1024M -Xms512M -cp /usr/local/games/minecraft/minecraft.jar net.minecraft.LauncherFrame &"
----

# Reload terminal for alias to take effect
bash

Now to launch the game, all you have to do is type:

minecraft

Log in with your account and it will download the rest of the files and place them in ~/.minecraft.

One common problem people have with playing Minecraft on Ubuntu is the infamous stuck-key problem. Basically, you'll be going in one direction, hold down a key, and when you release the key, you'll keep going. This is a serious problem if you're headed towards a pool of lava and the game keeps you moving forward to your pixely and block-filled doom, or building a tall structure, only to be fall off and have your blocky items explode all over the ground. To fix this, we just need to update a few files. There is a handy script to do this for you.

Note: only use this after running Minecraft once (so it installs all the required files).

cd /tmp
wget -O lwjgl.tar.gz https://files.dafrito.com/upgrade-lwjgl.tar.gz
tar xvf lwjgl.tar.gz
sudo ./upgrade-lwjgl.sh

Have fun playing Minecraft!!

If you want to install a Minecraft server so you can play with your friends, check the Minecraft Server On Ubuntu article. If you'd like to play a pre-release version of Minecraft, which has all the latest updates and additions but a few more bugs, check the Minecraft 1.0 Ubuntu Installation article.

If anything didn't work for you, please leave a comment and I'll try and help you! If it did work, I always appreciate a quick "It worked!" comment!