This guide will walk you through the steps required to install Adobe AIR in Ubuntu Linux. It’ll also show you how to install an AIR application.
Please note: Adobe no longer supports Air on any platform, and the download site has been removed. For more information see: The Future of Adobe Air.
- Start by
downloading Adobe AIRUpdate: download site is gone. - Once the download has completed, open a Terminal (select Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal). Use the cd command to switch to the folder that you downloaded the AIR file to. If you saved the file on your Desktop, type:
cd ~/Desktop
- The AIR installation interface will launch. Click I Agree to begin.
- AIR doesn’t take too long to install.
- Once it has completed, click the Finish button.
- Now it’s time to find an AIR application to install. For the sake of this tutorial, I installed Twhirl, a Twitter, FriendFeed, identi.ca and Seesmic client. Some pages will automatically detect which Operating System you’re using, and incorrectly tell you that AIR isn’t supported on it (see screenshot below). Ignore that message, locate the download link, and download the file.
- You can open the file directly after it has been downloaded using the Firefox Open with feature, or just save the file and double-click it once the download has completed.
- The AIR Application Installer will open, and prompt you to install the AIR app.
- Depending on the application, you might end out w/ a new desktop icon for it.
- And now you have an AIR app running in Ubuntu!
To make the file executable, enter the command:
chmod +x adobeair_linux_b1_091508.bin (where adobeair_linux_b1_091508.bin is the name/version of Adobe AIR for Linux that you downloaded).
Finally, to run the installation, type:
./adobeair_linux_b1_091508.bin (again, where adobeair_linux_b1_091508.bin is the name/version of Adobe AIR for Linux that you downloaded).
Excellent step-by-step instructions for installing Adobe Air for Ubuntu…. worked perfectly… thanks!
For all of those who are sounding rather disgusted about Adobe Air… I’ve been using it for several months with Ubuntu 8.10 (just formatted and started over with 9.10 – we’ll see how it works)… particularly TweetDeck… It is true, some of the apps seem to work better than others, but I’m not sure it’s because of the platform, as it’s supposed to be platform independent. (I may have had some issues with my own computer [proprietary drivers problems, etc]).
I DO know this: YOU MUST HAVE a working Flash Player installation and plugin for your browser up and working, or you won’t even be able to download the .air file for any given app (the work-around that I was using for this issue was to “view source” of the download page, and find the URL for the .air file, go directly to that page (which don’t typically physically exist on the adobe.com site), and download will start from there).
Good and easy to follow instructions – I’ve just set up Adobe AIR on Ubuntu 9.04; it works with no problem, and I’ve installed several different AIR applications very easily.
Thanks a lot, it helped me a lot. Really useful article
Yeah. Outside of the applications that people always mention, none of the air applications found on Adobe’s site can be installed. I click on the Install button in the flash animation for ANY app, and I get a really long middle finger with a ring that has a Windows logo on it.
I’m having a bad Linux day. It’s one of the those days, I wish something worked without me having to bend over backwards. I love Ubuntu, but today’s not the day. =(
Nice page, good tip about Ubuntu… wish it was more prodominant in my region… who knows, maybe sometime soon??? ;)
Sadly, outside of the app you suggested, I’m unable to download anything remotely useful from Adobe Air Marketplace. Even though I have Air installed and running (after following your instructions), all of Adobe’s choices say that my platform (Ubuntu 8.04) is not supported. When I click the “Install Now” links on each of the apps, the picture momentarily changes color but nothing else happens. Is there a better place to get Adobe Air apps than from their website?
Thanks for the instruction. It will help me a lot.