How to install Slack on Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux

Objective

The objective is to install Slack on Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver Linux

Operating System and Software Versions

  • Operating System: – Ubuntu 18.04 Bionic Beaver
  • Software: – Slack 3.1.0 or higher

Requirements

Privileged access to your Ubuntu System as root or via sudo command is required.

Conventions

  • # – requires given linux commands to be executed with root privileges either directly as a root user or by use of sudo command
  • $ – requires given linux commands to be executed as a regular non-privileged user

Other Versions of this Tutorial

Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa)

Instructions

Install Slack by using Snap

The easiest way to install Slack on Ubuntu 18.04 is by using snap:

$ sudo snap install slack --classic

All done.

Install Slack from Official Slack package

Install Prerequisites

We will be using gdebi to install the Slack package on our system. gdebi ensures that there are no hassles during the installation as it will also automatically fetch all package prerequisites. In case gdebi is not installed yet on your system you can install it by:

$ sudo apt update
$ sudo apt install gdebi-core wget

Download Slack Package

Next step is to download the latest Slack installation package from the official Slack for Linux website.

Update the below command with the latest download URL or use your browser to download the deb package:

$ wget -O ~/slack.deb "https://downloads.slack-edge.com/linux_releases/slack-desktop-3.1.0-amd64.deb"

After execution of the above command you should find Slack’s installation package within your home directory:

$ ls ~/slack.deb
/home/linuxconfig/slack.deb


Install Slack

Lastly, use the gdebi command to install Slack on Ubuntu 18.04. When prompted answer y:

$ sudo gdebi ~/slack.deb
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree        
Reading state information... Done
Reading state information... Done
Requires the REMOVAL of the following packages: libcurl4 whoopsie 
Requires the installation of the following packages: gconf-service gconf-service-backend gconf2 gconf2-common gir1.2-gnomekeyring-1.0 libappindicator1 libcurl3 libgconf-2-4 libgnome-keyring-common libgnome-keyring0 libindicator7 libpython-stdlib python python-minimal python2.7 python2.7-minimal 

Slack Desktop
Do you want to install the software package? [y/N]:

Start Slack

To start Slack application you can either run:

$ slack

from your terminal or search your start menu:

Slack ubuntu 18.04 - start application

Click on the Slack icon to start the Slack application.

Slack Desktop on Ubuntu 18.04

Slack Desktop on Ubuntu 18.04