How do I install and keep updated with the most recent versions of Blender on Ubuntu? [duplicate]

Solution 1:

I suggest you add this blender ppa as follows:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:irie/blender

Followed by sudo apt-get update and sudo apt-get install blender

From now on, any updates to the ppa should be offered automatically.

Solution 2:

Here is a relatively simple way of having the latest version of Blender in your Ubuntu distribution:

1. Visit http://www.blender.org/, find the appropriate version of the latest Blender package (64-bit or 32-bit for Linux) in the download section, and save it somewhere on your filesystem.

2. I assume that it's not a problem for you to have two additional items in your home directory.

   cd ~
   tar -xvjf Downloads/blender-2.65a-linux-glibc211-x86_64.tar.bz2
   ln -s blender-2.65a-linux-glibc211-x86_64 blender
   

3. Add an item to the menu:

   mkdir -p ~/.local/share/applications
   

   Then edit with your favorite editor ~/.local/share/applications/blender.desktop and save it with the following content:

   [Desktop Entry]
   Encoding=UTF-8
   Version=1.0
   Type=Application
   Name=Blender
   Comment=3d design/modelling suite
   Icon=/home/USER/blender/icons/32x32/apps/blender.png
   Exec=/home/USER/blender/blender
   Categories=Graphics
   

   Don't forget to change /home/USER/ with your home directory.

4. When a new version of Blender will be released all you have to do is to download it, extract and renew the symlink ~/blender to point to the new version of Blender:

   rm ~/blender
   ln -s ~/blender-most-recent-version ~/blender