Installing on Ubuntu

This page is for installing TileMill on Ubuntu Desktop from the MapBox provided Launchpad PPA. You can use this approach for a headless Ubuntu Server as well - see the Ubuntu Service for details.

TileMill can also run great on other Linux distributions, Solaris, and FreeBSD - basically anywhere you can run Node.js and Mapnik. But on these platforms TileMill will need to be built from source because, at this time, pre-built packages are only provided for Ubuntu. See the source build instructions for more details. We also have instructions for Mac OS X and Windows.

Requirements

• Ubuntu 10.04+ (Lucid and above)
• 2 GB memory
• A modern browser (Chrome, Firefox)
• Internet connection for remote datasources

Installation

1. Download the TileMill installer for Ubuntu. If the download window appears, choose Save File.
2. Select install-tilemill.tar.gz in your Downloads folder. Choose Edit > Extract Here from the menu.
3. Double-click on install-tilemill.sh to start the installation process. If prompted, choose Run in terminal. Enter your system password when prompted.
4. Start TileMill using the Ubuntu launcher (11.10) or by choosing Applications > Graphics > TileMill from the menu (11.04).

Terminal installation

If you’re terminal savvy, you can install TileMill with the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:developmentseed/mapbox
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install tilemill libmapnik nodejs