Ubuntu – Unable to get Atom text editor from the Software Center

16.04atomsoftware installation

I'm unable to get Atom text editor from the Software Center. When I try I get this error:

Package does not exist.
Check the spelling of the package name, and that the appropriate repository is enabled.

Best Answer

Run these commands to quickly and easily install and upgrade the Atom text editor snap package from the terminal in all currently supported versions of Ubuntu (64-bit only).

Install Atom text editor:
```
sudo apt install snapd  
sudo snap install --classic atom  
```
Note that a snap in classic confinement behaves as a traditionally packaged application with full access to the system, and Atom extension packages are installed into the user's home directory.
Upgrade Atom text editor:
```
sudo snap refresh --classic atom  
```

Atom text editor can also be installed from the Ubuntu Software application in Ubuntu 16.04 as shown in the below screenshot. Either way there is no need to add a PPA to your software sources.

Atom is more than just another text editor. Atom is extensible through the installation of Atom packages that can give Atom the capabilities of running code, showing inline graphical output and more.

^{Inline plot in Atom}

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Installing Atom text editor on 32-bit Ubuntu

Atom text editor is currently available for all currently supported versions of Ubuntu from the Atom text editor PPA with different builds for 32-bit and 64-bit architectures. Atom text editor can be installed from the terminal by running the following commands:

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/atom
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install atom

The current version of Atom text editor from ppa:webupd8team/atom updated to Ubuntu 16.04/16.10/17.04/17.10 is ~~1.0.10~~ 1.22.1.

For more information about Atom text editor visit the official Atom website. A .deb file for installing Atom text editor is currently available from the official Atom website. but only for 64-bit operating systems. To install Atom text editor from the official Atom website on 32-bit Ubuntu follow the instructions in the accepted answer to How I can create a 32-bit version of Atom?.

There is currently an Atom text editor snap package that can be installed in all currently supported versions of Ubuntu using the command sudo snap install --classic atom however the Atom snap package is only available for 64-bit OSs.

Updates – How to Automatically Update Atom Editor

TL;DR If you do not want to use the PPA, you can use a script to download and automatically install via cron.

Create a new file atom-auto-update

sudo nano /usr/local/bin/atom-auto-update

Add the following lines

#!/bin/bash
wget -q https://github.com/atom/atom/releases/latest -O /tmp/latest
wget -q $(awk -F '[<>]' '/href=".*atom-amd64.deb/ {match($0,"href=\"(.*.deb)\"",a); print "https://github.com/" a[1]} ' /tmp/latest) -O /tmp/atom-amd64.deb
dpkg -i /tmp/atom-amd64.deb

Save the file and make it executable

sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/atom-auto-update

Test the script
```
sudo atom-auto-update
```
Create a cronjob for the script
```
sudo crontab -e
```

Add this line

e.g.: at 10 am every week

0 10 * * 1 /usr/local/bin/atom-auto-update

e.g.: at 10 am every day

0 10 * * * /usr/local/bin/atom-auto-update

Explanation

wget -q https://github.com/atom/atom/releases/latest -O /tmp/latest

Download the site with the latest version information
wget -q $(awk -F '[<>]' '/href=".*atom-amd64.deb/ {match($0,"href=\"(.*.deb)\"",a); print "https://github.com/" a[1]} ' /tmp/latest) -O /tmp/atom-amd64.deb
1. … awk -F '[<>]' '/href=".*atom-amd64.deb/ {match($0,"href=\"(.*.deb)\"",a); print "https://github.com/" a[1]} ' /tmp/latest …
  
  Extract the download link
2. wget -q $( … ) -O /tmp/atom-amd64.deb
  
  Download the DEB file
dpkg -i /tmp/atom-amd64.deb

Install the DEB file

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Installing Atom text editor on 32-bit Ubuntu

Updates – How to Automatically Update Atom Editor

Related Question