StepMania (AppImage for Linux)

I have created AppImages of all versions of StepMania (up to 5.2) that run on most Linux 64-bit distributions.

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Downloads

Version 5.0.12:
StepMania-5.0.12-clang10-x86_64.AppImage NEW! - Works on Ubuntu 20.04 and newer distros as of 2025-10-08
StepMania-5.0.12-x86_64.AppImage - Older build, but works on Ubuntu 16.04 up to Debian 12.

5.1 and 5.2:
StepMania-5.1-f1ebe8d-x86_64.AppImage - Based on Beta 2, for Ubuntu 16.04 and newer distros
StepMania-5.2-5dad6a1-x86_64.AppImage - Based on the "master" branch, which is where 5.1.-3 was developed (incompatible with 5.0 and the later 5.1 Betas). For Ubuntu 16.04 and newer distros.

AppImages need executable permissions to run. By using the terminal, you can use chmod to mark the AppImages as executable:

chmod +x StepMania-5.0.12-x86_64.AppImage

Then just double-click on the file or run it in a terminal like ./StepMania-5.0.12-x86_64.AppImage

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What is an AppImage?

A single portable executable that works on most Linux distributions without the need to compile anything or install libraries manually. They are similar to Windows .exe files, but AppImages are stand-alone and distributed as one file.

I only had to change something in RageFileManager.cpp (inside the "GetDirOfExecutable" function, around lines 226-228) to make them work as an AppImage. In short: I re-assigned the "sPath" variable to the value returned by /proc/self/exe instead of using argv0:

char buffer[1000] = { 0 };

readlink("/proc/self/exe", buffer, sizeof buffer);

sPath = buffer;

This would make StepMania load its data from the same directory as the executable and not from the path provided by argv0 or the current working directory, which is a requisite for AppImages.

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Where do I install songs, themes, etc.?

/home/(your username)/.stepmania-5.0

It could also be .stepmania-5.1 or .stepmania-5.2 depending on the version. This is a hidden directory, so you have to tell your file manager to display hidden files and folders (usually by pressing Ctrl+H). Optionally, you can modify the "Preferences.ini" file located in the Save directory to add a custom songs folder or additional folders.

These versions of StepMania were compiled without GTK, so I didn't have to bundle any GTK libraries in them (which is a mess when creating AppImages).

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I hope I am not breaking any rules or whatever for doing this though. I'm just trying to help and provide users with an easy and quick method to play StepMania on Linux without having to compile the source code from scratch or install dependencies manually.

I would love to create an AppImage for OutFox too, but that one isn't open source (sadly). So I can only focus on SM 5.0 up to 5.2.