Install KiCAD

kicad.md

If using UBUNTU

As explained here:

sudo add-apt-repository --yes ppa:kicad/kicad-6.0-releases
sudo apt update
sudo apt install --install-recommends kicad

This will install Kicad along with all its libraries (6GB).

I like to use libraries from repositories since they are easier to upgrade.

Following command will ignore package libraries during instalation (results in a 320MB install):

sudo apt install kicad kicad-footprints- kicad-libraries- kicad-packages3d- kicad-symbols- kicad-templates- kicad-demos-

#for the nightly version:

sudo apt install kicad-nightly kicad-nightly-demos- kicad-nightly-footprints- kicad-nightly-libraries- kicad-nightly-packages3d- kicad-nightly-symbols- kicad-nightly-templates- 

Now you must also clone all 3 librarie repositories to your machine.

Once you open Kicad for the first time got to Preferences -> Configure Paths and point all 3 libraries to the correct path.

Or, if restoring a configuration backup, copy it to: ~/.config/kicad/7.0

On MX Linux

MX linux will not be able to use Ubuntu's PPA, debian PPA is available but using a 2 versions old Kicad.

Best solution here is to use flatpack.

In this case configuration files are here: ~/.var/app/org.kicad.KiCad/config/kicad/7.0/