Installation

This page explains how to get and install Karaoke Mugen.

NOTE : Once installed, Karaoke Mugen does not need any internet connection, except for some features :

  • Remote access for the public through the URL https://xx.kara.moe
  • Online accounts
  • Song updates on startup
  • Most popular song lists
  • Playing songs which haven’t been downloaded locally yet

You should have Internet access though on your first launch, just to get the latest song database.

Download Karaoke Mugen

Binaries for Windows, macOS and Linux are available. You’ll find either installers or portable installs. If you don’t know which to pick, we recommend the installer version.

Go to the downloads page

Extract the .zip archive in a folder of your choice where there’s a lot of disk space available.

Install Karaoke Mugen

There are several ways to install depending on if you want the app from source or from compiled versions ready to use.

Once done, you can go to the getting started section!

Windows

Two choices :

  • Installer: Double-click on the executable and follow instructions.
    • Karaoke Mugen data will be stored at the root of your user folder (it’ll be named KaraokeMugen)
  • Portable archive: Uncompress the .zip archive in a folder of your choice where you have some free space
    • You can put the application an USB key so all data will be stored there. This is useful if you want to have your application and playlists on the go.

macOS

Double-click on the DMG image and drag & drop Karaoke Mugen in your application folder.

Linux

No matter which distribution you’re using, we recommend using the Flatpak or AppImage version, which should be self-contained.

Linux support, while present, depends on a lot of things (each distribution and installation is unique). If you run into issues, don’t hesitate to contact us.

Debian/Ubuntu package (.deb)

The package should create an entry in your application menu.

ArchLinux

There are two AUR packages, karaokemugen and karaokemugen-git. The first is based on the latest stable version and the second on the last commit from the master git branch. They both can be installed in the same way.

Installation
$ pikaur -S karaokemugen-git

Installation can take some time depending on your configuration, from 10 to 20 minutes.

Initial configuration

As you saw, the AUR package comes with the karaokemugen-install utility, allowing you to automatically configure Karaoke Mugen! Launch this utility as soon as install is over.

$ karaokemugen-install

Warning: as said during launch, this script will probably not work if you changed the default PostgreSQL configuration. This script will need super-user rights several times via sudo.

At launch, the script warns you of potential problems which could keep it from working and then does all necessary actions to make Karaoke Mugen work (create database, apply configuration, etc.)

This script is interactive. It may ask you a few questions on what to do (especially if a previous Karaoke Mugen database is found) and other configuration items.

karaokemugen-install karaokemugen-install

Once done, you’re ready to launch Karaoke Mugen.

Launch

Congratulations! Your Karaoke Mugen install is ready to start so you can experience incredible adventures.

You should be able to find Karaoke Mugen in your Applications menu’s desktop environment. If that’s not the case, launch it simply with karaokemugen in a terminal.

App Launch App Launch

It doesn’t work?

First, sorry. We want the install to be as simple as possible but we can’t think of everything. Don’t hesitate to contact us if you have a problem.

Install from source

You can install Karaoke Mugen by downloading its source code.

  • Download a Karaoke Mugen version from its git repository through git clone or the ZIP archive provided by gitlab.
  • Unzip/place the Karaoke Mugen source code where there’s enough free space.
  • Download mpv and place its executable in the app/bin folder or specify its path in the config file if you already have mpv installed on your system.
    • Version 0.33 or later required
  • Download ffmpeg and place the ffmpeg executable in the app/bin folder.
    • Version 3.3.1 is the minimum requirement
  • Download nodeJS which is required for Karaoke Mugen to run.
    • Minimum version required is 18.
    • Install nodeJS once it’s been downloaded
  • Download GNU Patch if your distribution doesn’t have the required version (see below.) It is required for song database patches
    • Minimum version required is 2.7
  • Download PostgreSQL
    • Minimum version required is 13.x, but 16.x is recommended.
    • You’ll need to configure your database server for Karaoke Mugen to work. Modify the config.yml file to point to your created database. See configuration. Check out the app’s README to see which commands to run on the database
  • Open the command line (cmd, terminal, bash…) and go into the Karaoke Mugen folder. Then launch :

If yarn is not installed yet on your system, go to its website to install it.

Once yarn is installed :

yarn setup

yarn will install all necessary modules for Karaoke Mugen to work and build the React client. It can take from 1 to 5 minutes depending on your system’s speed and your internet connection.

Once done, you can type yarn start to launch the app. You should then go to the getting started section.

Platform-specific information

Linux

You’ll need PostgreSQL installed and ready to use. Refer to the installation from sources section

Linux (Ubuntu)

On older Ubuntu releases (before 22.04) the version of mpv provided by the repositories is obsolete, and not compatible with Karaoke Mugen.

You must thus install another version. mpv’s official site provides several ways to install Karaoke Mugen, but the simplest is for Ubuntu and its derivatives to use the following PPA :

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:mc3man/mpv-tests
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install mpv

Check out mpv’s website for more info.

macOS

Patch

The patch version bundled with macOS is too old, you’ll need to use Homebrew to install it.