Install Snap & Store on Raspberry Pi for Easy App Management

If you are a beginner just starting to use the Raspberry Pi, installing new packages through the terminal may be challenging. I am always more comfortable with an interactive user interface for an application manager. That is where the Snap Store comes in.

On Raspberry Pi, installing and using the Snap Store instead of the default “Add/Remove Software” tool is possible for a better user experience. Snap is available in the default repository, and Snap Store can then be installed as a snap.

Don’t worry if you are new to this, I’ll explain everything in this article, starting with a brief introduction about Snap and the Snap Store before moving to the installation steps.

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Snap & Snap Store – A Gentle Introduction

We are not necessarily used to Snap packages on Raspberry Pi OS, but they are often the default way to install new applications on most distributions.

Snap packages are a universal package format that allows your applications to be containerized for increased security and automatic updates, ensuring that you always have the latest features and security patches without the typical problems we sometimes have with APT (compatibility, dependencies, etc.).

The Snap Store is simply an interface for the popular Snap package manager. You can think of it like the “Recommended Software” application on Raspberry Pi OS but with more choices. Best of all, it works the same way on all Linux distributions.

So, let’s see how to install this store on your Raspberry Pi.

Installing Snap Store on Raspberry Pi

Before we start the installation process, I wanted to let you know that you don’t need anything specific to follow along with me. All you need is a Raspberry Pi (I would suggest Model 3 or newer) running the latest version of Raspberry Pi OS.

Once you have access to your Pi (either through a monitor or SSH access), we are ready to start!

Step 1: Installing and Enabling Snapd

• To install the Snap Store, we would need the Snap package utility (as the Store is a Snap package itself!). To do this, open a new terminal window on your Raspberry Pi.
  
• Next, let’s get a list of upgradable packages using the following command:
  sudo apt update
  
  

• Now, let’s install snapd on our Pi. You only need to run a single command for this and the good news is that you can use the APT package manager for this:
  
  sudo apt install snapd
  
  It will take a few seconds and you may need to press Y and the Enter button to start the installation process (just a confirmation that you want to install this package).

• Great! Once you have snapd installed on your system, you need to reboot it for the changes to take effect. You can do this using the following command:
  
  sudo reboot

Step 2: Installing Snap Core

Once you have successfully rebooted your Pi, you now have the Snap package installed on your system. The first thing you need to do to start using the Snap Store and the Snap applications is to install the Snap Core package, which allows you to load and use Snap applications.

To do this, execute the following command after opening a new terminal window:

sudo snap install core

The “sudo” gives the command the required permissions to run and install the requested package/application. Depending on the model you’re using, installation will take a few seconds to complete, so be patient.

Once this is complete, you now have the power to run containerized applications using Snap! Before we install the Snap Store package, let’s install a basic application to see how easy it is to use Snap even from your terminal. The more shocking part is, the app’s name is “hello-world”!

Installing an application is as easy as typing this simple command:

sudo snap install hello-world

Running this application is easy, type the hello-world command to see the application in action. The process of both installing and running this application is shown in the image below.

Perfect, let’s install the Snap Store now.

Step 3: Installing Snap Store

As discussed before, Snap Store is a popular application used by Linux enthusiasts to manage packages on their systems. Installing it on your system is straightforward. Just execute the following command to complete this part:

sudo snap install snap-store

This will take around 1-2 minutes to complete as there are a bunch of configurations it does under the hood so just be patient. If you did everything correctly (following this tutorial, of course), you should see the following success message on your terminal after the command execution is complete.

Using the Snap Store

Great, now we have Snap Store on our Raspberry Pi. In this section, I will walk you through some steps to help you learn how to use this software and make your life easier! So, let’s get started.

To start the Snap Store, we need to type the following as we did for our demo hello-word application:

snap-store

This will open the Snap Store for you in a new window. The interface is quite minimalistic and easy to use in my opinion. You will be greeted with a home screen displaying different application categories as shown below.

Navigating the Store Interface

Here is a breakdown of the sections highlighted in the above image:

• The Search button allows you to search any application by name. This is very useful as the store has thousands of packages.
• There are two main sections, Explore and Installed. The Explore section is the default one which opens. You can search specific applications, read more about them and install them in a single click. The installed section houses applications already installed on your system.
  
  
  
  As you can see, the Hello World application we installed in the last section is shown under the installed applications. So, you now have an interface that lets you track all the packages installed on your system.
  
• You can find Snap Store specific options in the Options menu.
  
  
  
• Finally, the Categories section highlights the different domains for which applications are available on the Snap Store. As you can see in the image, there are a lot and they will help you effectively navigate to the application you want to install.

That was all for the interface. Now for the main part, let’s install our very first application through the Snap Store.

Installing our First Application through the Store

I enjoy software development, so I want to install a code development environment like Visual Studio Code (VS Code) on my Pi. Find the use case for your Pi and choose an application accordingly (a simple Google search is all you need to find it).

Unfortunately, VS Code is not readily available for the Pi through the Snap Store. However, there is an application called Codium by VSCodium, an open-source, non-licensed version of VS Code that is available on the store. So, I will be installing that.

• For this, I will use the search option available and type in “codium” in the search bar. The result of available applications will update in real-time, which is a cool feature.

• Once you find the application, click on it to open a new window which shows details about the application and gives you the option to install it on the top right side, in the form of a big blue Install button (it’s hard to miss!).
  
  
  
• Press the Install button and wait a few minutes for the application installation to complete. It will take a few seconds, depending on your Pi’s model and Internet Speed. Also, you may be asked for your root password for additional installation permissions.
  
• Once installed, you should see a red bin button on the right instead of the Install button. This will confirm that our package has successfully been installed on our system.
  
  
  
• Great! Now that we have our application installed, we can run it by simply executing the following command in a terminal window:
  
  codium
  
• This will open the development code editor codium for me! If you are in the IT or software industry, this screen below would be very familiar to you.
  
  

Congratulations! We have successfully installed our very first Snap package from the Snap Store.

Conclusion

In this article, we learnt about Snap and Snap Store, and how to install and use it on the Raspberry Pi. As discussed throughout this article, it’s a feature-rich, interactive GUI for the popular Snap package manager.

However, if you are like me and you still love terminals and prefer using them, you can stick to the APT package manager which comes by default with Raspberry Pi OS. Here is an article which would be helpful for you: What is APT?

On the other hand, if you are still confused between Snap and APT, here is an article to make things easier for you: What’s the Difference Between SNAP and APT on Linux?.

That is all for this article! Thank you for reading it till the end.

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Master your Raspberry Pi in 30 days: If you are looking for the best tips to become an expert on Raspberry Pi, this book is for you. Learn useful Linux skills and practice multiple projects with step-by-step guides.

The Raspberry Pi Bootcamp: Understand everything about the Raspberry Pi, stop searching for help all the time, and finally enjoy completing your projects.

Master Python on Raspberry Pi: Create, understand, and improve any Python script for your Raspberry Pi. Learn the essentials step-by-step without losing time understanding useless concepts.

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