GNOME Subtitles is a lightweight subtitle editor built for Linux that lets you create, edit, and sync captions in real time. Its clean GTK interface supports popular formats like SRT, ASS, and VTT while offering waveform previews to fine‑tune timing. On Ubuntu 20.04 the default package is outdated, but adding the official PPA or compiling from source brings you the latest stable release with bug fixes for large files. Once installed, the tool launches from the applications menu and works seamlessly alongside any video player that respects subtitle tracks.

Install/Upgrade GNOME Subtitles on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

If you’ve been trying to edit subtitles on a fresh‑install Ubuntu 20.04 and the “gnome‑subtitles” package in the official repo keeps nagging you with an ancient version, this guide will show you how to get the current release without pulling your hair out.

Why the repository version sucks

Ubuntu 20.04 ships GNOME Subtitles 3.30, which lacks proper support for newer subtitle formats and crashes on large SRT files. I ran into this after a friend handed me a 2 hour documentary – the editor froze every few minutes, and the UI showed “Saving…” forever. The fix is to pull a newer build from a reliable source.

Option 1: Use the official PPA (quickest)

1. Open a terminal and add the maintainer’s PPA

   sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gnome-subtitles/ppa
   

   Adding this repository tells Ubuntu where to look for an up‑to‑date package instead of the stale one in the default archive.

2. Refresh your package list

   sudo apt update
   

   This step forces APT to download the latest index, including the new version from the PPA.

3. Install or upgrade GNOME Subtitles

   sudo apt install gnome-subtitles
   

   If you already have the old package, this command will replace it with the newer build (currently 3.36 as of early 2024).

Option 2: Build from source (for the control freaks)

1. Install the build dependencies

   sudo apt install meson ninja-build gettext libgtk-3-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev \
   gstreamer1.0-plugins-base libgtksourceview-4-dev git
   

   These libraries are required to compile GNOME Subtitles; skipping any will cause the build to abort later.

2. Clone the upstream repository

   git clone https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-subtitles.git
   cd gnome-subtitles
   

   Pulling the code directly from GNOME guarantees you’re getting the very latest fixes.

3. Configure the build directory

   meson setup builddir --prefix=/usr
   

   Meson creates a separate folder for compiled objects, keeping your source tree clean.

4. Compile and install

   ninja -C builddir
   sudo ninja -C builddir install
   

   The first command does the heavy lifting; the second copies the binaries to /usr/bin where your system expects them.

Verify the upgrade

Run:

gnome-subtitles --version

You should see something like “GNOME Subtitles 3.36” (or newer). If the version number still shows 3.30, double‑check that you didn’t have a stray copy left in ~/bin or another custom location.

A quick tip for future updates

If you used the PPA, keep it in your sources list and let regular apt upgrade handle new releases. For the source build, just repeat steps 2‑4 whenever the upstream repo tags a fresh version – it’s painless once you have the dependencies installed.

That’s all there is to it. Now you can load that massive SRT file without the editor throwing a tantrum.