Ubuntu isn’t a supported platform for installing Lotus Notes 8, but the installation is surprisingly easy, once you know a few tricks. Before you begin, make sure you have the proper fonts by installing the “ttf-xfree86-nonfree” package:

sudo apt-get install ttf-xfree86-nonfree

If you don’t, your fonts will be horribly ugly, and in many places, down right unreadable.

Next, you need to run the regular setup.sh install script:

sudo ./setup.sh

The installation creates a directory called ~/lotus, (in your home directory) but owned as root. I guess it assumes you logged in as root to run the install. I had to remove that (you could also probably just chown the directory, but Notes recreates it, so either way works):

sudo rm ~/lotus -r -d

I also had to make the binaries readable and executable by every user:

sudo chmod o+rw /opt/ibm/lotus/notes/*

Then I ran this (not sure if it is needed, but I saw it on another website):

sudo chmod -R 755 /etc/lotus

Now you should be able run Notes and everything should be fine:

/opt/ibm/lotus/notes/notes

You should also find an icon under the Applications->Office menu.

Good luck.