diff --git a/README.md b/README.md
index e4d69dd..dac95d8 100644
--- a/README.md
+++ b/README.md
@@ -15,6 +15,16 @@ howto build
 
 Currently the plugin is a subrepository of CloudCompare and can be cloned alltogether.
 
+0. install prerequisites
+
+this is tested on Ubuntu 18.04 and should work on 20.04, 20.10 as well
+
+```
+sudo apt install build-essential cmake cmake-qt-gui extra-cmake-modules git 
+sudo apt install qtbase5-dev qtbase5-gles-dev qt5-default qttools5-dev-tools qttools5-dev libqtsvg5-dev libqt5websockets-dev
+sudo apt install libgdal-dev
+```
+
 1. clone CloudCompare
 
 ```