diff --git a/docs/posts/install.md b/docs/posts/install.md
index 7aeeae86..204ba2b9 100644
--- a/docs/posts/install.md
+++ b/docs/posts/install.md
@@ -41,6 +41,13 @@ _Note: if the aforementioned optional `prepare` package installation fails, you
 pip install scanpy>=1.3.7 python-igraph louvain>=0.6
 ```
 
+_On various Linux platforms, you may also need to install build dependencies first:_
+
+```
+sudo apt-get install build-essential python-dev
+pip install scanpy>=1.3.7 python-igraph louvain>=0.6
+```
+
 If you already have `cellxgene` installed, you can update to the most recent version by running:
 
 ```