Install GitHub Desktop on Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based distributions

A GitHub Desktop is an open-source, cross-platform Git application. A repository for source code is available on GitHub.

While writing this article, it is official supported on Windows, and Mac platforms. One of the developers(Brendan Forster ) at GitHub has made it for Linux and source code repository actively updated.

To download the Linux installer file we need to head over to the release section. Here release files for all versions are available.

While updating this article, the latest release version for application is 3.2.1 Linux RC1](https://github.com/shiftkey/desktop/releases/tag/release-3.2.1-linux1) and supported formats are AppImage, deb and rpm.

In this article, we will see how to install this open-source Git application in Ubuntu or Ubuntu-based distributions. Follow the same steps to install into other Ubuntu-based distros.

The recorded demo for installation process, uploaded on YouTube consists of version 2.5.7 Linux RC1 with supported formats are AppImage, deb and rpm. But same process can be follow for version 3.2.1 Linux RC1

Running GitHub Desktop with AppImage

Head over to GitHub Desktop Release page to download an AppImage file, provided via direct link.

Next, we need to provide executable permission to this downloaded AppImage file. To provide permission, execute sudo chmod u+x fileName.AppImage command, replacing fileName with an actual file name with extension.

To run, just double click on the AppImage file.

Installing GitHub Desktop with deb using dpkg command

Head over to GitHub Desktop Release page to download deb format file, provided via direct link.

Or by executing the below command in terminal, the .deb will be downloaded

sudo wget https://github.com/shiftkey/desktop/releases/download/release-3.2.1-linux1/GitHubDesktop-linux-3.2.1-linux1.deb

Open your terminal (Ctrl + Alt + T), head over to your directory where your installer has been saved and run the below commands with sudo privileges.

sudo dpkg -i fileName.deb

Note: Replace fileName.deb with actual file name with deb extension.

Fix dependency errors and broken packages for GitHub Desktop

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -f

The command sudo apt update will update package lists. And the command sudo apt install -f will fix dependencies and broken packages if any.

Reinstall with dpkg command

sudo dpkg -i fileName.deb

Run application

Once the installation is done, we can now run Github desktop from application launcher.

Hope you like this!

Keep helping and happy 😄 coding