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Install GitHub Desktop on Debian

GitHub Desktop 3.6.10 installs on Debian 12 (Bookworm) from a single .deb package, and apt pulls in everything it needs. Debian 12 is one of the tested targets for this unofficial Linux build.

Debian versions supported

  • Debian 12 (Bookworm): supported and tested.
  • Debian 13 (Trixie): not tested yet, but it ships glibc 2.41 and the needed packages, so the .deb is expected to work. Please report what you find.
  • Debian 11 (Bullseye) is not supported: its glibc 2.31 is too old (2.34 or newer is needed).

The package is 64-bit only (amd64). Debian on ARM, such as a Raspberry Pi, can't run it.

Before you start on Debian

A minimal Debian install may not have sudo set up for your user. Either run the apt commands below as root (su -), or add your user to the sudo group first. Desktop environments other than GNOME may not run a keyring by default: step 4 installs GNOME Keyring, which GitHub Desktop needs to store your sign-in.

How to install GitHub Desktop on Debian

  1. 01Download the .deb and its checksum

    Download GitHubDesktop-linux-amd64-3.6.10-linux1.deb and GitHubDesktop-linux-amd64-3.6.10-linux1.deb.sha256 from the latest release.

    shell
    cd ~/Downloads
wget https://github.com/yehudah/desktop/releases/download/release-3.6.10-linux1/GitHubDesktop-linux-amd64-3.6.10-linux1.deb \
     https://github.com/yehudah/desktop/releases/download/release-3.6.10-linux1/GitHubDesktop-linux-amd64-3.6.10-linux1.deb.sha256

  2. 02Verify the download

    Check the file against its SHA-256 checksum. The command must print OK.

    shell
    sha256sum -c GitHubDesktop-linux-amd64-3.6.10-linux1.deb.sha256

  3. 03Install the package with apt

    Install the local .deb with apt, which also installs its dependencies (libc6 2.34 or newer and libcurl4).

    shell
    sudo apt install ./GitHubDesktop-linux-amd64-3.6.10-linux1.deb

  4. 04Make sure sign-in will work

    Install a Secret Service keyring and desktop-file-utils if they are missing. Most desktop installs already have both.

    shell
    sudo apt install gnome-keyring desktop-file-utils

  5. 05Start GitHub Desktop

    Open GitHub Desktop from your application menu, or run github-desktop in a terminal.

    shell
    github-desktop

Sign in to GitHub from GitHub Desktop

Choose Sign in to GitHub.com. Your browser opens GitHub's authorization page; approve it, and allow the browser to open the x-github-client:// link. The page names GitHub Desktop's development OAuth app, because unofficial builds cannot use GitHub's production app. If nothing happens after you approve, check that the .deb registered the link handler:

shell
xdg-mime query default x-scheme-handler/x-github-client

It should print github-desktop.desktop. If you get signed out after every restart, your keyring is not running or is locked. See sign-in troubleshooting.

Update GitHub Desktop on Debian

There is no auto-update. When a new version comes out (check the changelog), download the new .deb and install it the same way. apt upgrades the existing package in place and keeps your repositories and settings.

Uninstall GitHub Desktop

shell
sudo apt remove github-desktop

Your settings stay in ~/.config/GitHub Desktop. Delete that folder too if you want a clean slate. Your cloned repositories are never touched.

AppImage on Debian

The AppImage also runs on Debian 12 after sudo apt install libfuse2 (on Debian 13 the package is libfuse2t64). The .deb is simpler, though: it registers sign-in for you. Details are in the AppImage guide.