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Install GitHub Desktop on Ubuntu

You can install GitHub Desktop on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS with one .deb package. Both releases are built and tested in CI for every version, currently GitHub Desktop 3.6.10. The whole install takes about two minutes.

Ubuntu versions supported

  • Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble): supported and tested.
  • Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy): supported and tested.
  • Newer interim releases (for example 25.04 or 25.10) are not tested but should work, since they ship a newer glibc.
  • Ubuntu 20.04 is not supported: its glibc 2.31 is older than the 2.34 the bundled git needs.

You need a 64-bit Intel or AMD PC. Check with uname -m, which must print x86_64.

How to install GitHub Desktop on Ubuntu

  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 Ubuntu

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.

Ubuntu 24.04 notes: AppArmor and the sandbox

Ubuntu 24.04 restricts unprivileged user namespaces, which Chromium-based apps use for their sandbox. Ubuntu's apparmor package already ships a profile that allows GitHub Desktop at its install path, /usr/lib/github-desktop, so the .deb runs sandboxed with no extra setup. Don't move or symlink the install folder elsewhere, or the profile stops matching.

The AppImage can't use that profile, so on Ubuntu 24.04 it has to run with --no-sandbox. That is one more reason to prefer the .deb on Ubuntu.

Using the AppImage on Ubuntu instead

If you can't install packages system-wide, the AppImage works too. Ubuntu 24.04 needs the renamed FUSE 2 library; Ubuntu 22.04 needs libfuse2:

shell
sudo apt install libfuse2t64   # Ubuntu 24.04
sudo apt install libfuse2      # Ubuntu 22.04

Then follow the AppImage guide, including the sign-in launcher step.