Installing on Linux

AppFlowy currently does not have a formal Linux installation process. However, the application can quickly and easily be installed by the end user.

Note: AppFlowy requires glibc >= 2.32 however this version is not yet available in some common linux distributions. For the record, glibc 2.33 is available on Debian testing and Ubuntu 21.04:

Note: The following steps have been verified on the following Linux distributions:

• lubuntu 20.04 - x86_64

• Arch Linux - x86_64

• Ubuntu 20.04 - x86_64

• Linux Mint 20.3 x86_64

Any Linux distribution not listed here has not been tested, and the following steps may not work. If you are trying to install AppFlowy on a Linux distribution not listed here, let us know how it went so that we can add it to the list or fix any bugs that may occur.

Steps to install AppFlowy on Linux

1. Download the latest archive file from the Releases page.

2. Extract the archive in a location of your choice (e.g. /opt/).

   note: Performing read/write operations in folders such as /opt may require root access. If a command fails due to missing permissions, try running it as the root user (this may be done by switching to the root user or using programs such as sudo and doas).

   note: The application will be extracted into a folder named AppFlowy.

tar -xzvf AppFlowy-linux-x86.tar.gz

3. Go to the AppFlowy directory.

cd AppFlowy

4. Run the application.

./app_flowy

Emoji Font Installation

AppFlowy will look for the Noto Color Emoji font on your system when trying to display emoji unicode characters. Please make sure that the font is configured so that emoji characters are displayed correctly.

note: Certain distributions (e.g. Fedora Linux) already have this set up by default. In that case, you can safely ignore this section.

1. Install the the font:

   • On Arch and Manjaro Linux, install noto-fonts-emoji using pacman.

   • On Ubuntu Linux and Linux Mint, install fonts-noto-color-emoji using apt.

2. Configure the font:

   • First, run fc-cache -v to reload the system font cache.

   • Then, create a file in /etc/fonts/local.conf with root privileges or ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf with the following content:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
    <alias>
        <family>sans-serif</family>
        <prefer>
            <family>Sans</family>
            <family>Noto Color Emoji</family>
        </prefer>
    </alias>

    <alias>
        <family>serif</family>
        <prefer>
            <family>Serif</family>
            <family>Noto Color Emoji</family>
        </prefer>
    </alias>

    <alias>
        <family>monospace</family>
        <prefer>
            <family>Monospace</family>
            <family>Noto Color Emoji</family>
        </prefer>
    </alias>
</fontconfig>

3. Log out and log back in, or reboot to see your changes.

Optional steps to add AppFlowy to your system menu

The current documentation may be out of sync with the development.

Adding an application to Linux's system menu requires some extra steps. In the steps below we assume that you have extracted the archive file contents into the /opt/ directory and that your present working directory is /opt/AppFlowy.

Add a Linux desktop file to your system

• Rename the icon file.

mv flowylogo.svg app_flowy.svg

• Copy the icon file so that the system will pick it up.

cp app_flowy.svg ~/.local/share/icons

• Copy the temporary desktop file to a usable Linux desktop file. Notice the underscore in app_flowy.

cp appflowy.desktop.temp app_flowy.desktop

• Edit the following lines in the appflowy.desktop file so that they point to the correct files.

Icon=[CHANGE_THIS]/AppFlowy/flowy_logo.svg
Exec=[CHANGE_THIS]/AppFlowy/app_flowy

For example, if you installed in /opt, this becomes:

Icon=app_flowy.svg
Exec=/opt/AppFlowy/app_flowy

• Move the desktop file so that the system will pick it up.

mv app_flowy.desktop ~/.local/share/applications