# A Mostly Complete Guide to Installing Scrivener on Linux

**URL:** <https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/a-mostly-complete-guide-to-installing-scrivener-on-linux/19819>\
**Category:** Scrivener on Linux (Unofficial)\
**Created:** [October 18, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/a-mostly-complete-guide-to-installing-scrivener-on-linux/19819 "2012-10-18T02:20:11Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
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**Author:** ![LAP](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/user_avatar/forum.literatureandlatte.com/lap/32/13022_2.png) [@LAP](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/u/LAP)\
**Post date:** [October 18, 2012, 2:20am UTC](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/a-mostly-complete-guide-to-installing-scrivener-on-linux/19819/1 "2012-10-18T02:20:11Z")

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A Mostly Complete Guide to Installing on Linux

This was originally posted by: Steven Saus (uriel1998) from Alliteration Ink [http://www.alliterationink.com](http://www.alliterationink.com)  
Steven is, in his own words, an Author, Publisher, eBook Converter (and some other stuff too)

It was so good I wanted to post it here in a prominent position for all to benefit from Steven’s helpful post. Here’s the post:

Disclaimer: I’m not affiliated with L&L. They can change things at any time. I bear no responsibility for anything that happens when you follow these instructions, unless it is TOTALLY KEWL. That said, I’ve followed these instructions myself (Ubuntu 10.04|Openbox/Gnome 2) for both the tarball and the debian package.

These instructions should:

1. Install Scrivener on your Linux box.
2. Provide a launcher on your desktop or where a launcher like Kupfer/Gnome-Do/Launchy can get to it.
3. Provide an (unofficial) icon that I mocked up a while back with Tux on it.

[Check for the latest install (while we’re still in beta) from the top forum post here](http://literatureandlatte.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=33).

If you’re using a tarball, read the quoted section below:

> [@](#):
>
> If you’re using the tarball (which I’ve also done in the past), I used the script by [phibxr](http://literatureandlatte.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=12225) mentioned [here](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/t/running-scrivener-on-linux/10185/1) and requoted for your convenience below:
> 
> /home/(your username)/LiteratureAndLatte/bin/scrivener.sh:
> 
> ```nohighlight
> #!/bin/bash
> export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/home/(your username)/LiteratureAndLatte/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
> exec /home/(your username)/LiteratureAndLatte/bin/Scrivener
> ```
> 
> After creating this file, run:
> 
> ```nohighlight
> ~/LiteratureAndLatte/bin$ chmod +x scrivener.sh
> ./scrivener.sh
> ```

If you’re installing from a .deb, .rpm, etc, read the quoted section below.

> [@](#):
>
> Install the package using your package manager; most modern file managers will automatically call the right package manager for you. (And if you’re hardcore enough to be using something that doesn’t, you probably don’t need this guide.)
> 
> If Ubuntu Software Center is starting up and not installing the .deb, I would highly recommend using gdebi-gtk. Enter this at the commandline:
> 
> ```nohighlight
> sudo apt-get install gdebi
> ```
> 
> Then you can install any local .deb file by using the command
> 
> ```nohighlight
> gdebi-gtk (package name.deb)
> ```
> 
> For example:
> 
> ```nohighlight
> gdebi-gtk scrivener-1.2.6-beta.deb
> ```
> 
> Let it finish. You may need to enter your root password here; this is different than my complaining about running from root below.
> 
> Once it has completed, open a terminal and type this:
> 
> ```nohighlight
> which Scrivener
> ```
> 
> That will tell you the full path to the binary file (usually /usr/bin/Scrivener). You’ll need that below.

Save the attached icon to /home/(your username)/.icons/Scrivener\_Logo.png  
 ![Scrivener_Logo.png](https://forum.literatureandlatte.com/uploads/default/original/2X/f/f2ce95a7b5e69a557cf6e49bcf7a404564af463f.png)

Then create the file below. Edit the Exec name to match the location of your binary.

NOTE: You could instead have this file as  
/home/(your username)/.local/share/applications/Scrivener.desktop  
which won’t show up on your desktop, but will let most launcher applications easily find it. Or, if you installed from the .deb (I presume the .rpm is the same), the installed launcher is located at  
/usr/share/applications/Scrivener.desktop  
and you can edit that file with whatever text editor you like.

/home/(your username)/Desktop/Scrivener.desktop

```nohighlight
#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Scrivener
Type=Application
Icon=/home/(your username)/.icons/Scrivener_Logo.png
Exec=/usr/bin/Scrivener %U
Terminal=false
Categories=Application;Office;
```

Some folks had problems on KDE running as a normal user. TRY RUNNING WITHOUT ROOT ACCESS FIRST. Running with root permissions is A Bad Idea (see [http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/graphicalsudo](http://www.psychocats.net/ubuntu/graphicalsudo) for why this can end up borking your system.) Honestly, if you find that you’re having to run something like Scrivener as root, there’s a deeper problem with file permissions on your system. Seriously. (Or library variables, which might be why the KDE folks are having issues. Still…)

But… if you find that you will need root access, add gksudo (for Gnome) or kdesudo (for KDE) to the “Exec” line in the launcher above. Example:

```nohighlight
FOR KDE:
Exec=kdesudo /usr/bin/Scrivener %U

FOR GNOME:
Exec=gksudo /usr/bin/Scrivener %U
```

Still having problems? Check the forums for help. There’s a wide variety of folks running a wide variety of flavors of linux, and if you manage to make it work, share what you did.

Revisions:

- Added link to top of forums
- Added note about gdebi-gtk
- Added location of installed .desktop from .deb

---

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