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Install on Linux

Time: 5 minutes.

Requirements

  • A recent x86_64 Linux desktop. Tested on Ubuntu 22.04+, Fedora 39+, Debian 12+, and Arch (rolling).
  • glibc 2.31 or newer.
  • A working GPU stack (Mesa 22+, NVIDIA proprietary 525+, or AMDGPU recent). Vulkan and OpenGL 4.5 both work.
  • 1.5 GB free disk.

aarch64 (Linux ARM) is on the roadmap; not in v1.

The AppImage is the most portable option. It runs on any modern distro without touching your package manager.

  1. Download Elysium-Designer-<version>-linux-x86_64.AppImage from the latest release.

  2. Mark it executable:

    chmod +x Elysium-Designer-*.AppImage

  3. Run it:

    ./Elysium-Designer-*.AppImage

The first run extracts the bundle into ~/.cache/elysium-designer/ and creates a desktop entry so it shows up in your application launcher.

Desktop integration

The AppImage bundles appimaged-compatible metadata. If you have AppImageLauncher installed, it will offer to integrate the AppImage on first launch. Otherwise the bundled desktop file is dropped into ~/.local/share/applications/elysium-designer.desktop automatically.

Debian / Ubuntu (.deb)

If you prefer system package management:

curl -LO https://github.com/elysiumui/elysium/releases/latest/download/elysium-designer_<version>_amd64.deb
sudo apt install ./elysium-designer_<version>_amd64.deb

The package installs to /opt/elysium-designer/ and adds an entry under Graphics in your application menu.

To remove: sudo apt remove elysium-designer.

Fedora / RHEL (.rpm)

curl -LO https://github.com/elysiumui/elysium/releases/latest/download/elysium-designer-<version>-1.x86_64.rpm
sudo dnf install ./elysium-designer-<version>-1.x86_64.rpm

To remove: sudo dnf remove elysium-designer.

Arch (AUR)

A community-maintained AUR package is available:

yay -S elysium-designer-bin

This pulls the AppImage and wires it into the system.

Tarball

If none of the above fit, the raw tarball at Elysium-Designer-<version>-linux-x86_64.tar.gz extracts to a self-contained directory:

tar -xzf Elysium-Designer-<version>-linux-x86_64.tar.gz
cd Elysium-Designer-<version>/
./ElysiumDesigner

This is the same set of files the AppImage wraps.

System dependencies

The AppImage and tarball bundle every native dependency, but the .deb and .rpm packages declare runtime dependencies on:

  • libgl1 (or distro equivalent): OpenGL fallback path.
  • libxkbcommon0, libxcb-*: windowing.
  • fonts-noto-color-emoji: fallback emoji rendering in the UI.

Your package manager pulls these automatically.

First launch

The Designer opens to its splash screen, then the main window. Follow the first run guide.

Wayland vs X11

Both work. Wayland is the default on most modern distros, but the Designer falls back to XWayland for a few features (global shortcuts, screen capture) that the Wayland protocol does not yet expose portably. If you hit a "cannot capture region" error, see render and GPU troubleshooting.

Updating

Help > Check for Updates checks for new releases. The AppImage update happens via appimageupdate if available (zsync sidecar), otherwise it falls back to a full re-download. Package-manager installs (.deb, .rpm, AUR) update through the usual system channel.

Uninstall

  • AppImage: delete the file plus ~/.cache/elysium-designer/ and ~/.local/share/applications/elysium-designer.desktop.
  • .deb / .rpm: use the package manager (above).
  • Tarball: delete the extracted directory.

To also clear preferences see Uninstall and reset.