Installing on Linux#

There are different ways to install novelWriter, depending on your Linux distro. Here is a quick overview.

Debian Linux Packages#

Free package repository hosting is graciously provided by Cloudsmith.

The Cloudsmith repository contains native Linux packages for distros that have compatible system libraries for running novelWriter. This list will be extended over time, but for now, the following distros are supported:

  • Debian 12 (Bookworm) and later

  • Ubuntu 24.04 (Noble) and later

  • Linux Mint 22 (Wilma) and later

For other Debian-based distros, you can try installing the package for the closest supported version. See Other Debian-Based Distros below for more details on how to set this up.

To add the package repositories to your local system, run the following command in a terminal:

curl -sLf \
  'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/saga-soft/stable/cfg/setup/bash.deb.sh' \
  | sudo bash

If you also want to receive pre-release versions, run the following command:

curl -sLf \
  'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/saga-soft/testing/cfg/setup/bash.deb.sh' \
  | sudo bash

You can have both set up at the same time.

You can browse the available packages on the Cloudsmith repository:

Releases: https://broadcasts.cloudsmith.com/saga-soft/stable
Pre-Releases: https://broadcasts.cloudsmith.com/saga-soft/testing

Installing novelWriter#

After the repository is set up, you can install novelWriter with the following command (Debian/Ubuntu/Mint):

sudo apt update && sudo apt install novelwriter

Other Debian-Based Distros#

If there is no dedicated package for your Debian-based distro, you can try installing the package for the closest supported version by specifying those on the last line of the above commands:

curl -sLf \
  'https://dl.cloudsmith.io/public/saga-soft/stable/cfg/setup/bash.deb.sh' \
  | sudo distro=DISTRO codename=VERSION bash

Fedora#

novelWriter is available in the main Fedora repository as of Fedora 41.

You can install it with:

sudo dnf install novelwriter

AppImage Releases#

For other Linux distros than the ones mentioned above, the primary option is AppImage. These are completely standalone images for the app that include the necessary environment to run novelWriter. They can of course be run on any Linux distro, if you prefer this to native packages.

Known Issues#

There are some known issues with the new AppImage files on some distros and desktop environments after the switch to Qt6. If you get the following error:

qt.qpa.plugin: From 6.5.0, xcb-cursor0 or libxcb-cursor0 is needed to load the Qt xcb platform plugin.
qt.qpa.plugin: Could not load the Qt platform plugin "xcb" in "" even though it was found.
This application failed to start because no Qt platform plugin could be initialized. Reinstalling the application may fix this problem.

Try installing one of the suggested packages:

sudo apt install libxcb-cursor0

A more permanent solution will come, but for the time being, installing the library should solve the issue.

ChromeOS#

On ChromeOS Linux (Crostini), some users have reported that the AppImage may fail to start with a Wayland error. If this happens, run novelWriter with Qt forced to use the X11 backend.

QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb /path/to/novelwriter.AppImage

For example:

QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb ~/applications/novelwriter.AppImage

If you launch novelWriter from a desktop shortcut, you can make this permanent by adding QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb in front of the AppImage command in the launcher’s Exec= line.