> Mirrored from https://github.com/RelicSync/relic/blob/main/docs/linux.md on every deploy of relic.space. The index of developer docs is https://relic.space/developers. # Relic on Linux x86_64, built for X11. This page is the honest version of what works, what does not, and why. ## Install Two downloads, same build: | | | |---|---| | **Tarball** | — extract anywhere, run `./relic_app` | | **AppImage** | — `chmod +x`, run | Take the AppImage if you want updates handled for you: it is one file, so Relic can install a new version by swapping it in place. The tarball never self-updates, because replacing a folder under a running process is not something to do without a package manager sequencing it, so it points you at this page instead. The tarball is the default download only because it depends on nothing at all. The AppImage mounts itself with FUSE, and current distributions ship what it needs: it runs on a stock Ubuntu 24.04, which has `fuse3` and no `libfuse2` whatsoever. On an older machine with no usable FUSE, run it with `--appimage-extract-and-run`, or just take the tarball. Nothing installs system-wide and there is no package manager step. On first run Relic writes its own launcher entry and icon to `~/.local/share/applications/` and registers itself for `relic://` links, so it shows up in your launcher like anything else. Its vault lives in `$XDG_DATA_HOME/relic` (usually `~/.local/share/relic`), never in `~/.config`. Self-update works from the AppImage, which is one file and can be swapped by a single atomic rename while running. An unpacked tarball has no equivalent story, so it takes you to the download page instead. ## X11 and Wayland Relic is an X11-first app and says so rather than degrading quietly. **On X11** everything works: the global hotkey, summoning the window with the keyboard, and pasting the item you picked back into the app you were using. Relic owns the `XGrabKey` itself in `app/linux/runner/` instead of delegating it, and it passes the hotkey's own X timestamp to the focus request, because Mutter refuses a focus request that arrives without one. **On Wayland** the compositor does not hand any application a global hotkey or let it synthesise keystrokes, by design. Relic still runs, still captures everything you copy, and still syncs. What it will not do is pretend: the hotkey reports itself as unavailable instead of silently failing, and there is no paste-back. Use your desktop's own shortcut settings to launch or focus Relic if you want a key for it. You can check which session you are in with: ```sh echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE ``` ## The tray Stock GNOME has not had a system tray since 3.26. Relic asks the session bus whether anything actually owns `StatusNotifierWatcher` before it tells you where to find it, so on plain GNOME it points you at your keyboard shortcut instead of at a tray icon that is not there. Install the AppIndicator extension and the tray icon appears; Relic notices. ## Run at login Settings has a "run at login" switch. It writes a standard XDG autostart entry to `~/.config/autostart/space.relic.app.desktop` with `--autostart`, so Relic starts quietly in the background without opening a window. If you run the AppImage, the entry points at `$APPIMAGE` rather than the executable path the process sees. An AppImage is mounted at a fresh `/tmp/.mount_XXXXXX` every run, so an entry written from the running path would work until your next reboot and then silently stop. ## On-device AI `sift`, the local model sidecar, ships beside the app in both artifacts, together with `libonnxruntime.so`. Nothing is downloaded at install time and nothing leaves your machine. If you build from source instead, `sift models download` fetches the matching onnxruntime for `linux-x64` from our mirror. ## Known gaps - Only x86_64 today. No aarch64 build. - No distro packages (deb, rpm, AUR, Flatpak). The tarball and AppImage are it. - Multi-monitor placement follows the monitor your cursor is on; the logic is unit-tested but has not been exercised on a real two-head setup. - Tested against GNOME on Xorg. KDE and XFCE should work, including their trays, but have not been verified.