18

New linux user, currently running on Ubuntu 20.04.

Double-clicking an AppImage file on desktop or using "right click > Open" does nothing and doesn't display any errors either, however double-clicking it from the file manager or running it from terminal works. Any ideas why?

rubby1337
  • 183
  • 1
  • 1
  • 5

6 Answers6

14

If anyone in the future comes across this, you should know that Ubuntu 22.04 does not have FUSE (Filesystem in Userspace) library installed by default. That is probably the case if you select Minimal Installation instead of full installation. You're gonna have to install libfuse2 manually:

sudo apt install libfuse2

combine this with the accepted answer and you're good to go.

muru
  • 207,970
Amir ZM
  • 141
  • I have several Ubuntu 22.04 desktops and they all have Fuse by default. – David DE Mar 24 '23 at 17:33
  • @David mine did not come with it and I had to manually install it. I chose "minimal installation" at the beginning. Maybe that's it? It's not just me either, for instance: https://itsfoss.com/cant-run-appimage-ubuntu – Amir ZM Mar 26 '23 at 07:40
  • You should edit your question to add that you did a min install and not a standard one. – David DE Mar 26 '23 at 08:22
  • In Debian, I accidentally removed libfuse2 via "apt autoremove". Adding that pkg back in per Amir ZM's solution fixed the issue. BTW: Be wary of "apt autoremove". I've had that command hose Debian systems on more than one occasion... – Shawn Eary Mar 16 '24 at 22:47
  • On Fedora it is - sudo dnf install fuse fuse-devel – Rohit Gupta Oct 08 '24 at 22:32
  • I'm on Ubuntu 24.04 and Fuse wasn't installed by default. Installing libfuse2 worked for me – 大朱雀 Sep 10 '25 at 12:46
13

Solution 1

Right Click On The Appimage File And Go In Properties.

enter image description here

Then Go In Permissions.

enter image description here

Tick Allow Executing File As Program, and Both access : read and write, It must look the same as the image.

enter image description here

Solution 2

Open terminal, copy and paste the following command:

sudo chmod +x name.appimage
muru
  • 207,970
Ibster
  • 412
5

I've had the same issue and yes, making the file executable is necessary, however, to be able to open the appimage from desktop you will have to:

  1. Right click on your desktop
  2. Click on Settings
  3. Scroll down to the bottom and look for Action to do when launching a program from the desktop
  4. Click the drop down menu on the right of it and set it to Launch the file

Now launching the appimage from the desktop by clicking on it should work. At least this did it for me.

Kaloyan Marinov
  • 51
2

Same issue here.

I had tried the answers on this thread, but they weren't enough.

My problem was that I had downloaded the 32-bit version of balenaEtcher AppImage app. Alas, 32-bit apps are no longer supported in current Ubuntu versions.

You must be sure to download the 64-bit version of the AppImage app! Ubuntu doesn't alert you that it is a 32-bit version. It simply doesn't run it.

Josechu Gonzalez
  • 21
0

Appimages will not launch from the Thunar file manager. If you're on Ubuntu 22.04, like I, go back to using Files file manager.

Joe Molnar
  • 573
-1

Try, Open terminal in your appimage file location,

 ./name.appimage --no-sandbox
Neeraj
  • 1
  • 6
    This solution has severe security issues and should be avoided. Use this only if you really, really need an appimage with only runs with the --no-sandbox-option. Please see this answer, take a look at the moderators note. See also this answer which provides a solution using the sandbox. Might not work for all appimages though. – mook765 Aug 15 '24 at 14:35