Linux

Corvid on Linux is in beta. It needs a 64-bit Linux with a desktop.

Tested status#

Automated tests pass on Linux.
Build, install, update and rollback ran on one Ubuntu 26.04 server with no desktop.
Nobody has tried Corvid on a Linux desktop yet. The window, the tray, the keyring and the sandbox step are not tested on a real desktop.

To help test, follow the tester checklist in TESTING-PLATFORMS.md and report what you see.

What Linux needs#

A system keyring, GNOME Keyring or KWallet, to save passwords and tokens. A desktop has one already.
A colour emoji font. Without one, emoji on the board show in black and white. Install it with sudo apt install fonts-noto-color-emoji (Debian, Ubuntu) or sudo dnf install google-noto-color-emoji-fonts (Fedora).
On Ubuntu 23.10 and later, a one-time sudo step for Chromium's sandbox. See Chromium's sandbox.

What is different on Linux#

Feature	On Linux
Shortcuts	Ctrl, as on Windows
Show or hide Corvid from any app	Ctrl+Alt+Space. Under Wayland, only if the desktop supports global shortcuts.
Tray	Only where the desktop has one, such as KDE. GNOME needs the AppIndicator extension.
Start at login	Open at login in Settings → Window and layout. It writes `~/.config/autostart/corvid.desktop`.
Resume a session in a terminal window	`$TERMINAL`, then `x-terminal-emulator`, `gnome-terminal`, `konsole` or `xterm`. With none of them, the button is hidden.
Open in Visual Studio Code (VS Code)	`code` on your `PATH`
Side terminal shells	Your login shell first, then the other installed shells
Saved passwords and tokens	GNOME Keyring or KWallet
Spell check	Usually none

Voice dictation does not work on Linux yet. The microphone button is greyed out.

With no tray#

With no tray, Corvid cannot run hidden. Settings shows No system tray. Closing the window quits Corvid. If terminals or agents are running, Corvid asks first: Minimise or Quit Corvid.

With no keyring#

Corvid refuses to save a password or token without a keyring. It never stores them as plain text. The rest of Corvid works. To fix it, install GNOME Keyring or KWallet and make sure it is unlocked. Then log out, log back in and restart Corvid.

Where things are#

What	Where
The app	`~/.local/share/corvid/app`
Previous builds, for rollback	`~/.local/share/corvid/app.previous`
Your data	`~/.config/Corvid`, or `$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/Corvid` if that is set
The app menu entry	`~/.local/share/applications/corvid.desktop`

Chromium's sandbox#

Corvid keeps Chromium's sandbox on. Ubuntu 23.10 and later block what the sandbox needs for unknown apps. Corvid then does not start, with an error about chrome-sandbox or "No usable sandbox!".

Setup checks for this. When the step is needed, setup prints the exact commands before it installs Corvid. It never runs sudo itself. Run the commands once. You have two choices:

An AppArmor profile. This is the better choice, because it stays in place after updates. Setup prints a sudo tee /etc/apparmor.d/corvid block, then sudo apparmor_parser -r /etc/apparmor.d/corvid.
Make chrome-sandbox setuid root. Each npm run deploy copies a new chrome-sandbox, so you must do this again after every update.

Do not start Corvid with --no-sandbox.