GitHub Desktop on Linux GitHub Desktop on Linux | Zhiwei Li

GitHub Desktop on Linux | Generated by AI

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GitHub Desktop on Linux — What You Just Installed

What is the shiftkey/desktop fork?

GitHub Desktop (the official app by GitHub Inc.) only supports macOS and Windows. There is no official Linux build. shiftkey/desktop is the de facto Linux port — maintained by Brendan Forster (GitHub alumnus) and the community. It tracks the official upstream desktop/desktop codebase closely, adding Linux-specific patches for:

  • Native file dialogs (via GTK)
  • Linux keychain integration (libsecret/gnome-keyring)
  • AppIndicator/tray support
  • .deb packaging for Debian/Ubuntu-based distros

The latest release is 3.4.13-linux1 (Feb 2025) — it’s an “RC” but has been very stable for most users. It’s the same version as GitHub Desktop 3.4.13 on Windows/Mac under the hood.

How to use it

Action How
Launch github-desktop in terminal, or find “GitHub Desktop” in your app menu
First run Sign in with your GitHub account (OAuth flow opens your browser)
Clone a repo File > Clone Repository, or paste a URL
Open a local repo File > Add Local Repository
Push/Pull/Fetch Toolbar buttons at the top
Create PR Branch > Create Pull Request (opens in browser)

What it can do

  • Clone, init, add, commit, push, pull, fetch repos
  • Visually review diffs (side-by-side or unified)
  • Create and switch branches, manage PRs
  • Resolve merge conflicts with a GUI
  • View commit history with a graph
  • Stash/unstash changes
  • Manage multiple repos in one window
  • SSH key and GPG signing support

Caveats to be aware of

  1. Not an official GitHub product — it’s a community fork. It works well but may lag behind upstream releases by a few weeks.
  2. No auto-update — the Linux build doesn’t have the built-in updater. You’ll need to manually download and dpkg -i new .deb releases as they come out.
  3. AppIndicator/tray — it minimises to system tray; if your Mint panel doesn’t show tray icons by default, you may need a tray extension (e.g., snapd-glib, libayatana-appindicator should be pre-installed on Mint).
  4. No GPG signing in GUI — CLI-based GPG signing works fine but the GUI doesn’t expose commit signing settings on Linux.
  5. Keychain — uses GNOME Keyring / libsecret for storing credentials. If you don’t have one set up, it’ll ask for a keychain password on first credential save.

File locations

Path Purpose
/usr/bin/github-desktop The main binary
/usr/share/applications/github-desktop.desktop App menu entry
~/.config/GitHub Desktop/ Application config and keychain data
/tmp/github-desktop.deb The downloaded installer (still there if you want to keep for reinstall)

Updating later

When a new release comes out, the same recipe works:

# Find the latest .deb URL from:
#   https://github.com/shiftkey/desktop/releases/latest
cd /tmp
curl -fsSL -O <url-to-newest-amd64.deb>
pkexec dpkg -i GitHubDesktop-linux-amd64-*.deb

No apt install -f needed — the .deb bundles all its Electron dependencies.

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