Linux Specific Pre-requisites#

• These are tested on Ubuntu 24.04.2 LTS and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (thanks to "FP Coetzee")

System Requirements#

• Disk space ~1.2G for basic build.
• RAM: Minimum 4GB recommended (for Electron builds)

Pre-requisites#

• Ubuntu Packages: git, build-essential and xorg-dev

1. Install System Packages#

for ubuntu

sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y git build-essential xorg-dev

for fedora

sudo dnf install -y xorg-x11-server-devel libxkbfile-devel

2. Install Node#

• I recommend using nvm

Common Issues & Solutions#

Issue: pnpm install fails with native-keymap error#

Error message:

 ERR_PNPM_OPTIONAL_DEPS_REQUIRER  optional dep native-keymap failed
 ...
 node-gyp ERR! build error
 node-gyp ERR! gyp ERR! rebuild

Solution: This occurs when xorg-dev is missing. Install it:

sudo apt install xorg-dev

Then retry:

pnpm install

Issue: Electron fails to start with libglib error#

Error message:

~/marktext/node_modules/electron/dist/electron: error while loading shared libraries:
libglib-2.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Solution: Install the X11/GUI development libraries:

sudo apt install xorg-dev

If the issue persists, you may need the full X11 environment:

sudo apt install xorg

Issue: Permission errors during pnpm install#

Solution: Make sure you're not running pnpm commands with sudo. pnpm stores packages in a global content-addressable store (default: ~/.local/share/pnpm/store). If you encounter permission errors, ensure the store directory is owned by your user:

# Check and fix store ownership if needed
sudo chown -R $(whoami) ~/.local/share/pnpm