How to Install Obsidian On Linux | Set it's $PATH variable

#obsidian #ubuntu #linux #path

In this blog we will learn about

How to download Obsidian App Image.
How to install and set up the $PATH for obsidian.

Let's get started.

Downloading

First of all, install the AppImage from the link. This file will probably be downloaded in your Home/Downloads folder.

Installing

Now open a terminal in your Home/Downloads folder.
You have to make this AppImage an executable file by using

sudo chmod +x Obsidian-1.1.9.AppImage

After that you have to rename the Obsidian-1.1.9.AppImage to obsidian using

mv Obsidian-1.1.9.AppImage obsidian

Then you'll have to create a new folder for obsidian at usr/bin and then copy the obsidian file to that folder.

sudo mkdir /usr/bin/obsidian
sudo cp obsidian /usr/bin/obsidian/obsidian

Now to add the PATH. You have to set the variable name in ~/.profile. This can be done by using

gedit ~/.profile (any text precessor)
export PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin/obsidian

in the terminal to open the file. Then adding line export PATH=$PATH:/usr/bin/obsidian at the end of your ~/.profile file.

Save and then close the file. You also have to restart the device to use these changes.
Now you can run obsidian from Application Launcher by Alt + F2 then typing obsidian. And from terminal by Ctrl + Alt + T then typing obsidian.

Top comments (4)

Ahmedelsa3eed • Mar 10

To be able to run obsidian from anywhere in the terminal consider the following (after renaming the downloaded file to obsidian):

sudo mv obsidian /usr/local/bin/
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/obsidian
obsidian

Jonathan Zollinger • Jul 11 '23

it's worth noting that if you want obsidian to show up in application launcher like Rofi you'll need to create a .desktop file in your user's ~/.local/share/applications directory. As an example, this is what I have for my Apache Directory Studio:

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Name=Apache Directory Studio
Exec=/home/trivir/ApacheDirectoryStudio/ApacheDirectoryStudio
Icon=/home/trivir/ApacheDirectoryStudio/icon.xpm

I'm still installing obsidian otherwise I'd post that example lol

Kaushit • Mar 26 • Edited

here is the one I have created using

kaushit@ubuntu:~/Downloads$ nano ~/.local/share/applications/obsidian.desktop

Now please paste the below content and have fun.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Obsidian
Comment=A powerful knowledge base that works on top of a local folder of plain text Markdown files
Exec=/usr/bin/obsidian/obsidian
Icon=/usr/bin/obsidian/obsidian-logo-gradient.svg
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Version=1.5.11
Categories=Office;Utility;
MimeType=x-scheme-handler/obsidian;text/html;

download the logo from official host
obsidian.md/images/obsidian-logo-g...