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Kamaal Abshir
Kamaal Abshir

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How to install Cursor the AI- editor on linux

Cursor is an AI-first code editor designed for pair-programming with AI, it is available for download on Linux, Mac, and Windows platforms.
Cursor is built to help developers build software faster and more efficiently.

I installed cursor and used it on my mac it's straight forward how to installed it on mac, but when i tried to install it on Linux Ubuntu it's quite challenging.

how ever after doing some research on the internet i figured it out how to install on Ubuntu Linux here is the steps i did to have cursor working on my machine.

  1. Visit the Cursor website at https://cursor.so and click on the "Download for Linux" button.

cursor download button

  1. Once the download is complete, in your download folder you will have a file that ends with this extension .Appimage

wait what the heck is this extension ".Appimage"

AppImage is a universal software package format that can be installed on Linux without going through the traditional way of installation

  1. Don't click right away, we have to make the file executable, so it can run nicely and smoothly, navigate the Download folder or where you downloaded the cursor app and run this command to make the file executable


chmod +x cursor-0.8.5.AppImage


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cursor-0.8.5.AppImage is the file i downloaded from the cursor website yours maybe variant just replace after +x to your file name.

okay, now you have encouter this error, if you don't see any error you can skip step 4



./cursor-0.8.5.AppImage
dlopen(): error loading libfuse.so.2

AppImages require FUSE to run. 
You might still be able to extract the contents of this AppImage 
if you run it with the --appimage-extract option. 
See https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/wiki/FUSE 
for more information


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so what the heck is going on ?

The error message indicates that the .AppImage requires FUSE to run, to fix this issue, and fuse it is a mechanism for Unix-like operating systems that allows non-privileged users to create their own file systems without editing kernel code.
This is achieved by running file system code in user space, while the FUSE kernel module provides only a "bridge" to the actual kernel interfaces.

  1. install fuse


sudo apt-get install fuse


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  1. once you install the fuse now run again this command


chmod +x cursor-0.8.5.AppImage


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  1. nice one more step now you can run .Appimage by typing or by double clicking the cursor file on your download folder


./cursor-0.8.5.AppImage


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you can run any time that you need by double clicking the app in your download folder or on your terminal.

How to add cursor app on the installed application list

each time you need to run cursor you have to go download folder and run it from there

so you follow these steps to add the cursor on application list

  1. move the app from the download to opt folder


sudo mv cursor-0.8.5.AppImage /opt/cursor.appimage


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  1. Create a desktop entry for Cursor by running the command


sudo nano /usr/share/applications/cursor.desktop


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  1. past the follow in the file you've just created


[Desktop Entry]
Name=Cursor
Exec=/opt/cursor.appimage
Icon=/opt/cursor.png
Type=Application
Categories=Development;


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  1. save the file


ctl + x  


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then



press y 


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then



press enter


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one last step we have to add any icon you like, to the app so you can differentiate it from other apps since we move the app to opt direcotry,

add .png image to the opt file that is named cursor.png

cusror is working and have custom icon

that is it thanks for reading

Top comments (27)

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johannesmichael profile image
johannesmichael

Since Ubuntu 22.04 the installation of Fuse can crash your system (as it did mine, Ubuntu 23). Just install libfuse2.
github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/wi...

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msaririzki profile image
rizki • Edited

How do you solve the problem after installing the fuse? I've already installed it and after I restarted my Ubuntu system it was damaged and information was like this : Oh no! Something went wrong. A problem occurred and the system could not recover. Please log out and try again.

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juliushuck profile image
Julius Huck

Check this out. The answer lists the packages that get removed when you install fuse: askubuntu.com/a/1409500

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proflead profile image
Vladislav Guzey

There is an option without fuse proflead.dev/posts/cursor-ai-full-...

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stargazer10101 profile image
Nitish Itankar

Thanks. Wish I had seen this before crashing my Ubuntu system.

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meetshah8084 profile image
Meet Shah

thx for help

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akbarsaputrait profile image
Akbar Anung Yudha Saputra

How to update to the latest Cursor?

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mhbaando profile image
Kamaal Abshir

you do the same steps just download the cursor, then move it the existing directory, you don't need t install the Fuse again since you already installed and keep on

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akbarsaputrait profile image
Akbar Anung Yudha Saputra

Hahaha you're right! I just move the newest AppImage to my existing app. Thanks!!

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daveragos profile image
Dawit Beyene

it working and thanks for that but the icon of the app isnt showing (its transparent)

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mhbaando profile image
Kamaal Abshir

the reason that the icon is not showing is you have to manually assign icon,
see this section on the "How to add cursor app on the installed application list"

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maketroli profile image
Marcelo

This is wrong. DO NOT INSTALL FUSE ON UBUNTU 24.04. I tried this guide and it caused my system to crash to a point where I had to reboot my computer from grub rescue. It heavily deleted extensions and important apps I had on my system.

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lukas_marques_75fec65a06e profile image
Lukas Marques • Edited

@mhbaando Please add a warning to the post informing the installation of Fuse will break Ubuntu installs above 22.04. Too many people in the comments have had the problem (myself included) and nobody reads the comments before installing, so the post needs to be updated.

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khushil_shah_9e34738a0207 profile image
KHUSHIL SHAH

i did all the steps but my cursor was not added to app list then i copied .desktop file and pasted to desktop folder and now i m able to see the cursor with the coreect icon but its not opening cursor app by clicking it
it made it executable and allowed for launching still i m not able to open cursor app by using .desktop file

Ubuntu 24.04
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clinteastwood profile image
Clint Eastwood

In order for the AppImage to run successfully, the --no-sandbox flag needs to be set. Thus, see below for what needs to be in your cursor.desktop:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Cursor
Exec=/opt/cursor.appimage --no-sandbox
Icon=/opt/cursor.png
Type=Application
Categories=Development;

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khushil_shah_9e34738a0207 profile image
KHUSHIL SHAH

setuid_sandbox_host.cc(158)] The SUID sandbox helper binary was found, but is not configured correctly. Rather than run without sandboxing I'm aborting now. You need to make sure that /tmp/.mount_cursorARFXWq/chrome-sandbox is owned by root and has mode 4755.

this is the error i m getting

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siegemt profile image
SiegeMT

If you put the AppImage in /opt make sure it's executable by all using ls -l /opt/cursor.AppImage and try right clicking on your desktop if you have a "create launcher" option then put the appimage path in the "command" section. If you cant the hit super and type "applications" and find New Item and add it that way. Sounds like you may be using an environment that you either needed to reload or does behind the scenes things rather than directly accessing it and it's trying to open as root which it has issues with doing.

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shafin_hasnat profile image
Shafin Hasnat

To open cursor with cursor command-

echo "alias cursor='/opt/cursor.appimage" >> ~/.bashrc
source ~/.bashrc
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porchen_hund_f6741df13a0c profile image
Porchen Hund

For ubuntu24.04

./cursor-0.8.5.AppImage --no-sandbox

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ethan_cooper_6a77482a1e18 profile image
Ethan Cooper

Running ./cursor-0.8.5.AppImage --no-sandbox on Ubuntu 24.04 can crash your system, break your desktop, or cause security issues. Make sure you know the risks and have backups before trying it!

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johnnykoo84 profile image
Johnny Ilmo Koo

Appreciate your detailed tutorial sir. If you could, could you please share how to run “cursor” command anywhere in terminal?

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proflead profile image
Vladislav Guzey

Thanks! There is a way without fuse youtu.be/EX-0ui_hQMo?si=iYdTHawcYL...