Install and update Booked Solid on Linux (AppImage, .deb and .rpm)

You are on Linux, and every install guide in this folder talks about Windows and Mac. One customer put it plainly: I do not run on Windows or Mac. I have been using Booked Solid on my Linux (Ubuntu based) system, and after a week of mixed answers, What is the path going forward here? Here is the whole path. The short answer to is there a Linux version is yes, and has been since version 1.7.8 on 13 July 2026. It ships as three files: an AppImage, a deb package and an rpm package. All three install in minutes, and all three update from inside the app, the same way they do on Windows and Mac.

Which file to download

Start at the download page: booked.kivimedia.co/download. The big Linux button there hands you the AppImage. The packages are one click further on, under the line Prefer a package? .deb and .rpm are on the releases page, which opens the latest release on GitHub where every file for the current version is listed with its release notes.

• AppImage works on any distribution. One file, no installation. It arrives as BookedSolid-linux.AppImage from the download page, or as BookedSolid-1.11.43-x86_64.AppImage from the releases page.
• .deb is the one to take on Ubuntu, Debian, Mint and Pop!_OS. It is named like BookedSolid-1.11.43-amd64.deb.
• .rpm is for Fedora and other RPM based systems. It is named like BookedSolid-1.11.43-x86_64.rpm.

All three are 64-bit Intel and AMD builds (x86_64, called amd64 on Debian and Ubuntu). There is no ARM build, so a Raspberry Pi or an ARM laptop is not supported today. The download page lists Ubuntu 22.04 and newer plus most modern distributions. Version 1.11.43 was current when this was written: wherever a file name appears below, substitute the version number the page actually shows you.

Install the deb package on Ubuntu or Debian

1. Open the latest release page and download the deb file, named like BookedSolid-1.11.43-amd64.deb. That one file is the whole app.
2. Install it. Double-clicking opens your desktop software installer, which works. From a terminal this is the more reliable route, because it also resolves the libraries the package asks for: sudo apt install ./BookedSolid-1.11.43-amd64.deb
3. Keep the leading ./. Without it, apt looks for a package by that name in your repositories and reports that it cannot find it.
4. Open Booked Solid from your applications menu, where it files itself under Office. From a terminal the command is booked-solid.

The deb package lists gnome-keyring and libsecret among its dependencies, so your package manager installs the secret store the app uses to hold your sign-in and your connected accounts. That is a real advantage over the AppImage, which cannot pull anything in for you.

Install the rpm package on Fedora and other RPM systems

1. Download BookedSolid-1.11.43-x86_64.rpm from the same releases page.
2. Install the local file the way you normally would, for example sudo dnf install ./BookedSolid-1.11.43-x86_64.rpm, or point zypper install at it.
3. Open Booked Solid from your applications menu, or run booked-solid.

Like the deb package, the rpm lists gnome-keyring and libsecret as dependencies.

Run the AppImage on any distribution

1. Download it from booked.kivimedia.co/download.
2. Make it executable. Either right-click the file, open Properties, and turn on the permission that allows executing the file as a program (the wording differs between desktops), or from a terminal: chmod +x BookedSolid-linux.AppImage
3. Run it. Double-click, or run the file from a terminal.

Keep the AppImage somewhere permanent rather than in Downloads. That one file is the whole application, and it is the file the app replaces when an update arrives.

Signing in: one license covers every platform

Nothing about your account changes on Linux, and there is nothing extra to buy. On the first screen choose First time here? Enter your license key, paste the key from your license email (the field shows the shape it expects, like BS-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX), add your email, then pick a username and password. If you already have an account from another machine, sign in with that same username and password instead and everything carries over. The full first-run walkthrough is in Start here: from download to your first booking task, step by step.

How do I update on Linux

If your question is simply how do I update on Linux, the answer is the same as everywhere else: the app does it. Booked Solid checks quietly at launch, downloads a new version in the background while you keep working, and shows an Update ready badge next to the logo in the top bar. You can also press Check for updates in that same top bar whenever you want. When a version is downloaded, the update window offers Restart & install. Your settings, your leads and your Booking HQ folder are never touched by an update.

This is true for the AppImage, the deb package and the rpm package alike. If you were told that a deb or rpm install can never update itself and you would have to download every new build by hand forever, that was wrong, and sorry for the runaround.

There is one Linux-only difference worth expecting on the packages. A package update is installed by your own package manager, so after you press Restart & install, your desktop asks for your administrator password before it can replace the app. That prompt is normal. Answer it and the app comes back on the new version.

The AppImage never asks for a password. It writes the new file over the one you launched. If your file name carries no version number, like BookedSolid-linux.AppImage, that same file is replaced in place and nothing else changes. If the name does carry a version, like BookedSolid-1.11.43-x86_64.AppImage, the new file is written next to it under the new version's name and the old one is removed, so a launcher or dock shortcut pinned to the old file name has to be pointed at the new file once.

To see where you stand, open Settings > Updates. It names the version you are running.

The one exception: an AppImage you extracted

Run the AppImage as the AppImage file itself. Some file managers and some helper tools unpack an AppImage into a folder and start the unpacked binary instead. Launched that way, the app has no idea it came from an AppImage, and it cannot replace a file it cannot find, so it does not self-update at all. Nothing is broken, and it will keep running, but new versions will never arrive on their own.

The tell is what you get from Check for updates. Instead of checking, the window tells you this copy does not update itself. On current builds it says: This copy cannot update itself. That happens when an AppImage is run from an extracted folder instead of the AppImage file, and on Snap installs. On builds released before that wording changed, the same situation reads: Updates are managed by your Linux package for this install. Install the newest version from where you downloaded Booked Solid. That older sentence is misleading and is why some people were told a deb or rpm install can never update itself. Either way the meaning is the same: if you never installed a deb package or an rpm package, you are running an extracted copy. Delete the unpacked folder, keep the original .AppImage file, make it executable, and launch that. Self-updating comes back on its own.

We do not publish a Snap build of Booked Solid, so there is no Snap to install or update.

Updating by hand, when you have to

This is the fallback for an extracted AppImage, and it works for any format:

1. Go to the latest release page and download the current file in the format you use.
2. Install it the same way you did the first time. AppImage: make it executable and run it in place of the old one. Deb: sudo apt install ./BookedSolid-1.11.43-amd64.deb, with the version you downloaded. Rpm: install the local file with dnf or zypper.
3. Open the app again. Your settings, connections and workspace are exactly as you left them.

There is no uninstall step first. The new package replaces the old one.

If a toggle switch moves around when you resize the window

A Linux customer on a 1920x1080 screen reported that the on and off switches in Settings would not hold still while he dragged the window edge: the toggle can move outside of the actual switch space, up and down as well as side to side. He was right that it was just a visual UI issue and doesn't seem to impact functionality, because the switches kept working.

The cause was that the little knob was animated in a way that re-measured its own position on screen every time the window reflowed. Dragging the window made the Settings panel reflow underneath it, its cached position went stale, and the knob got flung outside the pill. It showed on Linux in particular because GNOME fires a burst of resize events during that drag. The fix pins the knob to its track with a purely visual slide that never reads the layout: same look, same on and off animation, no drift.

It shipped in version 1.9.1 on 21 July 2026. So if a toggle switch moves around for you today, you are simply on an older build. Update from inside the app, in whichever format you installed, and it stops.

Do not run the Windows build under Bottles or Wine

Running the Windows .exe inside Bottles, or any other Wine-style Windows environment, does not work. One customer tried it while waiting for the Linux build, and the failure is confusing from the outside: account creation appears to get most of the way through, then the app will not let you sign in with the credentials you thought you had just set. The account was never actually created, and the password reset screen then looks broken too, because it answers the same way whether or not an account exists. Nothing is wrong with your license. Install the native AppImage, deb package or rpm package, activate your license key there, and the half-finished attempt is irrelevant: nothing from it carries over or conflicts.

Connections that will not stick: the Linux keyring

If Microsoft 365 or Google keeps asking you to reconnect, or you get an error about an unlocked OS keyring, the problem is where your computer keeps secrets. On Linux that is gnome-keyring or KWallet, and if neither is installed or unlocked, the app refuses to keep that connection rather than half-save it and let you think you are connected. The deb and rpm packages list the keyring as a dependency so your package manager installs it; the AppImage cannot do that, so on a bare desktop you may need to install gnome-keyring yourself. The walkthrough is in the keyring error guide, under Fix it on Linux.

Some Linux desktops have no keyring at all. There the app shows a one-time notice that your Booked Solid account sign-in is saved in a less protected way, and it keeps working. Only that account sign-in uses the fallback, never your saved keys and never your connected accounts. Installing gnome-keyring restores full protection. That message is explained in Sign-in stuck or on hold: when this computer cannot save your account.

One case looks identical but is not. On window managers like i3 and sway, the keyring can be running perfectly and still go unnoticed, because the backend is chosen from desktop-environment detection. If you are on one of those and connections still will not hold, start the app with the environment variable BOOKED_PASSWORD_STORE=gnome-libsecret to name the backend directly. Nothing needs reinstalling.

Two messages that never apply on Linux

• The Mac move the app to Applications update message. That check only runs on macOS. If you have read it in another article, it is not your problem.
• The Windows SmartScreen warning about an unrecognised app. There is no equivalent on Linux, so there is nothing to click past.

If it still does not work

Linux went through the same test suite as the Mac and Windows builds and was verified running on Ubuntu before release, but it is the newest of the three platforms. If something behaves differently from what the guides describe, that is worth telling us rather than working around.

When you write in, say whether you installed the AppImage, the deb package or the rpm package, and which version you are on. That one line answers half the question. A support bundle helps too: see Send us a support bundle. If the update itself is the problem rather than the install, Which version am I running, and why the app says you are up to date when it is not covers the causes that are not specific to Linux, and How updates work: the update badge and Restart & install explains what each state in the update window means.

Still stuck? Open a ticket from this help center and we will take it from there.