Questions concerning the installation on Linux (Ubuntu 18.04)

Mojo Dodo
Concerning the installation on Linux (or precisely on Ubuntu 18.04) I have a few questions to which I didn't find the answer in the documentation:

1. When locally installing Zotero in my home directory, is there any recommendation regarding the exact directory? From what I see it can’t be installed to either ~/.zotero or ~/Zotero, because these are already used by the programme itself.

2. When installing Zotero globally for all users on the system I did that as follows:
sudo tar -xf ~/Downloads/Zotero-5.0.48_linux-x86_64.tar.bz2 -C /opt
sudo bash /opt/Zotero_linux-x86_64/set_launcher_icon
sudo ln -s /opt/Zotero_linux-x86_64/zotero.desktop /usr/share/applications/

Besides the fact that I need to run Zotero with root access to use auto update, is there any additional drawback?

3. If I never start Zotero from the command line, but always from the Ubuntu launcher is the following necessary:
sudo ln -s /opt/Zotero_linux-x86_64/zotero /usr/bin/zotero
  • emilianoeheyns
    edited June 11, 2018
    1. I don't think so, just not the directories Zotero uses itself

    2. This should work just fine

    3. No.
  • KatataK
    Hi all

    I have linux Ubuntu running(also Gnome and Wayland) and trying to work through the basic installation instructions. I've run through set_launcher_icon and then zotero. No change. Do I need to run a sudo command from the terminal to install Zotero as a program?

    Thanks and take pity on a noob.


  • adamsmith
    What exactly do you mean by "install Zotero as a program"? Zotero on Linux just runs from the binary (creating its necessary profile folders on first run). What do you want installation to do? (This is a genuine question -- I'm just trying to figure out what part isn't working for you).
  • Mojo Dodo
    edited July 14, 2018
    I have linux Ubuntu running(also Gnome and Wayland) and trying to work through the basic installation instructions. I've run through set_launcher_icon and then zotero. No change. Do I need to run a sudo command from the terminal to install Zotero as a program?
    You don't need to "install" Zotero on Ubuntu. Just download the tar.bz2-File and extraxt it. You can place the folder called Zotero_linux-x86_64 basically anywhere you like. Then you just need to double click the file Zotero (before starting the file the first time it might show as Zotero.desktop).

    Are you using Ubuntu 18.04?
    If you want Zotero to be displayed in the Gnome Shell and have it in the launcher you need to create a symbolic link in the folder ~/.local/share/applications/ (this folder in in your home directory; the dot before local indicates that it's a hidden folder). There are two ways to do that:
    1. easily via command line:
    ln -s ~/Downloads/Zotero_linux-x86_64/zotero.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/
    (if the Zotero-folder is not in Downloads, the command needs to be adjusted accordingly)
    2. Drag and Drop the file to the directory ~/.local/share/applications/ while pressing CTRL + ↑

    In order to get the Zotero icon shown you need to run the command:
    bash ~/Downloads/Zotero_linux-x86_64/set_launcher_icon

    Maybe sounds complicated, but it's very easy :)
  • emilianoeheyns
    https://raw.githubusercontent.com/retorquere/zotero-better-bibtex/master/zotero5_installer.py will ask you some questions when ran and will download and install Zotero, create desktop icons, etc. It's opinionated (if you choose local install, it will put zotero in ~/bin/zotero/zotero) but takes care of the whole process.
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