Category: Artificial Intelligence

Claude Desktop on Linux – update!

This post is an update to my earlier guide on installing Claude Desktop on Ubuntu/Debian. If you’re new here, start with that post first — this one covers what’s changed and how to update your existing install.

The Package is Back — and Better Than Ever

When we originally wrote the installation guide, the community-maintained claude-desktop-debian package by aaddrick was showing signs of going dormant. We’re happy to report that it has been fully resurrected and is more active than ever — sitting at 3,000+ GitHub stars, 75+ releases, and a thriving contributor community.

Even more importantly, the project now supports an APT repository, meaning Claude Desktop can update automatically alongside your other system packages. No more manually hunting for new .deb files.

There’s also a notable new feature: Cowork mode is now supported on Linux (experimental). You can run claude-desktop --doctor at any time to check your setup and see which isolation backend is active.

Step 1: Figure Out Which Method You Used

If you installed Claude Desktop a while back and don’t remember how you did it, run this:

apt-cache policy claude-desktop

Look at the output:

  • If you see a URL like https://aaddrick.github.io/claude-desktop-debian or https://pkg.claude-desktop-debian.dev — you already have the APT repo set up. Skip to Step 2.
  • If you see only 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status — you used the manual .deb method. Continue with Step 2 to add the repo.
  • If the command returns nothing — Claude Desktop isn’t registered with apt at all. Head back to the original guide for a fresh install.

Step 2: Migrate to the New APT Repository

Whether you’re coming from the manual .deb method or from the old APT repo URL, run the following to set up the current repository:

# Add the GPG key
curl -fsSL https://pkg.claude-desktop-debian.dev/KEY.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/claude-desktop.gpg

# Add the repository
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/claude-desktop.gpg arch=amd64,arm64] https://pkg.claude-desktop-debian.dev stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/claude-desktop.list

# Update and install
sudo apt update
sudo apt install claude-desktop

If you already have Claude Desktop installed, the last command will upgrade it in place. Your MCP configuration at ~/.config/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json will be preserved.

From now on, Claude Desktop will update automatically whenever you run sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade.

Troubleshooting

“The repository does not have a Release file”

If you had previously set up the old APT repo (hosted at aaddrick.github.io), you may see this error when running apt update. The repo moved to a new domain in April 2026. Clean up the old entry and add the new one:

sudo rm /etc/apt/sources.list.d/claude-desktop.list
sudo rm /usr/share/keyrings/claude-desktop.gpg

Then re-run the commands in Step 2 above.

If you want a one-liner instead (i.e., if you set up the old repo yourself and know what you’re doing), you can use sed to update the URL directly inside the existing file:

sudo sed -i 's|aaddrick.github.io/claude-desktop-debian|pkg.claude-desktop-debian.dev|g' /etc/apt/sources.list.d/claude-desktop.list

Quick explainer on that command: sed -i means “edit this file in place.” The s|old|new|g part means “substitute every occurrence of the old URL with the new one.” It’s a find-and-replace for the terminal.

Unrelated GPG errors from other packages

When running apt update, you may see GPG signature errors from completely unrelated packages — for my example, Spotify cropped up. These are separate issues that have nothing to do with Claude Desktop. A typical fix for Spotify looks like:

curl -sS https://download.spotify.com/debian/pubkey_6224F9941A8AA6D1.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor --yes -o /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/spotify.gpg

For other packages, search for the package name + “GPG key ubuntu” to find the current key URL. The pattern is the same: download the key, convert it with gpg --dearmor, and drop it in /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/.

That’s it! If you run into anything not covered here, the GitHub Issues page for the project is active and well-monitored. And as always, claude-desktop --doctor is your first stop for diagnosing anything that seems off.