How to install GitHub Desktop in Fedora 33

Intro

GitHub Desktop is a Git Client application, developed by (and to be used with) GitHub. Its official flavours are compatible with Windows and Mac OS, although it can be installed also in Linux using Snap.

Snap installation

The easiest way to install GitHub Desktop in a Linux distribution, is by using Snap. It will install all the necessary dependencies, similarly to what Flatpak does.

First thing to do is to enable snaps on Fedora:

sudo dnf install snapd

Either log out and back in again, or restart your system, to ensure snap’s paths are updated correctly.

To enable classic snap support, enter the following to create a symbolic link between /var/lib/snapd/snap and /snap:

sudo ln -s /var/lib/snapd/snap /snap

After that, snaps should be recognised by the cli.

To install GitHub Desktop, simply use the following command:

sudo snap install github-desktop --beta --classic

Install using pre-baked binaries

If, for any reason, the snapd installation shouldn’t work, it’s still possible to install it using a semi-official fork with prebuilt Linux binaries by @shiftkey.

First, add the gpgkey:

sudo rpm --import https://packagecloud.io/shiftkey/desktop/gpgkey

Then, add the repository:

sudo sh -c 'echo -e "[shiftkey]\nname=GitHub Desktop\nbaseurl=https://packagecloud.io/shiftkey/desktop/el/7/\$basearch\nenabled=1\ngpgcheck=0\nrepo_gpgcheck=1\ngpgkey=https://packagecloud.io/shiftkey/desktop/gpgkey" > /etc/yum.repos.d/shiftkey-desktop.repo' 

Finally, install the application:

sudo dnf install github-desktop

The application will be installed together with all its dependencies.

Any comments? Let me know!