This article covers a number of methods for installing Yubico software on Linux.

Yubico Authenticator

1. Recommended - Install via Snap Store, or use the AppImage available here.
   • See How to run an AppImage? on https://appimage.org/ for instructions on how to use AppImages.
   • If you have trouble getting the AppImage to work, make sure your system has the pcscd package installed, and pcscd is started and enabled to start on boot.
     • To enable and start pcscd on most Linux systems, run sudo systemctl enable --now pcscd
     • You can check whether pcscd is running with systemctl status pcscd, and can check whether it is enabled by running systemctl is-enabled pcscd
2. Install via your distribution's repositories, if possible. Since the exact steps for this vary from OS to OS, please refer to your distribution's documentation for more information.

YubiKey Manager (GUI)

1. Recommended - Download and run the AppImage of YubiKey Manager, which is available here.
   • See How to run an AppImage? on https://appimage.org/ for instructions on how to use AppImages.
   • If you have trouble getting the AppImage to work, make sure your system has the pcscd package installed, and pcscd is started and enabled to start on boot.
     • To enable and start pcscd on most Linux systems, run sudo systemctl enable --now pcscd
     • You can check whether pcscd is running with systemctl status pcscd, and can check whether it is enabled by running systemctl is-enabled pcscd
2. Install via your distribution's repositories, if possible. Since the exact steps for this vary from OS to OS, please refer to your distribution's documentation for more information.

Installing using built-in repositories

For Yubico packages other than Yubico Authenticator and YubiKey Manager (GUI), we recommend using your distribution's built-in repositories for installation, where possible. Since the exact steps for this vary from OS to OS, we recommend referring to your distribution's documentation for more information, but as an example, on Fedora, the Yubico PAM Module would be installed using the Terminal command sudo dnf install pam_yubico.

Using Yubico's PPA (Ubuntu and derivatives)

If you are using Ubuntu or a derivative, you wish to install Yubico packages other than Yubico Authenticator and YubiKey Manager (GUI), and they are not available in your distribution's repositories, you have the additional option of installing via the Yubico PPA. For installing Yubico Authenticator and YubiKey Manager (GUI), the recommendations above should be followed. To add our PPA as an APT repository:

1. Open Terminal.
2. Run: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yubico/stable && sudo apt-get update
3. When prompted, press Enter to confirm adding the PPA.

   • If sudo add-apt-repository ppa:yubico/stable fails to fetch the signing key, you can add it manually by running sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 32CBA1A9.

Success! Now you can install the latest Yubico software via Terminal, using apt install. Some common applications and their installation commands are listed below.

Compiling from source code

Since many Yubico applications are open-source, it is alternatively possible to compile them from source code, but this method is only recommended for advanced users. Source code for our software can be found on GitHub.