Table of Contents

• Yubico Authenticator 6.0+

• Yubico Authenticator 5.1 and previous

• YubiKey Manager (GUI)

• Installing using built-in repositories

• Using Yubico's PPA (Ubuntu and derivatives)

  • To add our PPA as an APT repository

  • Common Application names for Repositories

• Compiling from source code

Yubico Authenticator 6.0+

1. Recommended - Install our binary that we have created and use it to run from here.
   • Please note it is in a tarball, therefore you will need to extract the folder where it has permissions to run. 
   • We would recommend running the desktop_integration.sh script to integrate into your system
   • QR scanning feature requires gnome-screenshot when using Wayland
   • To run this, just change your path to the executable and then run the command ./authenticator
   • If you have trouble getting the binary 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. Attempt to install via your distribution's repositories. To do so, please check your distribution's documentation about the packages. 
   • Please note Yubico does not manage the packages in repositories and most are compiled from our Github. Therefore the version might not match the most current one, any issues or components not compiled correctly should be brought up to the package manager. 
3. Compile from source using our github found here.

Yubico Authenticator 5.1 and previous

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.
   • Appimage require that the system wide pcscd is running but for the snap store version the system wide pcscd need to be stopped and disabled as the snap bundles its own version of the pcscd daemon
   • 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. Compile via our github binaries here or Yubico PPA if you are on Ubuntu

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. Please note that distributions are not controlled by Yubico, so they may not be up to date or compiled correctly. If you have issues you may have to contact the distribution to correct it. 

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.

Please note: The Yubico PPA is not always up to date, and is only intended for historical versions. Later versions maybe uploaded, but we recommend always using your distributions repositories where possible. 

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.

Common Application names for Repositories

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.