How to install the ULauncher quick-launch app on Linux
Ulauncher is an excellent application launcher that when installed, makes it very easy to find and launch your files, quickly open websites, find programs to open, calculate math problems, and more.
This app isn’t the first app launcher for Linux we’ve covered on Addictivetips. In fact, in the past, we talked a few before. Still, Ulauncher stands out and is worth talking about due to how fast it is.
Install ULauncher on Linux
There are a few ways to install Ulauncher, depending on the Linux distribution you use. On Ubuntu, there is a dedicated PPA. For Arch, there’s an AUR package, while on Fedora and OpenSUSE there is a downloadable RPM package.
Ubuntu
As mentioned earlier, there’s a dedicated PPA available for Ubuntu users looking to install ULauncher. To enable this PPA, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, use the add-apt-repository command to enable the new repo on your system.
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:agornostal/ulauncher
Following adding the new PPA to your Ubuntu system, you’ll have to run the update command, as Ubuntu’s software must be refreshed for the new ULauncher PPA to work.
sudo apt update
After running the update command, go ahead and run the upgrade command to see if you have any pending software updates or patches.
sudo apt upgrade -y
Finally, use the apt install command to get the latest version of Ulauncher on Ubuntu.
sudo apt install ulauncher
Debian
ULauncher has support for Debian, though the PPA won’t work. Instead, if you want to use the app on your system, you must manually download the DEB package file from the developer’s website.
To grab the latest ULauncher package from the internet, open up a terminal window by pressing Ctrl + Alt + T or Ctrl + Shift + T on the keyboard. Then, use the wget downloader tool to start the download.
wget https://github.com/Ulauncher/Ulauncher/releases/download/4.4.0.r1/ulauncher_4.4.0.r1_all.deb
With the download complete, it’s time to install the software on Debian Linux with the dpkg command in the terminal.
sudo dpkg -i ulauncher_4.4.0.r1_all.deb
Finally, finish up the installation process by correcting and fixing any dependencies that may not have been set up correctly during the Dpkg process.
sudo apt install -f
Arch Linux
There’s an AUR package of ULauncher ready to install, however, in this guide, we’ll go over installing Trizen instead. The main reason to do this is that Trizen is an AUR helper, and will take care of the dependencies automatically.
To start the installation of Trizen, use the Pacman package manager to install the Git and Base-devel packages on Arch.
sudo pacman -S git base-devel
Following the installation of the two packages above with Pacman, use the Git tool to download the latest AUR build of Trizen to your Arch PC.
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/trizen.git
Install Trizen with makepkg.
cd trizen
makepkg -sri
Finally, use the Trizen tool to install ULauncher on your Arch Linux PC.
trizen -S ulauncher
Fedora
To get ULauncher on Fedora Linux, you can download the RPM package file directly from the website, with the wget downloader tool.
wget https://github.com/Ulauncher/Ulauncher/releases/download/4.4.0.r1/ulauncher_4.4.0.r1_fedora.rpm
With the package done downloading, you’ll be able to install the ULauncher application very quickly with the Dnf package manager.
sudo dnf install ulauncher_4.4.0.r1_fedora.rpm -y
OpenSUSE
Thanks to the RPM release, every OpenSUSE Linux release has the ability to install the latest version of ULauncher. To do this on your system, open up a terminal window and use the wget downloader to grab the newest package from the internet.
wget https://github.com/Ulauncher/Ulauncher/releases/download/4.4.0.r1/ulauncher_4.4.0.r1_fedora.rpm
After you’re done downloading the ULauncher package onto your OpenSUSE PC, it’s time to install it to the system. To do this, use the Zypper command below.
sudo zypper install ulauncher_4.4.0.r1_suse.rpm
Use ULauncher
To start using ULauncher, open up your application menu, search for “ulauncher” and open it up to start up the app. Immediately after it starts up, ULauncher will inform you that the shortcut to access it is Ctrl + Space.
Press the keyboard combination (Ctrl + Space) to bring up the ULauncher window. From there, start typing, and the app will show you results, such as installed applications, emoji, suggested websites, etc.
After you’re satisfied with the search result, press Enter to access it immediately. Or, use your arrow keys to sort through results.
Start ULauncher at login
Want to have access to ULauncher as soon as you log into your Linux PC? Here’s what to do. First, open up a terminal window. Then, use the CD command to move the session to the /usr/share/applications/ folder.
cd /usr/share/applications/
Make a copy of the ULauncher app and put it in your startup folder with the cp command.
cp ulauncher.desktop ~/.config/autostart/
Upon login, ULauncher should instantly start up!
