How to Run Cursor on Linux (2025)

Cursor is an AI-first code editor based on VS Code — and although it’s officially only for macOS and Windows, you can get it working smoothly on Linux in just a couple of minutes.

Here’s how 👇

🛠️ What This Script Does

✅ Extracts the AppImage (so you don’t need FUSE) ✅ Fixes sandbox permissions (so it doesn’t crash) ✅ Adds a launcher icon (so it feels like a native app)

🚀 Quick Install Steps

1. Download the latest .AppImage from Cursor’s official download page.
2. Save the script below as install-cursor.sh
3. Run it with:

chmod +x install-cursor.sh
./install-cursor.sh

📜 The Script

#!/bin/bash
set -e
APP_NAME="cursor"
INSTALL_DIR="$HOME/.local/bin/$APP_NAME"
DESKTOP_FILE="$HOME/.local/share/applications/$APP_NAME.desktop"
APPIMAGE_PATH="$HOME/Downloads/Cursor-*.AppImage"
echo "✨ Installing Cursor…"
APPIMAGE_FILE=$(ls $APPIMAGE_PATH 2>/dev/null | head -n 1)
if [ ! -f "$APPIMAGE_FILE" ]; then
 echo "❌ Could not find Cursor AppImage at $APPIMAGE_PATH"
 echo "📦 Download it from: https://www.cursor.so/download"
 exit 1
fi
chmod +x "$APPIMAGE_FILE"
mkdir -p "$INSTALL_DIR"
"$APPIMAGE_FILE" - appimage-extract
mv squashfs-root/* "$INSTALL_DIR"
if [ -f "$INSTALL_DIR/chrome-sandbox" ]; then
 echo "🔐 Fixing sandbox…"
 sudo chown root:root "$INSTALL_DIR/chrome-sandbox"
 sudo chmod 4755 "$INSTALL_DIR/chrome-sandbox"
fi
ICON_PATH="$INSTALL_DIR/cursor.png"
ICON_CANDIDATES=(
 "$INSTALL_DIR/usr/share/icons/hicolor/512x512/apps/cursor.png"
 "$INSTALL_DIR/resources/app/assets/icon.png"
)
for icon in "${ICON_CANDIDATES[@]}"; do
 if [ -f "$icon" ]; then
 cp "$icon" "$ICON_PATH"
 break
 fi
done
mkdir -p "$(dirname "$DESKTOP_FILE")"
cat > "$DESKTOP_FILE" <<EOF
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Cursor
Exec=$INSTALL_DIR/AppRun
Icon=$ICON_PATH
Type=Application
Categories=Development;IDE;
StartupNotify=true
EOF
update-desktop-database ~/.local/share/applications
echo "✅ Done! You can now launch Cursor from your app menu or by running:"
echo "$INSTALL_DIR/AppRun"

💾 Download Script

Prefer to download instead? 👉 install-cursor.sh

🧠 Notes

• Works with any modern Linux distro
• Tested on Ubuntu 22.04
• Requires root just for sandbox permissions

📍 Originally published at Github Blog