AppImage

AppImages are self-contained executable bundles that run on any Linux system without installation. Gear Lever (pre-installed) provides a GUI for managing AppImages — integrating them into your app launcher, handling updates, and organising your collection.

Running an AppImage

# Make executable and run
chmod +x MyApp.AppImage
./MyApp.AppImage

Or open Gear Lever (from your app launcher) and drag the AppImage in.

Gear Lever

Gear Lever integrates AppImages into your desktop:

• Automatically makes AppImages executable
• Extracts and installs the .desktop entry and icon into your launcher
• Manages a library of your AppImages in ~/Applications/
• Checks for updates via AppImageUpdate (where supported)

Open Gear Lever from GNOME Activities / KDE Application Menu, or:

flatpak run it.mijorus.gearlever

Organising AppImages

The recommended location for personal AppImages:

mkdir -p ~/Applications
mv MyApp.AppImage ~/Applications/

Gear Lever monitors this directory automatically.

FUSE Requirement

AppImages use FUSE to mount their squashfs payload at runtime. FUSE is pre-installed on Shanios.

If an AppImage refuses to run with a "FUSE" error:

# Check FUSE availability
ls /dev/fuse

# Run AppImage without FUSE (extracts to temp dir)
./MyApp.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run

Extracting an AppImage

# Extract contents to a directory (no FUSE needed)
./MyApp.AppImage --appimage-extract
# Creates: squashfs-root/

AppImageUpdate (CLI)

# Check for updates (if AppImage supports it)
appimageupdatetool MyApp.AppImage

# Apply update in-place
appimageupdatetool --overwrite MyApp.AppImage

Persistence

AppImages and their data live entirely in your home directory — they are unaffected by OS updates and rollbacks. No special handling is needed.

Sandboxing

Unlike Flatpak, AppImages are not sandboxed by default. They run with the same permissions as your user. For untrusted AppImages, consider running them inside a Distrobox container.