Updated July 2026 · 6 min read
Install DEB and RPM packages on Linux
The Linux build ships as a deb and an rpm. This covers which one your distribution wants, why the package manager should install it, and what the tray icon and TUN still need afterwards.
Which package your distribution wants
Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint and Deepin take the deb. Fedora, openSUSE and the RHEL family take the rpm. The program inside is identical; only the packaging format and the way dependencies are declared differ.
Check the architecture too. Ordinary desktops and laptops are x86_64, written as amd64 or x86_64 in the file name, while a Raspberry Pi or an ARM laptop needs the arm64 or aarch64 build. The wrong architecture simply refuses to install.
Let the package manager do it
Install the downloaded file with the package manager your distribution ships with, rather than treating the package as an archive and moving files around yourself. A hand-placed copy has no desktop entry, registers no dependencies, and tends to break at the next system upgrade.
Double-clicking the file usually opens the graphical package installer, which is fine. For the very first launch, start the program from a terminal: it runs in the foreground and prints missing libraries or permission errors straight to the screen, which a menu shortcut never shows you.
Do not unpack the package and move the binary by hand. Install the local package with the package manager your distribution already has, so dependencies and the desktop entry come with it.
When no tray icon appears
GNOME dropped the tray area years ago, so you need an AppIndicator-style extension and a log out and back in before the icon shows up. KDE, XFCE and Cinnamon keep a notification area and usually need nothing.
Without a tray icon, closing the window hides the program somewhere you cannot get it back from. In that situation either install the extension first, or bind hotkeys for showing the main window and toggling the system proxy.
Permissions for service mode and TUN
TUN has to create a virtual interface and rewrite routes, which an ordinary user account cannot do. Install service mode from settings, answer the password prompt the system raises, and only then will TUN start.
On Linux the system proxy switch only touches the desktop environment proxy settings, and command line tools ignore it. To send curl, git or your package manager through the proxy, point http_proxy and https_proxy at 7897 on localhost, or use TUN instead.
What is the project?
Clash Verge Rev is a Tauri-based GUI for Mihomo with profile management, system proxy, TUN mode, rule editing and WebDAV backups.