Install Discord on Debian 11 Bullseye

Discord is a free voice, video, and text chat app used by tens of millions of people ages 13+ to talk and hang out with their communities and friends. Users communicate with voice calls, video calls, text messaging, media, and files in private chats or as part of communities called “servers.” Discord is available on Windows, macOS, and Linux Distros.

In the following tutorial, you will learn how to install Discord client on Debian 11 Bullseye.

Update Debian System

Update your Debian 11 operating system to make sure all existing packages are up to date:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Option 1. Install Discord as a Snap Package

Discord can be installed through the snap package feature. However, this is not everyone’s first choice but often is the easiest.

First, install snapd on your Debian 11 Bullseye operating system:

sudo apt install snapd -y

Next, reboot your system for paths to be generated appropriately. Failure to do this could cause conflicts or bugs until a restart when trying to install or open applications.

reboot

If you are installing Snap for the first time, it is advised to install the core files to avoid conflicting issues:

sudo snap install core

Example output:

core 16-2.51.4 from Canonical✓ installed

Next, enter the following snap command to install the Discord client:

sudo snap install discord

Example output:

discord 0.0.16 from Snapcrafters installed

Snap packages are more significant in size than traditional repositories through the APT package manager. However, the trade-off is more straightforward maintained packages that are often updated to the latest available version.

For the future, to update Discord and any other packages installed by Snap, run the following command:

sudo snap refresh

If you no longer need Discord installed, remove it using the Snap remove command.

sudo snap remove discord

Example output:

discord removed

Option 2. Install Discord as a .Deb Package

Alternatively, you can install Discord as a .deb package. This may be favored amongst developers and power users since snap packages eat up more room and are bloated and often in Debian compared to Ubuntu clash with bugs on some applications.

Usually, installing a .deb package on Debian is straightforward; however, this time, it requires just a bit more work given in Debian 11 Bullseye; the package “libappindicator3-1” is only available in Buster and Sid for the moment. Installing this is also necessary for other applications like Slack and many more.

First, you will fix the dependency issue of the package “libappindicator3-1”. To do this, you will need to download the .deb package by visiting the Discord downloads page and getting the latest download link, then return to your terminal and download the package.

Example:

wget https://dl.discordapp.net/apps/linux/0.0.16/discord-0.0.16.deb

Note, getting the link for Discord to download can be sometimes tricky. The worst case is using the above command, replacing the numbers with the current version, downloading it manually, and navigating to your Downloads directory to execute the next task.

Now, use the following dpkg example command to unpack:

dpkg-deb -x discord-0.0.16.deb unpack
dpkg-deb --control discord-0.0.16.deb

Note, replace 0.0.16 with the newer number in the future when other versions overtake this one.

Next, use the following mv command:

mv DEBIAN unpack

Now, open up the file “./unpack/DEBIAN/control” and remove libappindicator3-1 and replace it with libayatana-appindicator3-1.

sudo nano ./unpack/DEBIAN/control

Example From:

Example To:

Save the file (CTRL +O), then exit the file (CTRL+X).

Now rebuild the .deb file, note it will be renamed from the original package name:

dpkg -b unpack discord-fixed.deb

Install Discord, make sure to run the fixed .deb file, not the original, or you will be back to square one.

sudo apt install ./discord-fixed.deb

Example output:

Type “Y,” then press the “ENTER KEY” to proceed with the installation.

Next, verify the installation by checking the apt-cache policy on Discord:

apt-cache policy discord

Example output:

Alternative Method for missing libappindicator3-1

Suppose the above method does not work for you in removing libappindicator3-1 and replacing it with libayatana-appindicator3-1, which currently works for a fresh Debian 11 Bullseye installation. In that case, you can install the libappindicator3-1 using the following method.

First, download the following libindicator3-7 package:

wget http://ftp.mx.debian.org/debian/pool/main/libi/libindicator/libindicator3-7_0.5.0-3+b1_amd64.deb

Get a new link from the package download page if the download link fails to work.

Next, install the libindicator3-7 package:

sudo apt install ./libindicator3-7_*_amd64.deb

Second, download the following libappindicator3-1 package:

wget http://ftp.mx.debian.org/debian/pool/main/liba/libappindicator/libappindicator3-1_0.4.92-7_amd64.deb

Like for the first package, If the download link fails to work, get a new link from the package download page.

sudo apt install ./libappindicator3-1_*_amd64.deb

Option 3. Install Discord with Flatpack

The third option is to install Discord with Flatpack which is quite popular amongst other Linux distributions such as Fedora, Linux Mint, etc.

Install the package manager with the following command.

sudo apt install flatpak -y

Reboot your system for paths to be generated appropriately. Failure to do this could cause conflicts or bugs until a restart when trying to install or open applications.

reboot

Next, you need to enable Flatpack using the following command in your terminal:

sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Next, install Discord using Flatpack as follows:

flatpak install flathub com.discordapp.Discord

Updates are handled by Flatpack automatically every time you log into your system, generally within the first 10 minutes.

To manually update Flatpak packages, run the following command.

flatpak update

To remove the Flatpack version of Discord, run the following command:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data com.discordapp.Discord

Another handy hint can be to use the following command to make sure Flatpak has not left behind any unnecessary packages as it is known to sometimes.

flatpak remove --unused

Launch Discord Client

With the installation complete from either installation method, you can run Discord in a few different ways.

First, while you are in your terminal, you can use the following command:

discord

Alternatively, run the Discord & command in the background to free up the terminal:

discord &

For Snap users, use the following.

sudo snap run discord

However, this isn’t practical, and you would use the following path on your desktop to open with the path: Activities > Show Applications > Discord.

Alternatively, if you cannot find it, use the search function in the Show Applications menu if you have many applications installed.

Example:

Now open Discord, you will come to the login page, either create an account or use an existing account, and that’s it; you have successfully installed Discord on Debian 11 Bullseye.

Comments and Conclusion

The tutorial has outlined how to install Discord in both snap and Debian packages. However, Snap packages are somewhat unpopular, so the .deb packages are the way to go for more advanced users.

Discord is the number 1 gaming platform for online communities for the years to come. However, TeamSpeak self-hosted is making a comeback. The future will determine if Discord can keep its dominance, given these days’ privacy concerns.