How to Install Foxit PDF Reader on Debian 11 Bullseye

Foxit PDF Reader is a free multi-platform PDF reader for Linux, macOS, and Windows. The PDF reader is a small, fast, and feature-rich PDF Reader to view, annotate, form-fill, and sign PDF documents. PDF Reader easily integrates with popular ECMs and cloud storage.

At the end of the tutorial, you will know how to install Foxit PDF Reader on Debian 11 Bullseye.

Prerequisites

• Recommended OS: Debian 11 Bullseye
• User account: A user account with sudo privilages or root access (su command).
• Required Packages: wget

Updating Operating System

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

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

Root or Sudo Access

By default, when you create your account at startup with Debian compared to other distributions, it does not automatically receive sudoers status. You must either have access to the root password to use the su command or visit our tutorial on How to Add a User to Sudoers on Debian.

Download Foxit Reader

Next, visit the download page and choose Linux 64bit or 32bit. Alternatively, you can use the wget command to download the file.

32bit version:

wget http://cdn01.foxitsoftware.com/pub/foxit/reader/desktop/linux/2.x/2.4/en_us/FoxitReader.enu.setup.2.4.4.0911.x32.run.tar.gz

64bit version:

wget http://cdn01.foxitsoftware.com/pub/foxit/reader/desktop/linux/2.x/2.4/en_us/FoxitReader.enu.setup.2.4.4.0911.x64.run.tar.gz

Install Foxit Reader

Once downloaded, open your terminal and navigate to the directory you downloaded the Foxit Reader archive. If you download directly from the site skipping the wget command, in most cases, this will be in your download directory.

cd ~/Downloads

Next, extract the zip archive with the following command.

tar xzvf FoxitReader*.tar.gz

You must set permissions for the extracted file to run. Set the permissions with the following.

sudo chmod a+x FoxitReader*.run

Now execute the install command for Foxit. This will bring up the install UI window.

sudo ./FoxitReader*.run

A pop-up UI installation wizard will pop up unless needed leave the default install path.

Example:

The default path should be acceptable for most users. If you need to specify an alternative path, set it here now.

Next, you will come to the license agreements, accept them to continue the installation.

Example:

After a few moments, Foxit PDF Reader will be installed, and you will see the notification along with confirmation of the installation path. Click Finish to exit the installer.

Congratulations, you have installed Foxit PDF Reader on Debian 11 Bullseye.

How to Launch Foxit PDF Reader

With the installation complete, you can run Foxit in a few different ways.

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

FoxitReader

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

FoxitReader &

However, this isn’t practical, and you would use the following path on your desktop to open with the path: Activities > Show Applications > Foxit Reader. If you cannot find it, use the search function in the Show Applications menu if you have many applications installed.

Example:

Once launched, you will receive a prompt to set Foxit as the default PDF reader and to dismiss or keep the reminder message for it, make your selection and continue to the application.

Example:

Next, you will arrive at the PDF application landing screen.

Example:

Comments and Conclusion

In the tutorial, you have downloaded and installed the Foxit PDF reader. It’s a great alternative to the default Debian PDF viewer. Foxit has a good track record of bug fixing, improvements, and security and should be worth looking for anyone who deals with PDF files.