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Installing on Linux

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Jozef Svrček edited this page Jul 30, 2026 · 2 revisions

Installing on Linux

Applies to: Debian / Ubuntu and derivatives, 64-bit (amd64).

Your database lives under /var/lib/lpdo and is never touched by installing or upgrading packages.

Recommended: the APT repository

Add the LPDO repository once — then install, and from then on get updates with a plain apt upgrade.

1. Add the repository (once)

curl -fsSL https://specure.github.io/lpdo/lpdo.gpg \
  | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/lpdo.gpg >/dev/null
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/lpdo.gpg] https://specure.github.io/lpdo stable main" \
  | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/lpdo.list
sudo apt update

2. Install

Typical desktop — the GUI plus the always-on server (lpdo-cli is pulled in automatically):

sudo apt install lpdo lpdo-server

Other setups:

  • Headless / server only: sudo apt install lpdo-server
  • Command-line only: sudo apt install lpdo-cli

3. Keeping up to date

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade

New releases arrive through apt upgrade, and your database is left untouched.

The three packages

  • lpdo — the desktop app (GUI client).
  • lpdo-server — the always-on database server (a systemd service under the dedicated lpdo user) that owns the database at /var/lib/lpdo.
  • lpdo-cli — the chess-db command-line tool / client (a dependency of lpdo-server, and usable on its own).

Alternative: manual .deb download

If you'd rather not add the repository, download the three .deb files from the latest release and install them together so dependencies resolve:

sudo apt install ./lpdo*_amd64.deb

You have to repeat this for every new release — the repository method above is easier and gives you apt upgrade.

Upgrading from a pre-0.5.0 version?

The old single lpdo package (before v0.5.0) owned /usr/bin/chess-db. Installing through the repository (v0.13.1 or later) removes it automatically — no manual step needed.

You do, however, need to migrate your database once, because the storage location changed from your home directory to the server's /var/lib/lpdo. See Upgrading from before v0.5.0.

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