Install Logos Bible Software on Linux

This repository contains a Python program for installing and maintaining FaithLife's Logos Bible (Verbum) Software on Linux.

This program is created and maintained by the FaithLife Community and is licensed under the MIT License.

LogosLinuxInstaller

The main program is a distributable executable and contains Python itself and all necessary Python packages.

When running the program, it will attempt to determine your operating system and package manager. It will then attempt to install all needed system dependencies during the installation of Logos. When the installation is finished, it will place two shortcuts on your computer: one will launch Logos directly; the other will launch the Control Panel.

To access the GUI version of the program, double-click the executable in your file browser or on your desktop, and then follow the prompts.

The program can also be run from source and should be run from a Python virtual environment. See below.

Install Guide (for users)

For an installation guide with pictures and video, see the wiki's Install Guide.

Installing/running from Source (for developers)

You can clone the repo and install the app from source. To do so, you will need to ensure a few prerequisites:

1. Install build dependencies
2. Clone this repository
3. Build/install Python 3.12 and Tcl/Tk
4. Set up a virtual environment

Install build dependencies

e.g. for debian-based systems:

sudo apt-get install git build-essential gdb lcov pkg-config \
    libbz2-dev libffi-dev libgdbm-dev libgdbm-compat-dev liblzma-dev \
    libncurses5-dev libreadline6-dev libsqlite3-dev libssl-dev \
    lzma lzma-dev python3-tk tk-dev uuid-dev zlib1g-dev

See Python's Build dependencies section for further info.

Clone this repository

git clone 'https://github.com/FaithLife-Community/LogosLinuxInstaller.git'

Install Python 3.12 and Tcl/Tk

Your system might already include Python 3.12 built with Tcl/Tk. This will verify the installation:

$ python3 --version
Python 3.12.5
$ python3 -m tkinter # should open a basic Tk window

If your Python version is < 3.12, then you might want to install 3.12 and tcl/tk using your system's package manager or compile it from source using the following guide or the script provided in scripts/ensure-python.sh. This is because the app is built using 3.12 and might have errors if run with other versions.

Install & build python 3.12 using the script:

./LogosLinuxInstaller/scripts/ensure-python.sh

Install & build python 3.12 manually:

$ ver=$(wget -qO- https://www.python.org/ftp/python/ | grep -oE '3\.12\.[0-9]+' | sort -u | tail -n1)
$ wget "https://www.python.org/ftp/python/${ver}/Python-${ver}.tar.xz"
$ tar xf Python-${ver}.tar.xz
$ cd Python-${ver}
Python-3.12$ ./configure --prefix=/opt --enable-shared
Python-3.12$ make
Python-3.12$ sudo make install
Python-3.12$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/lib /opt/bin/python3.12 --version
Python 3.12.5
$ cd ~

Both methods install python into /opt to avoid interfering with system python installations.

Enter the repository folder

$ cd LogosLinuxInstaller
LogosLinuxInstaller$

Set up and use a virtual environment

Use the following guide or the provided script at scripts/ensure-venv.sh to set up a virtual environment for running and/or building locally.

Using the script:

./scripts/ensure-venv.sh

Manual setup:

LogosLinuxInstaller$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/lib /opt/bin/python3.12 -m venv env # create a virtual env folder called "env" using python3.12's path
LogosLinuxInstaller$ echo "LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/opt/lib" >> env/bin/activate # tell python where to find libs
LogosLinuxInstaller$ echo "export LD_LIBRARY_PATH" >> env/bin/activate
LogosLinuxInstaller$ source env/bin/activate # activate the env
(env) LogosLinuxInstaller$ python --version # verify python version
Python 3.12.5
(env) LogosLinuxInstaller$ python -m tkinter # verify that tkinter test window opens
(env) LogosLinuxInstaller$ pip install -r requirements.txt # install python packages
(env) LogosLinuxInstaller$ ./main.py --help # run the script

Building using docker

$ git clone 'https://github.com/FaithLife-Community/LogosLinuxInstaller.git'
$ cd LogosLinuxInstaller
# docker build -t logosinstaller .
# docker run --rm -v $(pwd):/usr/src/app logosinstaller

The built binary will now be in ./dist/LogosLinuxInstaller.

Install guide (possibly outdated)

NOTE: You can run Logos on Linux using the Steam Proton Experimental binary, which often has the latest and greatest updates to make Logos run even smoother. The script should be able to find the binary automatically, unless your Steam install is located outside of your HOME directory.

If you want to install your distro's dependencies outside of the script, please see the System Dependencies wiki page.