Install Krill Desktop App for Linux
Install the Krill Desktop control app on a Debian or Ubuntu Linux desktop
Install the Krill Desktop App on Linux
Please note that Krill is currently in beta and may have breaking changes in future releases.
Krill Desktop is a Compose Multiplatform GUI application for monitoring and controlling Krill servers on your network. If you are installing the server instead, see Install Krill Server on Linux Servers or Install Krill Server on Raspberry Pi.
Install the full Java Runtime
Krill Desktop requires Java 25 or later. Because it is a GUI application, it needs the full (headful) JRE, not the -headless package. Installing only openjdk-25-jre-headless will let the app start but then crash with a java.awt.HeadlessException (“no headful library support was found”), even on a machine with a working display.
Install the headful runtime:
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sudo apt install openjdk-25-jre
Setup our APT Repository
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sudo install -d -m 0755 /etc/apt/keyrings
curl -fsSL https://deb.krill.zone/krill-archive-keyring.gpg \
| sudo gpg --dearmor -o /etc/apt/keyrings/krill-archive-keyring.gpg
sudo chmod 0644 /etc/apt/keyrings/krill-archive-keyring.gpg
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/krill.sources > /dev/null <<EOF
Types: deb
URIs: https://deb.krill.zone
Suites: stable
Components: main
Architectures: $(dpkg --print-architecture)
Signed-By: /etc/apt/keyrings/krill-archive-keyring.gpg
EOF
sudo apt update
Install Krill Desktop
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sudo apt install krill-desktop
Once installed, launch it from your application menu or by running krill-desktop from a terminal.
Last verified: 2026-05-16