Building Zed for Linux

Repository

Clone down the Zed repository.

Dependencies

• Install Rust. If it's already installed, make sure it's up-to-date:

  bash

  1	rustup update

• Install the necessary system libraries:

  bash

  1	script/linux

  If you prefer to install the system libraries manually, you can find the list of required packages in the script/linux file.

Backend dependencies

[!WARNING] This section is still in development. The instructions are not yet complete.

If you are developing collaborative features of Zed, you'll need to install the dependencies of zed's collab server:

• Install Postgres
• Install Livekit and Foreman

Alternatively, if you have Docker installed you can bring up all the collab dependencies using Docker Compose:

Building from source

Once you have the dependencies installed, you can build Zed using Cargo.

For a debug build:

For a release build:

For a release package:

the binary can be found in target/release folder.

And to run the tests:

Wayland & X11

Zed has basic support for both modes. The mode is selected at runtime. If you're on wayland and want to run in X11 mode, you can set WAYLAND_DISPLAY='' cargo run to do so.

Flatpak

[!WARNING] Zed's current Flatpak integration simply exits the sandbox on startup. Workflows that rely on Flatpak's sandboxing may not work as expected.

To build & install the Flatpak package locally follow the steps below:

1. Install Flatpak for your distribution as outlined here.
2. Run the script/flatpak/deps script to install the required dependencies.
3. Run script/flatpak/bundle-flatpak.
4. Now the package has been installed and has a bundle available at target/release/{app-id}.flatpak.

Troubleshooting

Can't compile zed

Before reporting the issue, make sure that you have the latest rustc version with rustup update.

Cargo errors claiming that a dependency is using unstable features

Try cargo clean and cargo build.

Vulkan/GPU issues

If Zed crashes at runtime due to GPU or vulkan issues, you can try running vkcube (usually available as part of the vulkaninfo package on various distributions) to try to troubleshoot where the issue is coming from. Try running in both X11 and wayland modes by running vkcube -m [x11|wayland]. Some versions of vkcube use vkcube to run in X11 and vkcube-wayland to run in wayland.

If you have multiple GPUs, you can also try running Zed on a different one (for example, with vkdevicechooser) to figure out where the issue comes from.