problem

I'm trying to install the Unity game engine on my desktop running Ubuntu 18.04. When I went to the download page and clicked Install, I got a file named UnityHub.AppImage. It looks like an executable so I double clicked it but after a few seconds got the error:

Could not display "UnityHub.AppImage"

There is no application installed for "AppImage application bundle" files.

Do you want to search for an application to open this file?

I keep clicking no because I feel like I shouldn't need another program to run this. What am I doing wrong?

solution

First some background .AppImage is a file format that is kinda like an .exe - it's a compressed format that holds all the dependencies required to run an application. So you're right in thinking that this thing should be executable.

Where you're probably stuck is that .AppImage files aren't executable by default (probably for security purposes). So if you want to run your UnityHub.AppImage, you first need to set it as executable.

To do this:

• Right click on UnityHub.AppImage
• Select Properties in the dropdown menu
• Navigate to the Permissions tab
• Check the box next to Execute
• Double click your UnityHub.AppImage to execute