Install cursor on Linux, tested on Ubuntu 25.04

install-cursor-on-linux.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# inspired by https://gitrollup.com/r/install-cursor.sh 
set -euo pipefail

# =========================
# Cursor (Patched) Installer
# =========================

INSTALL_DIR="/opt"
APP_DIR_NAME="Cursor-patched"
FINAL_APP_PATH="$INSTALL_DIR/$APP_DIR_NAME"
EXECUTABLE_SYMLINK="/usr/local/bin/cursor"

ICON_NAME="cursor-ai.png"
ICON_PATH="/usr/share/icons/hicolor/512x512/apps/$ICON_NAME"
ICON_URL="https://img.icons8.com/nolan/512/cursor-ai.png"

DESKTOP_ENTRY_NAME="cursor-patched.desktop"
DESKTOP_ENTRY_PATH="/usr/share/applications/$DESKTOP_ENTRY_NAME"

ARCH_DEFAULT="$(uname -m)"
case "$ARCH_DEFAULT" in
  x86_64) ARCH="x64" ;;
  aarch64|arm64) ARCH="arm64" ;;
  *) ARCH="x64" ;;
esac
ARCH="${ARCH:-x64}"

PATCH_MARKETPLACE="${PATCH_MARKETPLACE:-0}"

DOWNLOAD_PAGE="https://cursor.com/download"
UA="Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64) AppleWebKit/537.36 Chrome/126 Safari/537.36"
TEMP_DOWNLOAD_DIR="$(mktemp -d)"
APPIMAGE_PATH="$TEMP_DOWNLOAD_DIR/Cursor.AppImage"

cleanup() { rm -rf "$TEMP_DOWNLOAD_DIR" >/dev/null 2>&1 || true; }
trap cleanup EXIT

require_root() {
  if [ "${EUID:-$(id -u)}" -ne 0 ]; then
    echo "Please run this script as root (e.g., sudo)." >&2
    exit 1
  fi
}

ensure_deps() {
  echo "--> Ensuring dependencies..." >&2
  if command -v apt-get >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    apt-get update -y >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
    apt-get install -y curl wget libfuse2 gtk-update-icon-cache >/dev/null 2>&1 || true
  fi
  command -v curl >/dev/null || { echo "curl is required" >&2; exit 1; }
  command -v wget >/dev/null || { echo "wget is required" >&2; exit 1; }
}

resolve_cursor_appimage() {
  local arch="${1:-x64}"
  local html url file ver

  echo "--> Fetching $DOWNLOAD_PAGE ..." >&2
  html="$(curl -fSsSL -A "$UA" --max-time 25 "$DOWNLOAD_PAGE")"

  url="$(printf "%s" "$html" \
    | grep -oE "https://downloads\.cursor\.com/[^\"']+/linux/${arch}/[^\"']+\.AppImage" \
    | head -n1 || true)"

  if [ -z "$url" ]; then
    echo "Error: could not locate a Linux/${arch} AppImage link." >&2
    exit 1
  fi

  file="$(basename "$url")"
  ver="$(printf "%s" "$file" | grep -oE '(?<=Cursor-)[0-9]+(\.[0-9]+){1,3}([-_a-zA-Z0-9]+)?' || true)"

  echo "--> Found AppImage:" >&2
  echo "    URL: $url" >&2
  [ -n "$ver" ] && echo "    Version: $ver" >&2 || echo "    Version: (unparsed)" >&2

  # stdout → just the URL
  printf '%s\n' "$url"
}

download_appimage() {
  local url="$1"
  echo "--> Downloading AppImage..." >&2
  curl -fL -A "$UA" "$url" -o "$APPIMAGE_PATH"
  chmod +x "$APPIMAGE_PATH"
}

extract_appimage() {
  echo "--> Extracting AppImage to $FINAL_APP_PATH ..." >&2
  rm -rf "$FINAL_APP_PATH"
  ( cd "$TEMP_DOWNLOAD_DIR" && "$APPIMAGE_PATH" --appimage-extract )
  mv "$TEMP_DOWNLOAD_DIR/squashfs-root" "$FINAL_APP_PATH"
}

maybe_patch_marketplace() {
  local product_json
  product_json="$(find "$FINAL_APP_PATH" -type f -path '*/resources/app/product.json' | head -n1 || true)"
  if [ -z "$product_json" ]; then
    echo "    product.json not found. Skipping marketplace patch." >&2
    return
  fi
  if [ "$PATCH_MARKETPLACE" = "1" ]; then
    echo "--> Applying legacy VS Code marketplace patch..." >&2
    sed -i 's|"serviceUrl": "https://marketplace.cursorapi.com/_apis/public/gallery"|"serviceUrl": "https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/_apis/public/gallery"|g' "$product_json"
    sed -i 's|"itemUrl": "https://marketplace.cursorapi.com/items"|"itemUrl": "https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items"|g' "$product_json"
    sed -i 's|"resourceUrlTemplate": "https://marketplace.cursorapi.com/{publisher}/{name}/{version}/{path}"|"resourceUrlTemplate": "https://{publisher}.vscode-unpkg.net/{publisher}/{name}/{version}/{path}"|g' "$product_json"
  else
    echo "    Skipping marketplace patch (PATCH_MARKETPLACE=0)." >&2
  fi
}

install_icon_and_launcher() {
  echo "--> Installing icon and launcher..." >&2
  mkdir -p "$(dirname "$ICON_PATH")"
  wget -q -O "$ICON_PATH" "$ICON_URL" || true
  gtk-update-icon-cache /usr/share/icons/hicolor >/dev/null 2>&1 || true

  ln -sf "$FINAL_APP_PATH/AppRun" "$EXECUTABLE_SYMLINK"

  cat > "$DESKTOP_ENTRY_PATH" <<EOL
[Desktop Entry]
Name=Cursor (Patched)
Comment=The AI-first Code Editor
Icon=$ICON_NAME
StartupWMClass=Cursor
Exec=$EXECUTABLE_SYMLINK %U
Type=Application
Categories=Development;IDE;
Terminal=false
EOL
}

main() {
  require_root
  ensure_deps
  echo "--> Target architecture: ${ARCH}" >&2
  url="$(resolve_cursor_appimage "$ARCH")"
  download_appimage "$url"
  extract_appimage
  maybe_patch_marketplace
  install_icon_and_launcher
  echo "✅ Installation complete. Run 'cursor' or find it in your app menu." >&2
}

main "$@"

Install.md

Cursor Patched Installer

This script provides a system-wide installer for Cursor, the AI-first code editor.
It was originally inspired by install-cursor.sh, but as Cursor's release page and API changed, the original script no longer works reliably.
We adapted and improved the script to ensure it stays functional with the latest Cursor releases.

---

Improvements Over the Original Script

• ✅ Dynamic scraping of the official downloads page (https://cursor.com/download) to always fetch the latest Linux AppImage (x64 or arm64).
• ✅ Robust error handling with proper exit codes and sanity checks.
• ✅ Architecture detection (x86_64 → x64, aarch64 → arm64).
• ✅ System-wide installation to /opt/Cursor-patched.
• ✅ Symlink in PATH at /usr/local/bin/cursor for easy launching.
• ✅ Desktop entry + icon installation for menu integration.
• ✅ Optional legacy VS Code marketplace patch (disabled by default).

---

Quick Install

Run directly from the gist:

curl -sSL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/andrescera/13c422a07c50257e44b4f73d7fccb2d5/raw/install-cursor-on-linux.sh | sudo bash

This will:

• Detect your architecture (x64 or arm64).
• Scrape the latest Cursor AppImage URL from the official downloads page.
• Extract and install Cursor under /opt/Cursor-patched.
• Create a symlink /usr/local/bin/cursor.
• Install a system-wide icon and .desktop launcher.

---

Usage

After installation, launch Cursor:

• From your application menu → Cursor (Patched)
• Or run directly in the terminal:

cursor

---

Optional Settings

• Force architecture (if detection fails):

  ARCH=arm64 curl -sSL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/andrescera/13c422a07c50257e44b4f73d7fccb2d5/raw/install-cursor-on-linux.sh | sudo bash

• Enable VS Code Marketplace patch (not guaranteed to work on latest builds):

  PATCH_MARKETPLACE=1 curl -sSL https://gist.githubusercontent.com/andrescera/13c422a07c50257e44b4f73d7fccb2d5/raw/install-cursor-on-linux.sh | sudo bash

---

Notes

• Requires curl, wget, libfuse2, and gtk-update-icon-cache (installed automatically on Debian/Ubuntu).
• If the downloads page HTML changes significantly, the regex inside the script may need updating.
• Unlike the old JSON API method, this approach should remain stable as it scrapes the actual public release page.

---

License

This installer is provided as-is, without warranty.
Inspired by install-cursor.sh and improved for reliability with current Cursor releases.