AppImage won’t start (FUSE)

The evoftp AppImage FUSE error — dlopen(): error loading libfuse.so.2, or the file simply doing nothing when you run it — means your system is missing FUSE 2, the library every AppImage uses to unpack itself at start-up. Install it, or tell the AppImage to run without it. Causes in the order to try:

FUSE 2 is not installed

Newer distributions ship FUSE 3 only, and AppImages still need version 2. Install the compatibility package for your distribution:

1. Debian, Ubuntu up to 23.10, Mint:

   sudo apt install libfuse2

2. Ubuntu 24.04 and newer:

   sudo apt install libfuse2t64

3. Fedora:

   sudo dnf install fuse fuse-libs

Then run ./evoftp-linux.AppImage again. Nothing else needs to change.

You cannot, or do not want to, install FUSE

The AppImage can extract itself to a temporary folder and run from there, with no FUSE involved:

1. Open a terminal in the folder that holds the AppImage.
2. Run:

   ./evoftp-linux.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run

Start-up is a little slower this way because the app is unpacked each time. You can also run ./evoftp-linux.AppImage --appimage-extract once and start squashfs-root/AppRun from the folder it creates.

The file is not executable

Browsers save downloads without the execute bit. Symptoms: “Permission denied” in the terminal, or double-clicking opens the file as an archive or text.

1. Run

   chmod +x evoftp-linux.AppImage

2. Or, in your file manager, right-click the file → Properties → Permissions → tick Allow executing file as program.

The AppImage sits on a noexec filesystem

If you still get “Permission denied” after chmod +x, the file is on a partition mounted with the noexec option — some distributions do this for /tmp, and external drives and network shares often have it too. The AppImage cannot be started from there no matter what its permissions say.

1. Move the file to a folder in your home directory, for example ~/Applications/ or ~/bin/.
2. Run it from the new location.

To check a location, run findmnt -T /path/to/folder and look for noexec in the OPTIONS column.

Note: The AppImage is the only Linux build of evoftp. There is no .deb, .rpm, Flatpak or Snap.

Overview: evoftp guide.