How to install FFS 5.20 on Linux Mint

Posts: 5 · Slouch 29 Jul 2025, 23:21

Hi All,

How would I install FFS v5.20 on Linux Mint from the archive file, located here?

https://freefilesync.org/download/FreeFileSync_5.20_Debian_7.1_64-bit.tar.gz

There is no Install.run file inside the tar.gz file, only a directory structure with various files.

I've tried converting the tar.gz file to a .deb using the alien package, and the resulting .deb file does install, but is copied to a directory off the root folder at /FreeFileSync - a seemingly incorrect location.

And there is no apparent way to launch the installed program.

FFS 5.20 is the version I've been using on Windows for a few years, and it's the one I'm most familiar with. I'm a newcomer to Linux, and package installations are not one of my strengths.

After installation, I'd also like to create an icon on the Cinnamon desktop for easy access.

I know the Flatpak version can be installed from the Software Manager in Mint, but I'd prefer to use an older version.

Any help is appreciated!

Thanks & regards.

Posts: 346 · bgstack15 30 Jul 2025, 01:30

This is going to be tricky. In the GNU/Linux world, most binaries (executables) link to system libraries for common things like libpng and libjpeg. In the Windows world, these are probably bundled with any program that would use them, so a Windows program is more self-contained. And these libraries have newer versions with new filenames.

This FreeFileSync 5.20 release you mentioned wants to load libpng12.so.0 (so = shared objects, almost identical to a dll, dynamic linked library). That's old news in the desktop GNU/Linux world: My Devuan Ceres system has libpng16.so.0. I doubt something like that has had too much backwards-breaking stuff, but I would hate to start polluting your filesystem with symlinks named "libpng12.so.0" that point to "libpng16.so.0" (or latest version available on Mint). I did however, find some libpng12 and libjpeg8 libraries in my Steam directory!

So to get started, extract the tarball to something reasonable, like /opt/ so that it stores all the files in /opt/FreeFileSync. /opt is an ideal spot for third-party software installed manually.

When I ran this, I actually got the program to come up, but we're not done.

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH="${LD_LIBRARY_PATH:+${LD_LIBRARY_PATH}:}/home/bgstack15/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/:/home/bgstack15/.local/share/Steam/ubuntu12_32/steam-runtime/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/"

cd /opt/FreeFileSync

./FreeFileSync

I hope you have Steam installed. Otherwise, if you maybe have libpng12.so.0 somewhere (use locate libpng12.so.0 and then add that directory to LD_LIBRARY_PATH), you can try for yourself.

The program ran, but window had just those annoying boxes instead of characters, and the console showed these errors:

(FreeFileSync:11099): Pango-CRITICAL **: 21:29:56.905: No modules found:

No builtin or dynamically loaded modules were found.

PangoFc will not work correctly.

This probably means there was an error in the creation of:

  '/etc/pango/pango.modules'

You should create this file by running:

  pango-querymodules > '/etc/pango/pango.modules'

Fontconfig warning: line 5: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-hinting-slight.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 72: non-double matrix element

Fontconfig error: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 72: non-double matrix element

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf", line 80: saw unknown, expected number

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-sub-pixel-none.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/10-yes-antialias.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/11-lcdfilter-default.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/20-unhint-small-vera.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/30-metric-aliases.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/40-nonlatin.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-generic.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/45-latin.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/48-spacing.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/49-sansserif.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/50-user.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/51-local.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-generic.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/60-latin.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/65-nonlatin.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"

Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.d/70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf", line 4: unknown element "description"



(FreeFileSync:11099): Pango-WARNING **: 21:29:56.909: failed to choose a font, expect ugly output. engine-type='PangoRenderFc', script='latin'



(FreeFileSync:11099): Pango-WARNING **: 21:29:56.913: failed to choose a font, expect ugly output. engine-type='PangoRenderFc', script='common'

I have not been able to find any more info about what to do next.

Posts: 5 · Slouch 30 Jul 2025, 08:23

Thanks for your reply.

What do you think about compiling the missing lib from source?

The first answer on this site describes the process:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/1404213/install-libpng12-on-ubuntu-22-04

I was able to download the source package from the given repository.

Posts: 346 · bgstack15 30 Jul 2025, 11:34

Wow, that sounds so complex for running an old version of software that has a recent version, but sure! If you are prepared to compile that, and probably every other lib mentioned in ldd /opt/FreeFileSync/FreeFileSync, go ahead.

Posts: 5 · Slouch 30 Jul 2025, 18:04

It looks like there are only 2 missing dependencies...

ldd FreeFileSync | grep "not found"

    libunity.so.9 => not found

    libpng12.so.0 => not found

It seems more economical on my filesystem than installing a huge package like Steam (5 GB), especially since I don't do any gaming.

Posts: 346 · bgstack15 30 Jul 2025, 23:43

libunity is probably not strictly required;

Description-en: binding to get places into the launcher - shared library

 libunity is a shared library to be able to interact with the launcher

 and add places in Unity environment.

 .

 This package contains shared libraries to be used by applications.

This one is probably related to installing itself into the application menu somewhere, for the old desktop environment named Unity. Start with the libpng and see if that is all you need; you said you're running Cinnamon, and I can guide you on getting a start menu entry for FreeFileSync (see /usr/share/applications/ or ~/.local/share/applications/).

Posts: 346 · bgstack15 30 Jul 2025, 23:49

Looking through the source for 5.2, it appears that it uses libunity to adjust the taskbar title to flash/notify when the status is ERROR, NOPROGRESS, NORMAL, PAUSED, etc. Because Unity is long dead, it hasn't had any updates but `libunity9` is still available on Devuan Ceres. I'm going to guess it's available for Linux Mint too, so go try to install that one.

Posts: 5 · Slouch 31 Jul 2025, 02:33

Compiling and installing libpng12.so.0 went well.
But I just realized I should have downloaded the FFS source for Debian, not Ubuntu.
In Debian, Unity is not required.
The Debian version of FFS v5.20 successfully opened, so all is well now.
Here's a screenshot:
https://imgur.com/a/JinIHH4

I would just like to add a start menu entry and a desktop icon now.
The program is in /opt/FreeFileSync
I appreciate your help thus far :-)

Posts: 5 · Slouch 31 Jul 2025, 17:52

After some research, I was successful at adding the program to the Start Menu, and a corresponding icon to the desktop, as shown in the image below.

https://imgur.com/Q9EuSxH

Thank you again, bgstack15, for your help and time!

Posts: 346 · bgstack15 31 Jul 2025, 18:55

You're welcome! I also realized just now that you said 5.20 and not 5.2. That's not a decimal number, so they are not the same. So I was reading the wrong version's source code.

For what it's worth, even in Ubuntu, Unity was not strictly required, but it was the default. It would be reasonable for a binary that targets Ubuntu to require unity libs, though. I'm glad the version you wanted had a "more generic" (as in, Debian is more generic than Ubuntu) release.