Installing Slack

Installing Slack on department machines

This is probably not necessary anymore. sudo apt-get slack works, maybe....

Ubuntu

1. Download "Slack.deb" from:

  https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/downloads/linux

(NB you need to search a bit for the .deb file as the default download is a .rpm. As at 2025/01/25 I found slack-desktop-4.41.105-amd64.deb)

2. Make a directory and run dpkg replacing the with the appropriate file name.

  mkdir /scratch/crsid/slack
  dpkg -x Slack.deb /scratch/crsid/slack

3. Install the desktop shortcut by pasting the following text into ~/.local/share/applications/slack.desktop

  [Desktop Entry]
  Type=Application
  Exec=/scratch/crsid/slack/usr/lib/slack/slack %U
  Icon=/scratch/crsid/slack/usr/share/pixmaps/slack.png
  Name=Slack
  Terminal=false
  StartupWMClass=Slack
  Comment=Slack Desktop
  GenericName=Slack Client for Linux
  StartupNotify=true
  Categories=GNOME;GTK;Network;InstantMessaging;
  MimeType=x-scheme-handler/slack;

4. Run to register slack://foo.bar urls (necessary for browser integration with the desktop app)

  xdg-mime default launch-slack.desktop x-scheme-handler/slack

5. Log out then in and it should show up in the search bar (Windows button). Right click to pin to favorites (task bar)

Make sure you've replaced "crsid" with your crsid.