Linux

Ubuntu doesn’t include curl: run sudo apt install curl first.

curl -fsSL https://releases.dens.chat/install.sh | sudo sh

dens open

Why it asks for sudo

The installer and updater need root to give Dens an account of its own, so the programs you run can’t read its memory or its keys. They’re only needed during setup: Dens itself never runs as root. Privacy has more.

Updating

sudo dens update

Or re-run the install command.

Uninstalling

This deletes Dens’s data on this computer, a den it hosts included, so make a backup first if you might want it back. Then run:

sudo dens uninstall

To stop Dens without removing it, run sudo dens service stop. It stays stopped until the computer restarts.

Which browser works best

Ungoogled Chromium: Dens has had the fewest problems in it, its screen shares can carry a tab’s sound, which Firefox and the browsers built on it can’t, and it makes the smaller copies of videos you send several times faster.

Waterfox can show a blank page for a link another program opens, as Dens opens itself. If it does, click the address bar and press Enter: the link still works.

To check the installer first, or give it options

Its signature proves it’s the installer Dens’s release process built, and not a copy someone swapped in on the way; the installer then checks everything it downloads the same way. You need cosign.

curl -fsSLO https://releases.dens.chat/install.sh
curl -fsSLO https://releases.dens.chat/install.sh.cosign.bundle
cosign verify-blob install.sh \
  --bundle install.sh.cosign.bundle \
  --certificate-identity https://github.com/Data-Corruption/dens.chat/.github/workflows/release.yml@refs/heads/main \
  --certificate-oidc-issuer https://token.actions.githubusercontent.com

It prints Verified OK. Anything else means don’t run it. Then run it, with any options after it, such as --dry-run to see what it would change, or --den-port and a port to move the den:

sudo sh install.sh

Windows Flatpak