Logos Bible Software On Desktop and Mobile Linux

By T. H. Wright

Published: November 14, 2019

Last Updated: May 11, 2022

This post was originally found at the Redemption Studio Forums.

TL;DR: Logos Bible Software versions 8, 9, 10 and the Android mobile app can be installed on Linux computers—desktop, tablet, and phone—through WINE and Waydroid, respectively.

Modern versions of Logos Bible Software have been installable on Linux since September 2019 with Logos 8 using Wine.

Need help?

Find the installer at: Git

See the wiki for help or contact us at:

Scripted Install of Desktop Logos

Updated 20221126

When installing Logos on Linux, use the following script at GitHub. This script should work on any distro as long as the dependencies are met.

LogosLinuxInstaller, v. 10, Bash Script

Recommendations

It is highly recommended to back up your Logos data before running this install or an update so that you do not have to re-download resources.

Logos data is found in the following paths with two variables: $HOME and $USER. Also note that if you move the install directory out of the scripted install location (LogosBible_Linux_P), you will need to update the second directory as well.

$HOME/LogosBible10/data/wine64_bottle/drive_c/users/$USER/Local\ Settings/Application\ Data/Logos/Data
$HOME/LogosBible10/data/wine64_bottle/drive_c/users/$USER/Local\ Settings/Application\ Data/Logos/Documents
$HOME/LogosBible10/data/wine64_bottle/drive_c/users/$USER/Local\ Settings/Application\ Data/Logos/Users

I also recommend having two installs: one that is an untouched installation and one that is your active installation. Once you install Logos the first time and download all your resources, close Logos, and clone the directory to a backup. In case something breaks with your active installation, you can easily clone your untouched installation and bypass utilizing the script.

Install Logos Mobile App on Linux

Updated 20220511

The mobile app loads and works on ARM devices,¹ like the PinePhone, through Anbox and WayDroid.² Phosh-based installs tend to be the most developed, besides Ubuntu Touch. Plasma Mobile can run Anbox, too. See https://forum.manjaro.org/t/anbox-plasma-mobile-on-a-pinephone/67650. Recent tests in WayDroid on an Original PinePhone proved to be hardware accelerated and smooth to use.

Install Desktop Logos on ARM and AARCH Devices

Updated 20220104

Box64, a project related to Box86, is a userspace emulation software that allows running 64-bit applications (32-bit for Box86) on ARM64 and AARCH64 devices. This would allow running desktop Logos on ARM machines, like the PinePhone, PineTab, and Pinebook Pro.

As of Logos 9, FaithLife dropped 32-bit support which means Box86 at best could run a 32-bit WINE prefix with Logos 8 installed. Box64 will be necessary for Logos versions (9+) moving forward. Wine has already been shown to be working in Box64.

The other issue with desktop Logos on ARM is that the Linux mobile Desktop Environments (DE) in the Linux mobile operating systems (OS) either do or are moving toward running on Wayland only. This doesn’t apply to devices like the Pinebook Pro, which seeks to be a desktop computer, not a mobile device. The big problem here is that WINE does not have Wayland support yet.³ This means we would either need XWayland to run X11 applications on Wayland, or else tough cookies, and our efforts are futile anyways. While desktop Logos on a PinePhone is silly, given the limited screen space, albeit not if you have it hooked up to an external monitor, desktop Logos on a tablet running a mobile DE/OS is not! ;)

I have attempted to get Logos running on my PinePhone but I never saw the program launch. It would be best to test this on a Raspberry Pi or other device with more resources.

Install Desktop Logos via Package

Updated 20221126

Various attempts are under way in order to make installing Logos on Linux even easier. The Ubuntu packages for Wasta WINE are still available and efforts at a Bottles install through Flatpak are also being worked on.

As an aside, I have run Logos Mobile on desktop Linux in Anbox, but when you can run desktop Logos on desktop Linux, why would you run mobile Logos on desktop Linux? ↩︎
WayDroid is effectively an Anbox successor. It has proven to be more performant than Anbox and it looks like from what I’ve seen to have resolved some of the Anbox issues I experienced. ↩︎
See this link for some more details on the progress: https://www.collabora.com/news-and-blog/news-and-events/wine-on-wayland-meets-vulkan-multi-monitor-support-more.html ↩︎