How To Install Ristretto on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS

In this tutorial, we will show you how to install Ristretto on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS. For those of you who didn’t know, Ristretto is an image viewer application that allows you to view and scroll through images in your current folder. The application can be used to run slideshows of images, open images with other applications like image editors, or even configure images as desktop wallpapers. Its design philosophy emphasizes simplicity and speed, making it an excellent lightweight alternative to more resource-intensive image viewers.

Ristretto offers several useful features for image viewing:

• Simple Navigation: Browse through images using forward/back buttons or arrow keys
• Slideshow Functionality: Built-in slideshow mode for automatic image progression
• Thumbnail View: Left panel displaying thumbnails of images in the current folder
• Zoom Controls: Multiple zoom options including zoom in, zoom out, normal size, and zoom fit
• Integration: Can open images with external applications and set images as wallpapers
• Customizable Interface: Options to show/hide toolbar, status bar, and thumbnail bar

This article assumes you have at least basic knowledge of Linux, know how to use the shell, and most importantly, you host your site on your own VPS. The installation is quite simple and assumes you are running in the root account, if not you may need to add ‘sudo‘ to the commands to get root privileges. I will show you the step-by-step installation of the Ristretto fast and lightweight picture-viewer on Ubuntu 20.04 (Focal Fossa). You can follow the same instructions for Ubuntu 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.

Prerequisites

• A server running one of the following operating systems: Ubuntu 20.04, 18.04, 16.04, and any other Debian-based distribution like Linux Mint.
• It’s recommended that you use a fresh OS install to prevent any potential issues.
• SSH access to the server (or just open Terminal if you’re on a desktop).
• An active internet connection. You’ll need an internet connection to download the necessary packages and dependencies.
• A non-root sudo user or access to the root user. We recommend acting as a non-root sudo user, however, as you can harm your system if you’re not careful when acting as the root.

Install Ristretto on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa

Step 1. Update Your Ubuntu system.

First, make sure that all your system packages are up-to-date by running the following apt commands in the terminal.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

Step 2. Installing Ristretto on Ubuntu 20.04.

• Method 1: APT Package Manager (Recommended)

By default, Ristretto is available on Ubuntu 20.04 base repository. Now run the following command below to install the Ristretto package to your Ubuntu system:

sudo apt install ristretto

• Method 2: Flatpak Installation

For users who prefer Flatpak packages, you can install Ristretto through Flathub:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install ristretto

Step 3. Accessing Ristretto on Ubuntu Linux.

Once successfully installed, run the following path on your desktop to open the path: Activities -> Show Applications -> Ristretto or launching it through the terminal with the command shown below:

ristretto

Congratulations! You have successfully installed Ristretto. Thanks for using this tutorial for installing the Ristretto image viewer and organizer on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS Focal Fossa system. For additional help or useful information, we recommend you check the official Ristretto website.