JOSM/Linux
This page provides help for JOSM on Linux systems.
Installing JOSM
The following distributions have JOSM available in their package libraries, however the maintenance of these packages may be some way behind the recent JOSM developments and bug fixes.
In general, JOSM simply requires a single jar file, so downloading and starting a recent version of this jar file can be the best way to work with a reasonably up-to-date version of JOSM. See the general JOSM/Installation page for this.
Some of the following instructions use wget to download. In case the wget complains about a certificate error you may want to install the required root CA certificates to your system, or wget's --no-check-certificate switch or use the unsecured http URL.
Arch Linux
You can install the JOSM package from the official repositories.
pacman -S josm
Alternatively, these packages are also available in the AUR:
- The josm-stable package is maintained by RubenKelevra and as of June 28, 2023 is the same version as the above package.
- The josm-latest package is maintained by Hauke-stieler and automatically kept up to date.
Debian
This is the recommended way to install on all Debian versions. Add the apt repository from openstreetmap.de:
- Use the following one-liner in a terminal to create a new repository:
echo deb https://josm.openstreetmap.de/apt alldist universe | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/josm.list > /dev/null
- Next, it is necessary to download and register the openstreetmap.de public key. That can also be done in a single line:
wget -q https://josm.openstreetmap.de/josm-apt.key -O- | sudo apt-key add - - The final item is to refresh the sources and install. Run
sudo apt-get update ; sudo apt-get install josm
From Debian's repositories
Note that if you already installed JOSM using the above mentioned steps, then you don't need to follow these steps. You can install josm in Debian without adding any external repository.
If you are using Debian stable, then open a terminal and run
sudo apt install josm
to install JOSM. Additionally, you can install the latest version from backports repository as the JOSM version in the main repository is usually older. Add the following line
deb http://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm-backports main
to /etc/apt/sources.list file.
Now run
sudo apt update
and then
sudo apt install josm/bookworm-backports
Troubleshooting
Sudo-error
See the debian documentation about sudo if this command fails.
Apt-https-error
You may suffer an extra wrinkle at this point, not mentioned on the Download page:
:~$ sudo apt-get update
E: The method driver /usr/lib/apt/methods/https could not be found.
N: Is the package apt-transport-https installed?
It is a simple matter of installing apt-transport-https first.
JOSM-Plugins:
The simple instruction for all distributions is: do not install. Install instead from within JOSM (that was easy).
Java
JOSM requires minimum Java-8, if this is not available on your distribution, please see elsewhere how to install a newer java-version.
Ubuntu
On Ubuntu 16.04 and above we recommend following the Debian install above as it ensures you will get updates. Alternatively, the manual installation or the JOSM packages. The version from the official Ubuntu repositories is often outdated and is not recommended.
On Ubuntu 20.10 and later, due to deprecation of apt-key, replace the instructions above by:
echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/josm-archive-keyring.gpg] https://josm.openstreetmap.de/apt alldist universe" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/josm.list > /dev/null
wget -O- https://josm.openstreetmap.de/josm-apt.key | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/josm-archive-keyring.gpg > /dev/null
sudo apt-get update ; sudo apt-get install josm
FreeBSD
On FreeBSD JOSM is available at ports/astro/josm.
Gentoo
See JOSM/Gentoo
Linux Mint
You can use the Ubuntu package in Linux Mint:
#Add the key
wget -q https://josm.openstreetmap.de/josm-apt.key -O- | sudo apt-key add -
#Add the repository
echo "deb https://josm.openstreetmap.de/apt `awk -F= '/^UBUNTU_CODENAME=/ { print $2 }' /etc/os-release` universe" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list
openSUSE
OpenSUSE Build Service has regularly updated builds at Applications:Geo. Install via YaST, or with `zypper in josm`.
Start JOSM
- See JOSM/Installation#Start JOSM.
- If you installed JOSM via a package (e.g. from your distribution), you may be able to simply use a simpler
josmcommand.
To automate updating and starting you can use
- an update and startup script that backs up a number of old versions if the current one doesn't work as desired
- or you can use the following simple script to use always the latest JOSM version (note that it contains some stuff which you may not need – proxy — or which you may not have – kdialog):
#!/bin/sh
GPSDIR=/home/sven/Desktop/gps
PROXY=www-proxy
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/local/java/jdk1.6.0_04/
DCOPREF=`kdialog --title "Hole JOSM" --progressbar "Hole JosmLatest" 100`
cd $GPSDIR
wget -N https://josm.openstreetmap.de/download/josm-latest.jar
dcop "$DCOPREF" close
$JAVA_HOME/bin/java -Xmx1024M -DproxyHost=$PROXY -DproxyPort=8080 -jar josm-latest.jar
Font size too small on high-DPI display
On a high resolution screen, JOSM might display with very small fonts in its user interface. You can work around this by setting the environment variable GDK_SCALE. In a terminal, start JOSM like this:
GDK_SCALE=2 josm
As of Debian version 17428, you can make the above setting stick in the app menu until the next update with:
sudo sed -i 's@Exec=.*@Exec=bash -c \"GDK_SCALE=2 /usr/bin/josm %U\"@' /usr/share/applications/org.openstreetmap.josm.desktop && sleep 15 && sudo update-desktop-database