SumatraPDF Reader on Linux (Basic Guide)

I've decided to make this guide due to one of my saddest "let go" from ditching Microsoft Windows, the Sumatra PDF Reader.

Before reading please keep in mind two things:

1. I'm a new Linux user (been using for almost a year) so any mistake that seems silly may come from that;
2. English is not my primary language, so any corrections are welcome, i won't feel offended in any way.

Sumatra PDF has been a part of my life for many years now, i use it on my work pc (Windows), and have used on my personal pc (while i still used windows) as well. Switching to Linux made me realize that Sumatra has no equal to this date (for my specific use). I liked Okular but the right click functions of Sumatra for zooming and panning a document, is, in my opinion, unmatched.

So here is how i managed to use Sumatra on Linux in a way that satisfy my needs and takes advantage of most of Sumatra features.

# System used:

OS: Fedora Linux 42 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition) x8664
Kernel: Linux 6.17.8-200.fc42.x8664
Shell: bash 5.2.37
Display (BOE0C29): 1920x1080 @ 144 Hz (as 1536x864) in 16" Built-in
DE: KDE Plasma 6.5.2
WM: KWin (Wayland)
WM Theme: plastik
Theme: Windows (BreezeDark) Qt, Breeze GTK3/4
Icons: breeze-dark Qt, breeze-dark GTK3/4
Font: Noto Sans (10pt) Qt, Noto Sans (10pt) GTK3/4
Cursor: breeze (18px)
Terminal: konsole 25.8.3

# Installation:

1. Download the latest Sumatra installer (haven't tried the portable or pre-release versions)
2. Install the .exe installer using wine (in my case i just double clicked the .exe installer from my download folder)

You should now be able to open and use it! And get frustrated for not seeing the tabs (although they are there and can be switched using crtl+tab). Don't worry we'll fix that.

# Configuring it to display the tabs:

1. Open winecfg, on the Applications tab select Add Application, and browse trough users/yoursillyusername/AppData/Local/SumatraPDF select the SumatraPDF.exe file and open it.
2. Now on the Applications tab select the SumatraPDF.exe and switch to the Graphics tab. Uncheck the "Allow the window manager to decorate the windows".

Sumatra displaying tabs and the noscript bar on Linux.

# Tips:

You can also set a Special Window Setting to hide the noscript bar.

# Any tips are welcome:

When right clicking a tab and choosing Show in Folder, it opens with wine default and basic explorer.exe, i could not switch to Dolphin. So any help is welcome here.


I hope this guide finds you well and make you feel as welcome as i felt with the guides i've encountered when switching OS.

https://redd.it/1p3tol2
@r_linux

impala v0.5.0 released - Configuring WPA Enterprise networks has never been easier !
https://redd.it/1p3vu5q
@r_linux

linux always has the most random quality of life features that you would never get in windows

I just discovered that my 15 y.o laptop with AntiX linux uses the scroll lock led on my laptop as a language switch indicator, when the secondary language is being used it lights up

It also makes my wifi led blink depending on how much bandwidth is being used

Windows never did either of those, all it did is its 50 minute updates and take 2 minutes to boot ON AN SSD while antix took 7 seconds

how does a distro like antiX which is supposed to be barebones have this out of the box?

https://redd.it/1p3yek3
@r_linux

Updated my GNOME Hijri Date extension for GNOME 45+!
https://redd.it/1p3xld3
@r_linux

This Week in Plasma: UI and performance improvements
https://blogs.kde.org/2025/11/22/this-week-in-plasma-ui-and-performance-improvements/

https://redd.it/1p3y50g
@r_linux

My decade+ year old gaming PC's second lease on life

https://preview.redd.it/adal1k06iw2g1.png?width=1920&format=png&auto=webp&s=e7245b9e0a625ef9f5ae92ac82b2d1edcfc51f50

According to anaconda-ks.cfg I set my system up Mid July 2025. It's done the majority of what I need.

Every time I need something new I spend a little time looking for the best way to go about things.

I expect this to be a long process as new needs pop up. I keep some google docs on useful commands and the setups, configs, installs I've done so I don't need to reinvent the wheel if I ever crash or start fresh.

Free yourselves. Use old hardware. Avoid being tracked.



https://redd.it/1p48sur
@r_linux

Your iPhone on Linux

https://preview.redd.it/9y685p9lvz2g1.png?width=1058&format=png&auto=webp&s=e965a310c1313fc794bb40cccbad9632168de81e

I have always wanted to have more control over my iPhone while i am on Linux so i built this app it's free, open-source and cross-platform

https://github.com/iDenoscriptor/iDenoscriptor

https://redd.it/1p4kyhi
@r_linux

"Learn to code" to use Linux.

On the internet I often see people say they would like to try or use Linux, due to recent Microsoft shenanigans with AI, but they don't know "how to code" and that they would need to "learn to code" (whatever that means). Why is that? And what can be done to change the image of Linux for the average person?

https://redd.it/1p4med8
@r_linux

A fully deterministic scheduler running on GPU by expressing the entire control logic as tensor ops scheduler that runs like a tiny ML model.Turning a branch-heavy OS scheduler into a static GPU compute graph (program-as-weights experiment).
https://github.com/maheshsurya196/GPU_Cluster_Scheduler

https://redd.it/1p4qkvh
@r_linux

I just contributed to Linux World FIRST TIMEEEEE HELLL JAAAAAA!~

There was some issue in Linux Mint Cinnamon, where if you have animations enabled inside your App menu they would cause some big stutter. And it was Mint-Y theme issue only.

Here is the video - https://streamable.com/8x8gld
At the start of the video you can see what I'm talking about, and then near the center I reloaded Cinnamon with the fix and I think you can clearly see the difference!

So I found a way how to fix it and just requested a pull to fix it here - https://github.com/linuxmint/mint-themes/pull/523 even thought it doesn't pulled to the main branch for now, I still enjoy it :3

https://redd.it/1p4s2jn
@r_linux

Witch is your favourite distro?

I’m a true Fedora fan—I’ve been using it for a few months, and it’s perfect, stable, and gives very few issues. What’s your favorite Linux distro? Why do you like it, and how long have you been using it? I’m curious to hear your experiences!

https://redd.it/1p4vdor
@r_linux

wayscriber v0.8 – live screen annotation & screenshot overlay for Linux (KDE Wayland, GNOME, Hyprland…)


hey, i've been hacking for a while with Rust on a little zoomit-style overlay for linux, and i just pushed wayscriber v0.8 🙂 finally ready to share with folks outside Hyprland

https://github.com/devmobasa/wayscriber

GIF preview: https://wayscriber.com/demo.gif

It started as a very simple real-time annotation tool with only freehand and arrow/rectangle shape..

welp, several weeks fast forward, and I added bunch more features, and ended up with quite a codebase... all more than I planned for, mostly other people requesting ( but... I swear... all the features made sense!)


### what it does (in short)

- draw over anything: pen, straight lines, rectangles, ellipses, arrows, multiline text, choose colors etc.
- use it as a whiteboard/blackboard or transparent overlay on top of your actual apps
- quickly hide / redact parts of the screen (nice for demos, support, recording)
- built‑in screenshot helpers (region, active window, fullscreen) to file or clipboard
- freeze screen mode so viewers see a paused frame while apps keep running
- runs either as a one-shot (wayscriber --active) or a small background daemon you toggle with a hotkey


it’s basically a live drawing / annotation layer for your screen. you hit a hotkey, screen fades, and you can scribble, highlight stuff, freeze screen, undo everything and redo everything, hide bits of the screen and grab quick screenshots.


---

### v0.8 focus: KDE Wayland + beyond

until v0.7 it was very hyprland‑focused, v0.8 tries to play nicer with the bigger players:

- KDE Plasma / KWin (Wayland) – uses layer‑shell, so the overlay actually sits on top like it should, and all works great
- GNOME – works via the xdg fallback; you can draw over windows and desktop, but can’t paint over the top bar (portal / compositor limits, not me crying about 47 failed tries to fix it… ok maybe a bit)
- still works on wlroots compositors like Hyprland, Sway, Wayfire, River, Niri etc.

real hardware i’ve tested on so far:

- Ubuntu 25.10 GNOME and KDE
- Fedora 43 KDE and GNOME
- Debian 13.2 KDE and GNOME
- Arch with Hyprland
- Niri was tested as well

if you get it running somewhere else, would love to hear.

---

### install (desktop stuff only, for now)

### Debian / Ubuntu (.deb):

wget -O wayscriber-amd64.deb \
  https://github.com/devmobasa/wayscriber/releases/latest/download/wayscriber-amd64.deb

sudo apt install ./wayscriber-amd64.deb

### Fedora/RHEL (.rpm)

wget -O wayscriber-x86_64.rpm \
  https://github.com/devmobasa/wayscriber/releases/latest/download/wayscriber-x86_64.rpm

sudo rpm -Uvh wayscriber-x86_64.rpm

### Arch (AUR):
yay -S wayscriber

or prebuilt
yay -S wayscriber-bin

on other distros you can build from source (needs a recent version of rust), and for best screenshot workflow you probably want wl-clipboard, grim and slurp installed.

### what i’d love feedback on

- KDE Wayland: does the overlay behave nicely on multi‑monitor / mixed‑DPI setups?
- GNOME: any weirdness besides the top bar no‑draw area? (that’s kinda expected sadly)
- other compositors i didn’t list above
- any horrible performance / latency issues on low end hardware



bug reports & feature requests very welcome, even small stuff like "this hotkey combo makes no sense"

https://redd.it/1p4wof0
@r_linux

Ram Upgrade

Hello everyone,

CachyOS x GNOME user here. I own a Ryzen 5 3500U with Vega 8 graphics laptop. Currently it's got 16GB of ram on it 2GBs of it is allocated for VRAM. I am mostly doing multitasking with lots of tabs and workspaces on and I am thinking of upgrading it to 40GB. Is it worth it?

https://redd.it/1p4xk5d
@r_linux

Early thoughts on Fedora 43

I remember when Fedora was called fuddy-duddy Fedora and Ubuntu and co. ruled the roost. So, out of frustration with the progress on COSMIC desktop, I decided to replace Pop OS with Fedora to try it out. These are some early thoughts.

Installation was fast and painless on a non-nvidia system (I am thinking of trying it out on an Nvidia one as well).
Proprietary codecs used to be a pain in the ass and, to be fair, it still is annoying. This is one thing that would scare off any user who doesn't know why they can't play their videos or what the solution is. Thanks to this guide I was able to install Flathub and then some multimedia players from that -- a neat solution! I know there is RPMFusion but if it's anything like Ubuntu's PPAs, I will avoid it. It will probably break with major updates.

I have to say that KDE has gotten steadily better. It auto-detected and applied fractional scaling on my laptop screen and works with a mixed DPI setup (150% on 4K monitor and 125% on laptop). KDEConnect is fitted out the box and works a treat. It also has night light support for sleep (something that was missing in COSMIC). I also appreciate that Fedora supports updates-on-reboot as that was a major PITA on Manjaro (a distro I do not recommend).

Plus points for easy full disk encryption and systemd-boot.

Is KDE perfect? Maybe not, but it deals with major pain points in Linux like fractional DPI scaling. One thing I have noticed is that COSMIC desktop is a bit faster and smoother when playing video on a multi-monitor setup, but KDE is much more feature complete.

I will have to stay on it longer to give a final verdict. I did like a lot of what Pop OS was doing with their LTS base and frequent kernel updates... but I've heard a lot of good things about Fedora's stability too. I'm not going back to Arch and compiling-hell in any case.

https://redd.it/1p4yxkt
@r_linux

Linux 6.18-rc7 Released With Late Hardware Improvements
https://www.phoronix.com/news/Linux-6.18-rc7-Released

https://redd.it/1p50v72
@r_linux

How did you find your first Linux job?

I have a feeling that my resume is trash right now but I'm currently working for a call center as a contract worker and I'm sort of scrambling to find any sort of IT job before it ends. I have:

* some college completed
* RHCSA, CompTIA A+
* 3 months working in a call center, and a year being homeless

I dont know what I should do in order to proceed with my career, if I even have one. I want to attend school but I need to do something in the meantime to pay my rent.

Im hoping that I can glean some useful advice from those of you who work with Linux in any capacity, thanks.

https://redd.it/1p52bdb
@r_linux

Earworm Documentation for Wayland Architecture
https://youtube.com/shorts/CFh9knDccZo?si=oJdq69Vjg3dIRqvA

https://redd.it/1p54x3z
@r_linux

Plasma vs cosmic

I’m curious how Plasma and Cosmic compare in terms of design potential and customization. Which one do you think can be made to look better with proper tweaking, and what are some standout examples or rices that showcase each desktop at its best?

https://redd.it/1p55dbk
@r_linux

I hate com. org. naming scheme for packages rant

I wish Android, flatpak and other stuff just stopped using that. It makes sorting just insufferable. I don't care about com. org., I want to find the package that starts with H, or Y or whatever, I don't want to discover that a program that starts with A is at the middle of the list because it uses some weird domain.

Have you ever tried to use dconf-editor? What am I supposed to do on the main screen? Guess what domain app I'm searching is using? Then also guess who is the developer of it or where it is hosted (com.github.developer.appname). Just why is this a thing.

I would like if it was something like system/app.appname.developer, but domain.site.developer.appname is not much better, yet sacrafices everything else (path length, user experience).

idk where this nonsense originated from, but so far I only see it on Linux (Android, GNOME (with flatpak and dconf), and KDE plasmoids). Every time I want to find something in /data/data on Android I have to basically guess where approximately in the list the app will be (because my file manager on Android doesn't have filters like Dolphin), and then find where it is by the icon. And it also kills shell autocomplete if I don't know what is the domain, I have to guess. And even if I know, I still have to type the full domain + devname before I can autocomplete appname.

I just can't stop to wonder who in the world though this was a good idea.

https://redd.it/1p57iwa
@r_linux

I'm thinking of switching to Linux for gaming and just general use, no other super specific needs really. But is it true that Nvidia cards suck with Linux? I've heard you don't get any access to fan speed or voltage which I'm not big on. Would I be better off getting an AMD card first?

I am using a 3080 10gb

I'm really not interested in switching to win 11, so I want to at worst run a dual boot setup. But like the noscript states, I've heard Nvidia cards can be a challenge to deal with on Linux, meanwhile AMD cards are more or less plug and play, while also having full access to fan and voltage controls

Is this true

https://redd.it/1p54gmp
@r_linux

After 12 years, I think Linux is ready, FOSS is ready, Valve is ready.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yeCuasjxsWk

https://redd.it/1p5a2j5
@r_linux