Installing

Download the package for your system from the releases page. Each package exists for x86_64 (Intel, AMD) and ARM64 machines; the macOS app runs on both.

Linux needs glibc 2.39 or newer: Debian trixie or sid, Ubuntu 24.04, Fedora 40 or later. The .deb and .rpm also install oxiguitar-cli, a command-line tool that prints a file’s contents, converts it to Guitar Pro 7’s .gp, and engraves it to PNG and PDF (oxiguitar-cli --help), and both programs’ manual pages (man oxiguitar, man oxiguitar-cli).

Wayland and X11

The Linux packages above are the Wayland build, for today’s desktops (GNOME, KDE Plasma and most others run Wayland). A desktop that still runs only an X server needs the X11 build instead:

It is the same program, and each build carries only its own display system’s code. Installing one package replaces the other. If you start the wrong one, it says which build you need. The X11 build is deprecated and will be dropped once desktops have left X11.

The plugins

The packages above hold the program alone, and it opens files only through plugins. Install the basic plugins too, which open Guitar Pro files of every version from 3 to 8:

The .deb and .rpm work with either Linux build. OxiGuitar creates your plugin folder the first time it starts; Help → About lists every folder it searches, and Tools → Plugins the plugins it found. To leave out a plugin you don’t want, untick it in Tools → Plugins, or delete its .oxp file. (Releases up to 0.5.0 also listed every plugin as a file of its own; the zip holds them all.) Until OxiGuitar has a plugin, its footer says that nothing can be opened yet.

On macOS, if the system refuses a plugin it downloaded (“cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified”), clear the download mark on the plugin files and start OxiGuitar again:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine ~/Library/Application\ Support/OxiGuitar/plugins/*.oxp

The first launch

The packages are not code-signed yet, so the system warns the first time:

• Windows: SmartScreen says “Windows protected your PC”. Click More info, then Run anyway.
• macOS: Control-click the app, choose Open, then Open again. On recent macOS you may need System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway instead.

Opening Guitar Pro files with a double click

The .deb, .rpm and .dmg register the Guitar Pro file types (.gp, .gpx, .gp5, .gp4, .gp3), so double-clicking such a file opens it in OxiGuitar. The portable Windows .exe and the AppImage change nothing on your system, so you register them by hand if you want to.

Windows. Right-click a .gp file, choose Open with → Choose another app, then Choose an app on your PC (or More apps → Look for another app on this PC), pick oxiguitar.exe and tick Always use this app. Repeat for .gpx, .gp5, .gp4 and .gp3.

AppImage. Put the AppImage where it will stay, then run, with its path in the first line:

app="$HOME/Applications/OxiGuitar-x86_64.AppImage"
raw=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mateusrdp/oxiguitar/main
id=io.github.mateusrdp.OxiGuitar
data="${XDG_DATA_HOME:-$HOME/.local/share}"
mkdir -p "$data/applications" "$data/mime/packages" "$data/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps"
curl -fsSL "$raw/assets/linux/$id.xml" -o "$data/mime/packages/$id.xml"
curl -fsSL "$raw/assets/icon/png/oxiguitar-256.png" -o "$data/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/$id.png"
curl -fsSL "$raw/assets/linux/$id.desktop" | sed "s|^Exec=oxiguitar |Exec=\"$app\" |" > "$data/applications/$id.desktop"
update-mime-database "$data/mime"
xdg-mime default "$id.desktop" application/x-gtp

This also gives OxiGuitar its icon and an entry in your desktop’s menu. To undo it, delete the three files and run update-mime-database again. With a copy of the source code, scripts/install-desktop-entry.sh PATH-TO-APPIMAGE does the same.

macOS. Double-clicking a Guitar Pro file starts OxiGuitar but does not open the file: open it with File → Open, or drop it on the window.