Resolving Ghostty GLIBC Version Conflict | Generated by AI
The issue you’re running into isn’t just about conflicting installations—it’s primarily that both the Snap and the .deb you downloaded were built against GLIBC 2.38 (from Ubuntu 24.04), but your system is on Ubuntu 22.04 (based on the GLIBC 2.35 version in your libc-bin package). This causes the “version GLIBC_2.38' not found" error when trying to run the binary. Having both installs active can also lead to path conflicts (e.g., which ghostty` binary gets executed), so yes, you should remove them first to clean things up.
Step 1: Remove Existing Installations
Run these commands to uninstall both:
sudo snap remove ghostty
sudo apt remove ghostty
- This will remove the Snap version and the
.debversion without affecting your system otherwise. - Verify removal with
which ghostty(should return nothing) andsnap list | grep ghostty(should be empty).
Step 2: Install a Compatible Version
Ghostty doesn’t have official .deb packages for Ubuntu 22.04 yet, but there’s a reliable unofficial repository that builds compatible .deb files for it (and other versions). It handles GLIBC compatibility automatically.
The easiest way is to use their automatic installer script, which detects your Ubuntu version and grabs the right package:
/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mkasberg/ghostty-ubuntu/HEAD/install.sh)"
- This downloads and installs the latest compatible
.deb(currently around v1.2.x as of recent releases). - After it finishes, run
ghosttyto test—it should launch without the GLIBC error. - If you see any dependency prompts during install (e.g., for
libonig5), just approve them withY.
If you prefer manual installation:
- Go to the releases page.
- Download the
.debfile labeled for Ubuntu 22.04 (e.g., something likeghostty_1.2.1-0.ppa1_amd64_22.04.deb—exact name varies by release). - Install it with
sudo dpkg -i ghostty_*.deb(run from the download folder). - If it complains about missing dependencies, fix with
sudo apt install -f.
Additional Notes
- Why build from source isn’t needed here: The unofficial repo does the heavy lifting for you, but if you want to build Ghostty yourself (e.g., for a custom version), follow the official source build guide. It requires Zig 0.13 and some deps like
libgtk-4-dev, but the.debroute is simpler. - Upgrading Ubuntu? If you’re open to it, moving to 24.04 would let you use the official Snap or the 24.04
.debyou tried earlier without issues. - After install, you can configure Ghostty via
~/.config/ghostty/config(see docs for options).
If you hit any errors during these steps, paste the output here for more help!