Install Report Manager Designer on Linux

Report Manager Designer runs natively on the Linux desktop. It is the same designer as on Windows, built with Lazarus and the Qt 6 toolkit: band-based report design, data configuration, preview, PDF export, printing and the AI assistants (report design, SQL and expressions). It opens and saves the same .rep files as the Windows designer.

Downloads

Download the packages of the latest release from the SourceForge files page (Linux folder of the release). There are three files. The version in their names (for example 4.0.22) is the one of that Linux build, and it does not always match the Windows designer sitting in the same folder — take it from the file names you actually see there:

Only 64-bit PCs (x86_64) are supported for now. The SHA256SUMS file next to the packages verifies the download: sha256sum -c SHA256SUMS --ignore-missing.

Every package is tested before release on clean Ubuntu 22.04, 24.04 and 26.04 and Debian 12 and 13 systems.

Qt 6 or GTK2?

• Qt 6 (reportman-designer) is the recommended package: current look and automatic HiDPI scaling, also with fractional factors (it follows the desktop scale; it can be forced with QT_SCALE_FACTOR=1.5 reportman-designer).
• GTK2 (reportman-designer-gtk2) is the same designer built with GTK2, published for one or two releases as an alternative. GTK2 is no longer maintained and Debian plans to remove it, so this package will be discontinued. Use it only if your system has no Qt 6 packages or something fails with the Qt 6 version (and please report it).

Both packages install the same files and cannot be installed at the same time: installing one replaces the other. Your preferences, connections and reports are shared by both. reportman-designer --version shows which one you have: (LCL qt6) or (LCL gtk2).

sudo apt install ./reportman-designer-gtk2_4.0.22_amd64.deb   # switch to GTK2
sudo apt install ./reportman-designer_4.0.22_amd64.deb        # back to Qt 6

Install the .deb package (recommended)

1. Download reportman-designer_<version>_amd64.deb (Qt 6).
2. Install it with a double click (the desktop software installer opens it) or from a terminal, in the download folder:

   sudo apt install ./reportman-designer_4.0.22_amd64.deb

   The ./ tells apt that it is a local file and not a repository package; apt downloads and installs all the dependencies.

After the installation:

• Report Manager Designer is in the applications menu (Office).
• .rep files open in the designer with a double click (MIME type application/x-reportman-report).
• It can be started from a terminal: reportman-designer [report.rep]. reportman-designer --version shows the version and the folders it uses, and man reportman-designer has the help.

Update and uninstall

To update, install the .deb of the new version the same way; apt replaces the previous one (there is no apt repository with automatic updates yet). To uninstall:

sudo apt remove reportman-designer        # Qt 6 version
sudo apt remove reportman-designer-gtk2   # GTK2 version

This removes the program, the menu entry, the icons and the *.rep association. Your files are not touched: preferences (~/.config/reportman/), connections (~/.borland/) and reports.

Use the AppImage

chmod +x ReportManDesigner-4.0.22-x86_64.AppImage
./ReportManDesigner-4.0.22-x86_64.AppImage [report.rep]

(or, in the file manager: Properties → Allow executing as program, then double click). The AppImage is the Qt 6 version and carries Qt 6.2, libQt6Pas, GLib, ICU and SQLite. From the system it uses what any desktop has: X11 or XWayland, fontconfig, FreeType, HarfBuzz, fonts, libEGL.so.1 and libOpenGL.so.0 (packages libegl1 and libopengl0), CUPS to print and OpenSSL with the CA certificates for the HTTPS connections to the Hub.

• If it fails with a FUSE error, run it without mounting: ./ReportManDesigner-4.0.22-x86_64.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run (or install the fuse3/fuse package of your distribution).
• The AppImage does not add itself to the menu nor associate *.rep files; use the .deb or a tool such as AppImageLauncher or Gear Lever for that. To remove it, delete the file.

Dependencies

apt installs them automatically; they are listed in case you install on an unsupported distribution or something fails.

• Qt 6 package: Qt 6.2 or later (libqt6core6, libqt6gui6, libqt6widgets6, libqt6printsupport6, or their …t64 names on Ubuntu 24.04), qt6-qpa-plugins, libstdc++6, X11 and glibc 2.35 or later. libQt6Pas is included in the package.
• GTK2 package: GTK2 (libgtk2.0-0 or libgtk2.0-0t64), GLib, ATK, Pango, Cairo, GDK-Pixbuf, X11 and glibc 2.34 or later.
• Both, loaded by the engine at run time: libfreetype6, libfontconfig1, libharfbuzz0b, libsqlite3-0, an ICU library between versions 70 and 78 (libicu70 on Ubuntu 22.04, libicu72 on Debian 12, libicu74 on Ubuntu 24.04…) and the fonts-dejavu-core fonts; for HTTPS (the AI assistants and the rpdbHttp Reportman Agent driver), OpenSSL 3 (libssl3, 1.1 is also accepted) and ca-certificates.
• Recommended: fonts-liberation (metrics compatible with Arial, Times and Courier), libharfbuzz-subset0 (the PDF embeds only the characters used from each font) and libcups2 to print.

Font selection and complex text shaping (Arabic, Hebrew, Devanagari…) use fontconfig, HarfBuzz and ICU, see bidirectional text and complex scripts.

First steps

• The welcome window, shown at startup and from Help → Sample reports…, lists the sample reports (invoices, letters with HTML text, labels, a product catalogue with barcodes, charts, international text…). Each one reads a small SQLite database installed with it, so it can be previewed right away. They are installed in /opt/reportman-designer/samples/, which is read-only: the designer opens a copy in ~/Documents/Report Manager/Samples (the documents folder of your desktop), where they can be changed and saved.
• The designer language (menus, toolbars, dialogs and messages) follows LC_ALL, LC_MESSAGES or LANG, in that order: English, Spanish, Catalan, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Czech and Lithuanian. For example LANG=fr_FR.UTF-8 reportman-designer.
• The AI assistants need a Reportman account: sign in from the AI panel of the designer (with an e-mail code or through your web browser).

Wayland

In a Wayland session (GNOME, KDE Plasma…) the designer runs through XWayland, as an X11 application. The Qt 6 version chooses X11 (xcb) unless the QT_QPA_PLATFORM variable is set: with native Wayland, the application cannot position its windows (the protocol does not allow it), so the designer could not restore its position nor center its dialogs. To try native Wayland with the .deb: sudo apt install qt6-wayland and QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland reportman-designer. The AppImage only carries the X11 plugin of Qt, and the GTK2 version only works on X11/XWayland.

Configuration files

Differences with the Windows designer

• SQL editor: the Windows designer uses the Monaco editor (WebView2, Windows only). On Linux the SQL editor is a native editor with syntax highlighting, completion of the tables and columns of the schema (Ctrl+Space, and automatically after . and after FROM/JOIN) and the AI inline suggestion: write a comment in natural language, for example -- customers with a balance, and the AI proposes the SQL that implements it as grey text at the cursor; Tab accepts it (one undo step), Esc dismisses it.
• AI chat: the answers are shown with the native HTML viewer instead of a web view.
• Database drivers: MyBase (text and XML files), Zeos, FireDac (SQLite) and the Reportman Agent. ADO, BDE, IBX, dbExpress and .NET belong to the Windows designer; a report that uses them shows its connection as not available and keeps it unchanged.
• Excel export is Windows only (it drives Excel). The preview saves to PDF, PDF/A-3, HTML, SVG, CSV, text, PNG, BMP and metafile; Mail to opens your desktop mail client with the PDF attached (xdg-email, package xdg-utils).
• Reportman Agent driver: the direct WebRTC (peer-to-peer) channel is Windows only; on Linux the queries always go over HTTPS through aiapi.reportman.es and the Hub, with the same results and slightly more latency.
• GTK2 version: limited HiDPI scaling (texts and windows grow with the desktop DPI, but the icons and the GTK2 widgets do not); use the Qt 6 version.

Troubleshooting

• error while loading shared libraries: libXXX.so with the AppImage: a basic desktop library is missing; install it with the package manager (for example libegl1 and libopengl0, libharfbuzz0b, libfontconfig1) or use the .deb.
• Could not load the Qt platform plugin "xcb": the Qt X11 plugin or one of its libraries is missing. Check that qt6-qpa-plugins and libqt6gui6 (or libqt6gui6t64) are installed or, as a quick workaround, try the GTK2 package.
• No ICU library found when exporting or previewing: install the ICU library of your distribution (apt install libicu74, libicu72…).
• cannot open the display: the designer needs a graphical desktop (X11, XWayland or, with Qt 6, Wayland); over SSH use ssh -X or a remote desktop. reportman-designer --version and --help work without a display.

Other Linux tools

• printreptopdf: command line tool that runs a report and exports it to PDF, without a graphical desktop.
• Web Report Server: self-hosted report server for Linux, also as a Docker image.
• Lazarus packages: the engine, the preview and the designer as components for your own Free Pascal applications.