How to download using Linux Mint 17

Question

I clicked to download yEd for Linux. It says "Could not open the file..."

Message reads, "gedit has not been able to detect the character encoding.
Please check that you are not trying to open a binary file.
Select a character encoding from the menu and try again."

Please advise. Thanks!

P.S. Pretty new to Linux. Coming from Windows/PC background. Novice user here, so simple instructions would be best. Thanks again!

Answer 1

The error message means your browser considers the yEd installer a plain text file and tries to open the installer in a text editor (gedit). That will not work. After accepting the license terms and clicking the "Download yEd" button, your browser should either automatically download the file to your hard disk (e.g. Chrome does that on my system) or ask what it should do with the file (e.g. Firefox does that on my system).

(If Firefox does not ask, you probably downloaded another *.sh file and checked the "Do this automatically for files like this from now on." In that case, go to "Edit" -> "Preferences", tab "Applications", search in the "Content Type" list for "SH file" and reset the associated action to either "Always ask" or "Save File".)

Comments

after download, you have to set execute permissions to the file.
open a terminal (Ctrl+alt+t) and go to Downloads folder
e.g. mine is Descargas

cd Descargas

then set the permissions

chmod +x yEd-3.13_64-bit_setup.sh

finally run the file with

./yEd-3.13_64-bit_setup.sh


Xdc

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Thomas, as per your email: I attempted the original download within Firefox browser. I got the Opening yEd-3.13_64-bit_setup.sh as above and chose save to file as illustrated. I've deleted that file from the Downloads folder using GUI. Now I'm attempting to download once again using chromium-browser for Linux Mint OS--the Google Chrome replacement for Linux.

Descargas, I'm working on your work around suggestion, too. However, I'm using a public Internet location that has a slow connection, and the download keeps failing. I will keep trying from here or elsewhere and report back if it works.

Thank you all for your help. I'm really excited about my new Linux experience and need this tool (and others) to work for me in order to escape the Windows/Microsoft clutches.

Thanks again!