The guide walks through installing VSCodium—a fully open‑source, telemetry‑free fork of Visual Studio Code—on Linux Mint Debian Edition 5 (the “Elsie” spin) by using the official apt repository so updates are handled automatically. It begins with a system update, then imports the project’s GPG signing key and adds a signed‑by entry to a new source list file before refreshing the package index and installing the “codium” package. The article also covers typical hiccups such as a missing libsecret‑1‑0 library after kernel upgrades or conflicts with an existing VS Code Snap, providing simple reinstall or removal commands to resolve them. Finally, it shows how to point VSCodium at the Open VSX extension marketplace and verifies the setup by launching the application.

How to Install VSCodium on LMDE 5 “Elsie”

If you’ve been using the Debian‑based “Elsie” spin of Linux Mint and want a truly open‑source VS Code without Microsoft telemetry, this guide will get VSCodium up and running in a few minutes. We’ll use the official apt repository so you keep getting updates automatically.

Why not just grab the .deb from GitHub?

The binary on the releases page works, but it won’t be upgraded when you run apt upgrade. Adding the repo gives you a clean, deb‑managed install that integrates with your system’s package tools. Plus, it avoids the “I have to manually replace the file after every update” headache.

Prerequisites

• A working internet connection
• Administrative (sudo) rights on the machine

If you’ve ever tried installing a .deb without apt and ended up with half‑installed packages, you know why we start by making sure the package manager is happy.

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

That command pulls in any pending security patches and clears out stale dependencies that could trip later steps.

Add VSCodium’s repository and key

First, import the signing key. This tells apt the packages really come from the VSCodium project and not some random source.

wget -qO- https://gitlab.com/paulcarroty/vscodium-deb-rpm-repo/-/raw/master/pub.gpg \
| sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/vscodium-archive-keyring.gpg

Why the gpg --dearmor step? Debian expects keys in binary format; feeding a plain ASCII key will make apt complain.

Next, add the repository definition:

echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/vscodium-archive-keyring.gpg] \
https://download.vscodium.com/debs vscodium main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/vscodium.list > /dev/null

Notice the signed‑by= part – it ties the repo to the key we just installed, preventing other repos from using that same key accidentally.

Install VSCodium

Refresh the package list and install:

sudo apt update
sudo apt install codium -y

The package name is codium, not vscodium. If you type the wrong name you’ll get a harmless “Unable to locate package” error, but it’s an easy slip‑up.

Common hiccups and how to fix them

Missing libsecret-1-0 after a kernel upgrade I’ve seen this happen when LMDE rolls a new kernel and the old libsecret version gets pulled. VSCodium will start, then immediately crash with “Failed to load libsecret‑1.so”. Fix it by reinstalling the library:

sudo apt install --reinstall libsecret-1-0

Conflicts with the Snap version
If you previously installed VS Code via Snap, the codium binary may clash with the snap’s desktop entry. Remove the snap first:

sudo snap remove code

Then repeat the install steps above.

Optional: Enable extensions from the Marketplace

VSCodium disables Microsoft’s marketplace by default, but you can point it at an open‑source mirror if you need a specific extension that isn’t on the Open VSX registry.

Create ~/.config/VSCodium/product.json with:

{
"extensionsGallery": {
"serviceUrl": "https://open-vsx.org/vscode/gallery",
"itemUrl": "https://open-vsx.org/vscode/item"
}
}

That tells VSCodium to fetch extensions from the community‑run Open VSX. I’ve used it for a few Python tools that never made it into the official marketplace.

Quick sanity check

Launch VSCodium:

codium &

If the window pops up and you see “VSCodium” in the title bar, you’re good to go. Open a folder, install an extension, and enjoy a telemetry‑free editing experience on LMDE 5.

That’s it—no more fiddling with .deb files or hunting for updates manually