Linux Context Menu Does Not Appear

If the Linux Context Menu does not appear in the right-click menu on a file or folder, please follow this troubleshooting guide.

First, please be sure that the most recent version of Beyond Compare is installed.  Different versions of Linux continuously change their support, and updates are required to match these alterations.  To get the latest version of Beyond Compare, select Help > Check for Updates, or download from our website.

Next, launch Beyond Compare and open the Tools > Options dialog.  In the Startup section, verify that Include Beyond Compare in Explorer Context menu is enabled and that at least one of the sub-options is set to show on the menu (Compare, Compare Using, etc).  For this option to take affect, either log off and back on, or reboot your computer.

If the above does not resolve the issue and you are comfortable with manually installing the Linux shell extension, refer to this manual installation guide.  Otherwise, contact us at Scooter Software Support for assistance.

If you're a developer and you'd like to add context menu support for an unsupported Linux distribution, please see our GitHub repository for the source code.  If you add context menu support for a previously unsupported distribution, please send us a pull request and we'll merge it into our official software release.

Known Issues

Debian 7 'Wheezy' (XFCE/Thunar Example)

Requires user to manually copy our shell extension to Thunar's expected location.

32 bit:  cp /usr/lib/beyondcompare/ext/bcompare-ext-thunarx.i386.so /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/thunarx-2/bcompare-ext-thunarx.so

64 bit:  cp /usr/lib32/beyondcompare/ext/bcompare-ext-thunarx.amd64.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/thunarx-2/bcompare-ext-thunarx.so

Ubuntu 18.04, Debian 9 'Stretch' (Gnome/Nautilus Example)

Requires user to manually copy our shell extension to Nautilus' expected location.

32 bit:  cp /usr/lib/beyondcompare/ext/bcompare-ext-nautilus.i386.so /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/nautilus/extensions-3.0/bcompare-ext-nautilus.so

64 bit:  cp /usr/lib/beyondcompare/ext/bcompare-ext-nautilus.amd64.so /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/nautilus/extensions-3.0/bcompare-ext-nautilus.so

Fedora 25 or newer (Gnome)

Fedora 25 and newer use the Wayland desktop instead of Xorg.  When using Wayland, Beyond Compare's Nautilus context menu displays but will not launch the application.  To resolve the issue, use Xorg instead of Wayland.
  1. Log out.
  2. Click your username.
  3. Click the gear.
  4. Select Gnome on Xorg.
  5. Sign in.

KDE5 - Could not find the program '/usr/lib/beyondcompare/kde_context_menu'

Leftover context menu settings after an upgrade from Beyond Compare 4.2.6 (or older) can cause an error:
  "Could not find the program '/usr/lib/beyondcompare/kde_context_menu'"

To fix the problem, remove old context menu settings with the terminal command: 
  1. rm ~/.local/share/kservices5/ServiceMenus/beyondcompare*
  2. Logout and then log back in, or perform a system restart.