Running KeePass under Mono (Linux, Mac OS X, BSD, …)
In addition to Windows, KeePass 2.x runs fine under Mono, i.e. Linux, Mac OS X, BSD, etc. In order to run KeePass, follow these steps:
- Install Mono ≥ 2.6 (older versions will not work and are not supported). Depending on your platform, the packages to install are called
mono-stable
,MonoFramework
,mono-devel
ormono-2.0-devel
; see the Mono project page, if you are unsure which packages to install. - On some platforms, the Windows Forms implementation (System.Windows.Forms) is offered as a separate package. KeePass requires this package; so if you see one, install it, too.
- On some platforms, the Runtime namespace (System.Runtime) is offered as a separate package. KeePass requires this package; so if you see one, install it, too.
- If you want to use auto-type on Linux / Mac OS X / BSD / etc., you additionally need the
xdotool
package. - Download the portable version of KeePass (file
KeePass-2.xx.zip
) and unpack it in a location of your choice. - When being in the KeePass directory, run the command line “
mono KeePass.exe
“. Alternatively, right-click onto theKeePass.exe
file, choose “Open with Other Application” and type inmono
as custom command.
For the last step you might want to create a shortcut or shell script file with this command line (use an absolute path to KeePass.exe
, if the shortcut / shell script file is in a different location).
Global Auto-Type:
In order to use global auto-type, you need to create an appropriate system-wide hot key. This only needs to be done manually once. KeePass performs global auto-type when it’s invoked with the --auto-type
command line option.
For example, to create a system-wide hot key for global auto-type on Ubuntu Linux, follow these steps:
- Press Alt-F2, enter
gconf-editor
and click [OK]. - Navigate to
apps
->metacity
->keybinding_commands
. - Double-click one of the
command_i
items, enter
mono /YourPathToKeePass/KeePass.exe --auto-type
and click [OK]. - Click the
global_keybindings
node on the left. - Double-click the appropriate
run_command_i
item (for example, when you’ve usedcommand_5
in the previous steps, double-clickrun_command_5
now) and specify the hot key of your choice. For example, to use Ctrl-Alt-A as hot key, you’d enter<Control><Alt>a
.
Important: for global auto-type, the version of the xdotool
package must be 2.20100818.3004 or higher! If your distribution only offers an older version, you can download and install the latest version of the package manually, see the xdotool
website.