DICOM Viewer on Linux
Weasis on Linux
Weasis ships as a native package for the common distributions and as a sandboxed Flatpak or Snap. Everything on this page is specific to Linux; the packages themselves are on Download Weasis.
Ways to install
| Method | When it fits |
|---|---|
| DEB / RPM | Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, RHEL and relatives — full access to the file system |
Flatpak — flatpak install flathub io.github.nroduit.Weasis |
any distribution, x86-64 and arm64, sandboxed |
Snap — sudo snap install weasis |
any distribution with snapd, x86-64 and arm64, sandboxed |
AUR — weasis-bin |
Arch and derivatives |
Every package — DEB, RPM, Flatpak and Snap — ships a desktop entry that declares the weasis://
scheme, so a link from a PACS portal or an EHR opens the locally installed viewer — see the
Weasis Web Protocol. You can check it from a terminal with
xdg-open "weasis://?…".
Requirements
The native packages need GLIBC 2.17 on x86-64 and GLIBC 2.27 on arm64. The GLIBC version matrix tells you what your distribution provides. The 3D viewer needs a graphics card with OpenGL 3.3 or later, and reaches its faster compute-shader path from OpenGL 4.3 — which on Linux depends on the driver you have installed, not only on the card.
What differs on Linux
- Sandboxes restrict what Weasis can reach. The Flatpak and Snap builds run confined, which matters for a viewer that reads removable media: the Snap has limited access to removable media, and the Flatpak has its own restrictions. If you routinely open DICOM CDs or USB drives, prefer the DEB or RPM package.
- The Snap keeps its configuration elsewhere. It uses
<user.home>/snap/weasis/current/.weasisinstead of<user.home>/.weasis, which is where to look for preferences and for log files. - Extension-less DICOM files are associated with Weasis, as on macOS and unlike on Windows.
- Embedding the viewer in a DICOM CD is not available. The CD/DVD export writes a DICOM CD from Linux, but only Windows x86-64 can add the viewer to the ISO.