MiniMax Code for Linux (unofficial port)

Run MiniMax Code — MiniMax's AI coding agent — on Linux x64. MiniMax only ships macOS and Windows builds, so this repository contains the tooling that turns the official macOS DMG into a working Linux application: a build pipeline, a launcher, a desktop-entry installer, and the recompiled native modules the app needs under Electron on Linux.

No application JavaScript is patched. The app's payload is platform-neutral JS — the port is a runtime swap (Linux Electron + Linux native modules) plus packaging.

Status: working — the app launches, renders correctly, reaches the login screen, opens the browser for OAuth, and receives the minimax:// callback.

⚠️ Unofficial and personal-use only. This project is not affiliated with or endorsed by MiniMax. MiniMax Code is proprietary software; it is not distributed here. You download the official DMG yourself and build locally.

---

Quick start

You need: Linux x64, 7z (p7zip), Node.js + npm, ~3 GB of free disk, and the official MiniMax Code macOS DMG (Intel/x64 build) downloaded from MiniMax's site.

git clone https://github.com/DarkoKuzmanovic/minimax-code-linux.git
cd minimax-code-linux

./prepare.sh "/path/to/MiniMax Code 3.0.60.dmg"   # extract DMG + fetch Electron runtime
./assemble.sh                                     # build dist-linux/minimax-code

cd dist-linux/minimax-code
sudo ./install.sh        # system-wide → /opt/minimax-code (Chromium sandbox ON)
./install.sh --user      # or per-user → ~/.local/share/minimax-code (--no-sandbox)

Then launch with minimax-code, or from your application menu.

The installer registers the icon set, a .desktop entry, and the x-scheme-handler/minimax protocol handler. The handler is required, not cosmetic — login happens in your external browser and returns via minimax://auth-callback?accessToken=…, which reaches the app as an argv deep link handled by Electron's second-instance event.

Uninstall with ./uninstall.sh from the same directory (add --purge to also delete ~/.config/MiniMax Agent).

---

How it works

Stage	What happens
Extract	7z x unpacks the DMG (HFS+) — no dmg2img or mount needed
Unpack	@electron/asar extract on Resources/app.asar (412 MB → ~40,000 files)
Runtime	npm install electron@38.3.0 supplies the linux-x64 Electron dist
Natives	macOS .node binaries replaced with the linux-x64 builds vendored in natives/
Assemble	./assemble.sh produces dist-linux/minimax-code (~840 MB)

Target ABI is Electron 38.3.0 / Chrome 140 / Node 22.20.0 / NODE_MODULE_VERSION 139. Override with ELECTRON_VERSION=x.y.z ./prepare.sh … when porting a newer DMG.

Why this works at all: the app is already written cross-platform — it targets Windows too, ships NSIS installer scripts, and even bundles a prebuilt @nut-tree/libnut-linux binary in the macOS DMG. Of the ~44 files that branch on process.platform, nearly all are cosmetic guards (dock, vibrancy, menu roles, tray) that already no-op off darwin.

Native modules

Module	Linux binary vendored in natives/linux-x64/
node-pty	rebuilt with electron-rebuild against Electron 38.3.0
better-sqlite3	Electron-ABI build, replaces the darwin binary in place
@mariozechner/clipboard	npm …-linux-x64-gnu platform package
node-screenshots	npm …-linux-x64-gnu platform package
@vscode/ripgrep	npm @vscode/ripgrep-linux-x64 (ships the rg binary)
@nut-tree/libnut-linux	already bundled in the macOS DMG — used as-is

All of these load under the shipped Electron binary — verify any time with:

ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE=1 ./dist-linux/minimax-code/minimax-code abi-test.js

Prefer to build them yourself instead of trusting the vendored binaries? npm install node-pty better-sqlite3 plus npx electron-rebuild -v 38.3.0 in a scratch directory reproduces the two rebuilt ones; the rest are ordinary npm platform packages.

The two real porting defects

Everything else was solved with correct binaries, environment variables, or launcher flags — these two were actual bugs:

1. Blank white window — Chromium's Wayland/GBM path. Electron 38 auto-selects native Wayland, which cannot allocate buffers on this stack: gbm_pixmap_wayland: Cannot create bo with format=RGBA_8888 in a loop, killing the GPU process. The launcher therefore forces --ozone-platform=x11 (XWayland). Measured difference:

	GPU crashes	startup	first paint
Wayland	24	22.8 s	17.1 ms
X11	0	2.4 s	6.4 ms

Set MINIMAX_WAYLAND=1 to opt back into native Wayland.

2. [LocalRuntime] electron-rebuild binary not found. The app tries to stage its own Electron-ABI better-sqlite3 by shelling out to electron-rebuild, which we don't ship. native-sqlite-env.js has a supported escape hatch: it returns early when MAVIS_SQLITE3_MODULE_PATH is set. Since the bundled binary is already ABI 139, the launcher just exports that path plus NODE_PATH. Error gone, [UtilityRuntime] ready, no patching.

Notes and limitations

• Auto-update does not work, by design. electron-updater will 404 (MiniMax publishes no Linux artifacts) and the JS hot-update channel is version-gated to a different base version. Both fail silently and harmlessly. To move to a new release, re-run the pipeline against a newer DMG.
• Sandbox. chrome-sandbox must be root-owned and setuid to be used; a --user install can't do that, so the launcher adds --no-sandbox. Use sudo ./install.sh if you want the sandbox enabled.
• WM_CLASS is MiniMax Agent (from the app name), not MiniMax Code — the .desktop StartupWMClass matches it so taskbar icons group correctly.
• Fontconfig invalid attribute 'xsi:nil' warnings come from the host's /etc/fonts/conf.d/48-guessfamily.conf and are unrelated to this port.

Repository layout

prepare.sh      DMG → extract/ + app-unpacked/ + runtime/  (run first)
assemble.sh     build inputs → dist-linux/minimax-code     (run second)
abi-test.js     verifies native-module ABI under the real Electron binary
natives/        vendored linux-x64 native modules (open-source rebuilds)
packaging/      launcher, .desktop template, installer, uninstaller, icons
icons/          source icon artwork

extract/, app-unpacked/, runtime/, and dist-linux/ are build artifacts containing MiniMax's proprietary code — they are gitignored and are never published.

Gotchas for future work

• 7z creates junk *:com.apple.* sidecar files from HFS+ alternate streams; both scripts delete them after every copy.
• Don't use pkill -f dist-linux/minimax-code — the pattern matches the very shell command issuing it. Use pkill -x minimax-code.
• Chromium logs errors as ERROR:file.cc:NN, not in the app's bracketed [error] format. Grepping only for [error] hides GPU crashes entirely.
• Editable sources live in packaging/ and are copied into the output tree on each build — assemble.sh starts with rm -rf on its output, so never edit files in dist-linux/ directly.

Legal

The tooling in this repository is MIT-licensed (see LICENSE). MiniMax Code itself is proprietary software owned by MiniMax; this project redistributes none of it and is intended for personal use with your own legitimately obtained copy. The vendored native modules are open source (node-pty, better-sqlite3, @mariozechner/clipboard, node-screenshots, ripgrep) and remain under their respective licenses.