zupt/INSTALL.md

VaptVupt + VaptVupt GUI — Install Guide for Linux

If you're seeing the error:

vaptvupt-gui depende de python3-pyqt6 | python3-pyside6; porém:
  Pacote python3-pyqt6 não está instalado.
vaptvupt-gui depende de vaptvupt (>= 2.2.3); porém:
  Versão de vaptvupt no sistema é 2.1.7-1.

This is correct behavior. The vaptvupt-gui deb requires:

• Python 3 with PyQt6 or PySide6 (the GUI toolkit)
• The vaptvupt CLI 2.2.3 or newer

The fastest fix — one command (Linux Mint, Ubuntu, Debian)

Put all the downloaded files in the same folder, then:

sudo bash install-zupt-gui.sh

This script auto-detects your distribution and installs everything in the right order. Done.

Manual fix — three commands (if you prefer)

Linux Mint / Ubuntu / Debian / Pop!_OS

# 1. Install the Qt6 Python binding
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y python3-pyqt6

# 2. Upgrade vaptvupt CLI to 4.0.0
sudo dpkg -i vaptvupt_4.0.0_amd64.deb

# 3. Install the GUI
sudo dpkg -i vaptvupt-gui_1.3.0_all.deb

If step 3 still complains about deps, run:

sudo apt --fix-broken install

Fedora / RHEL / Rocky / AlmaLinux

sudo dnf install -y python3-pyqt6
sudo dnf install -y vaptvupt-4.0.0-1.x86_64.rpm vaptvupt-gui-1.3.0-1.noarch.rpm

(Or build the RPM from the SRPM tarball with rpmbuild -bb SPECS/vaptvupt.spec)

openSUSE Leap / Tumbleweed

sudo zypper install python3-pyqt6
# Build the RPM from the source tarball — see the SRPM .tar.gz

Arch Linux / Manjaro / EndeavourOS

sudo pacman -S python-pyqt6
# Build vaptvupt from the source tarball

Anything else (or no apt/dnf/pacman handy)

Use the AppImage — no install needed:

tar xzf VaptVupt-GUI-1.3.0-x86_64.AppDir.tar.gz
cd vaptvupt-gui.AppDir
./AppRun

The AppImage still needs Python 3 + Qt6 binding on the host (those are universally available on every Linux distribution since 2022). For a fully standalone executable with no Python dependency, use a future PyInstaller-built version (not in this release).

Why does the GUI need Qt6?

The VaptVupt GUI is written in Python, using either PyQt6 or PySide6 (it auto-detects whichever is installed). These are bindings to the Qt 6 graphical toolkit — they're how the GUI draws windows, buttons, and dialogs.

PyQt6 is in the default repositories of every major Linux distribution since 2022, so installing it is one apt/dnf/zypper/pacman command away. We don't bundle Qt6 inside the deb because:

• It's already on most modern systems
• Bundling would make the deb 80 MB+ instead of 35 KB
• Distribution-managed Qt gets security updates automatically

Why does the GUI need vaptvupt 2.2.3?

The GUI calls vaptvupt --pq-sdk and vaptvupt keygen --sdk for state-of-the-art post-quantum encryption (HKDF-SHA3 hybrid combiner, key commitment, HPKE binding, Argon2id). These flags didn't exist in 2.1.7 — they were added in 2.2.0.

If you have an older vaptvupt installed, the GUI's compress/extract will fail with "unknown option --pq-sdk".

After installing — verify

vaptvupt version       # should show: 2.2.3
vaptvupt-gui           # should launch the GUI window

If the GUI window still doesn't appear

# Run from terminal to see error messages
vaptvupt-gui

# If you see "ImportError: No module named 'PyQt6'":
#   The GUI fell back through both PyQt6 and PySide6 imports.
#   Re-check: python3 -c 'import PyQt6.QtWidgets'

# If you see "DISPLAY not set":
#   You're on SSH without X forwarding. Use ssh -X or run locally.

# If you see "qt.qpa.plugin: Could not load the Qt platform plugin":
#   Missing Qt platform plugin. On Mint/Ubuntu:
#   sudo apt install qt6-qpa-plugins

Reporting issues

If you've tried the above and vaptvupt-gui still won't work, open an issue at https://git.securityops.co/cristiancmoises/vaptvupt/issues with:

1. Output of lsb_release -a (or cat /etc/os-release)
2. Output of python3 --version
3. Output of python3 -c 'import PyQt6; print(PyQt6.__version__)' 2>&1
4. Output of vaptvupt version
5. Output of vaptvupt-gui (the error message it printed to terminal)

---

Building from source

If you want to build VaptVupt from the source tarball instead of installing the pre-built .deb / .rpm packages, you'll need:

Build dependencies

Component	Why needed
gcc ≥ 7 or clang ≥ 10	C11 compiler
make	build driver
libargon2-dev	Argon2id KDF
libssl-dev	OpenSSL libcrypto (AES, SHA-256)
libzuptsdk-dev 2.0.0+	VaptVupt's cryptographic SDK

The libzuptsdk-dev package is a separate sister project — it contains the post-quantum hybrid cryptography that VaptVupt uses on its --pq-sdk path. Both libraries are by the same author (Cristian Cezar Moisés) but are distributed as separate source/binary packages so each can evolve on its own release cadence.

Install build dependencies (Debian/Ubuntu/Mint)

sudo apt install build-essential libargon2-dev libssl-dev

# Then install libzuptsdk from its package:
sudo apt install ./libzuptsdk2_2.0.0_amd64.deb \
                 ./libzuptsdk-dev_2.0.0_amd64.deb

Install build dependencies (Fedora/RHEL/openSUSE)

sudo dnf install gcc make libargon2-devel openssl-devel
# libzuptsdk from its SRPM:
tar -xzf libzuptsdk-2.0.0.srpm.tar.gz
rpmbuild -bb SPECS/libzuptsdk.spec
sudo rpm -i ~/rpmbuild/RPMS/x86_64/libzuptsdk-2.0.0-*.rpm

Build VaptVupt itself

tar -xzf vaptvupt-2.2.3-source.tar.gz
cd vaptvupt-2.2.3

make                 # build the `./vaptvupt` binary
sudo make install    # install to /usr/local/bin (override with PREFIX=/usr)

./vaptvupt version       # verify

The make step takes 10-30 seconds. The build emits the binary as ./vaptvupt. The default install prefix is /usr/local; override with PREFIX=/usr for system-wide install.

Run the test suite

make test

61 tests pass: roundtrip, audit, multi-file, cross-block, dedup property, path-traversal, argument-order, block-swap regression. Each suite reports its own pass/fail count.

Cross-compilation

VaptVupt builds on x86_64, aarch64, armhf, ppc64le, s390x, and riscv64. To cross-compile:

make CC=aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc      # for AArch64
make CC=arm-linux-gnueabihf-gcc    # for ARMv7 (Raspberry Pi 32-bit)

The Makefile auto-detects target architecture via $(CC) -dumpmachine and selects the appropriate SIMD flags (NEON on AArch64, SSE4/AVX2 on x86_64).

Static linking against libzuptsdk

If you want a fully self-contained vaptvupt binary (no libzuptsdk.so.2 runtime dependency), you can link against the static library:

make LDLIBS='-l:libzuptsdk.a -lcrypto -largon2'

This produces a binary that doesn't need libzuptsdk2 installed at runtime — useful for containers, embedded systems, or distribution to machines without package management.