Installing a PacketTracer on Linux is not as simple as you might think. Firstly, there is no official, open to public repository which would be hosting the PT for Linux binaries (while the software is free to use, you have to authenticate with Netacad and download them from its website). Secondly, installing a package which binaries were downloaded separately is a bit trickier than the “normal” Linux apps.

Installing the PacketTracer⌗

Let’s begin by downloading the packettracer snapshot from the AUR:

[vlku@lab.ssh.guru]: ~>$ wget https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/snapshot/packettracer.tar.gz

Once the download finishes, issue the following command to unpack the packettracer tarball:

[vlku@lab.ssh.guru]: ~>$ tar -zxf packettracer.tar.gz

Now comes the time to download the packettracer tarball provided by Cisco on their Netacad website. After creating an account there (or logging in if you already have it), navigate to the Download section under Resources:

Here, scroll down and select 64 Bit Download under Linux Desktop Version X.Y English:

This download is pretty big (~320MB) and might take a while to finish on slower connections. After it’s done, move the Packet Tracer 7.2 for Linux 64.bit.tar.gz (the name of the file you download might differ) to the /packettracer directory created while unpacking the packettracer.tar.gz with tar in the previous step. Please note in this command I’m also changing the name of the tarball as I hate spaces in file names:

[vlku@lab.ssh.guru]: ~>$ mv /home/vlku/Downloads/Packet\ Tracer\ 7.2\ for\ Linux\ 64\ bit.tar.gz ~/packettracer/packettracer72.tar.gz

Ok - before we get to the installation, we need to install icu52 (dependency of packettracer) from the AUR:

[vlku@lab.ssh.guru]: ~>$ git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/icu52.git /tmp && cd /tmp/icu52/
[vlku@lab.ssh.guru]: ~/tmp/icu52>$ makepkg -si && cd ~/packettracer

Finally, run the following command (ensure you are in the /packettracer directory before running it):

[vlku@lab.ssh.guru]: ~/packettracer>$ makepkg -si

Success! Now you can launch the PacketTracer application and, after logging in with your Netacad credentials, simulate your Cisco network.