How to use IDM in linux with extension support (2026)

Prerequisite: Flatpak.

Introduction

If you’re a long-time Windows user who recently switched to Linux, chances are you’ve missed a few familiar tools—especially Internet Download Manager (IDM). Known for its blazing fast downloads, browser integration, and ability to resume interrupted files, IDM is a favorite among users who frequently download large files or media.

But here’s the catch: IDM was built for Windows. There’s no official Linux version.

So the question is—how do you get IDM-like functionality on Linux, complete with extension support for Chrome or Firefox? That’s exactly what we’re going to solve in this guide. Let’s get you back to downloading like a boss, the Linux way.

Step by step guide to setu IDM with extension

Install IDM flatpak

Download latest release of IDM flatpak from github.com/tazihad/flatpaks/releases. Install using

flatpak install --user ~/Downloads/idm.flatpak

Extension setup

In this section we going to setup browser extension. I am going to discuss both native firefox and flatpak firefox. First go ahead and install External Application Button (WebExtension) Than Open the option page. If you can’t find the option page from extension setting in firefox. Copy this direct url in address bar. Now setup this extension according to your browser.

Native Firefox

• Download and install linux.zip from here. Extract and run it.
• Install node.

  nvm install --lts
  

  If you don’t have nvm installed yet, run this first to install nvm:

  curl -o- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/nvm-sh/nvm/v0.40.3/install.sh
  

• Now from the Application setup Display Name: Open in IDM
  Executable Name: /home/user_name/bin/idm
  Arguments: [HREF]
  You can find the idmexecutable here. Make sure it had executable permission. chmod +x idm.
  
• Make sure you click Add Application below in List of Application to save the settings.

Flatpak Firefox

• Download and install linux.zip from here. Extract and run it.
• install External Application Button (WebExtension)
• Download and install linux.zip from here. Extract and run it.
• copy this folder ~/.config/com.add0n.node to ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/data/com.add0n.node.
• Edit the run.sh and inside modify node location ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/data/node/bin/node host.js or ../node/bin/node host.js
• We must install Standalone Node Binary. Download Standalone Node Binary and extract it in as ~/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/data/node
• Now from the Application setup Display Name: Open in IDM (Flatpak)
  Executable Name: /home/zihad/.var/app/org.mozilla.firefox/data/bin/idm
  Arguments: [HREF]
  You can find the idmexecutable here. Make sure it had executable permission. chmod +x idm.
  
• Make sure you click Add Application below in List of Application to save the settings.

That’s it. Now you can download with idm extension.