Gentle King
The Gospel

Sojourner

Installing and Updating

What to expect when you install it, how to update without losing anything, and how to add the book shelves and the map packs.

The first time

Installing It

Go to the releases page and download the one file for your computer. All three hold the same program, with everything in it. On a phone, a tablet, or a Mac, use Sojourner in the browser instead.

On Windows

Download the file ending in x64-setup.exe and run it. It installs for you alone, so it needs no administrator rights. It bundles the Microsoft Edge WebView2 runtime that Sojourner draws with, so it installs on a machine that has never been online. It runs on Windows 10 or 11, 64-bit.

On Linux

Sojourner needs a 64-bit Linux system from 2024 or later.

  1. Ubuntu 24.04, Linux Mint 22, Debian 13, or newer. Download the file ending in .deb and open it in your software installer. Or, in a terminal in the folder where it landed, run sudo apt install ./Sojourner_0.4.1_amd64.deb.
  2. Most other systems, such as Fedora 40 or newer. Download the file ending in .AppImage. It runs without installing. Make it executable, either in its Properties by allowing it to run as a program or with chmod +x in a terminal, and then open it. It needs the libfuse2 package, which Ubuntu 24.04 calls libfuse2t64.

Moving from Windows to Linux? On the Windows computer, open Settings, choose Data and backups, and Export. Copy that file across, then choose Import in the same place on Linux.

The book library is not in any of the three. The books come as four shelves, each its own download, on the releases page too, further down, under Sojourner Library Packs. The same shelf files work on Windows and Linux alike. Adding a shelf is set out below.

New to the program? A tutorial built into it walks through every feature. You will find it in Settings, under Tutorial.

Before you double-click

Two Honest Warnings

Neither of these is a problem with the program, but you should know about both before you double-click anything.

Windows will warn you. The Windows installer is not code-signed, because a certificate costs money this work does not have. So SmartScreen shows a blue box the first time you run it. Click More info, then Run anyway. The release page lists each file’s SHA-256 checksum, a kind of fingerprint for the file, so anyone who knows how can confirm the file is the one that was published. All three files are built by GitHub from the public source code, not on anyone’s own computer, and the release page links the record of that build. If the warning makes you uneasy, that instinct is a good one, and you are welcome to pass on it.

It is a large download. About 594 MB for Windows, 519 MB for the .deb, and 626 MB for the AppImage, because the texts and the reading voice are all inside it rather than fetched from a server later. That is the trade. One long download once, and then the program never needs the network again.

Version 0.4.1 means what it says. This is early, real, and in use, but it is not finished. Things will change and some of them will break. If something goes wrong, tell me and I will fix it.

A new version

Updating

Sojourner does not update itself. To see whether a newer version exists, open the About page in Settings and press the button there. That button is the only thing in the program that goes online. On Windows, download the new installer and run it over the old one. On Linux, install the new .deb the same way you installed the first, or put the new AppImage in place of the old one.

Your notes, highlights, sermons, prayers, bookmarks, and installed shelves live in your own data, apart from the program, and they are kept. Even so, make a backup first. You will find it in Settings, under Data and backups.

Version 0.4.1 brought Sojourner to Linux, the same program with everything the Windows version has. Version 0.4.0 brought Color text, which puts every person, place, time, and number in the Bible in its own color, and Who’s speaking, which sets God’s own words apart from the story around them.

Library packs

The Book Shelves and the Map Packs

The book shelves are on the releases page under Sojourner Library Packs 0.3.6, with two map packs that give the Atlas its hills and a view from the sky. To install one, open Settings, choose Library packs, and pick Install from file. Once a shelf is in, that button reads Install or update a shelf. What is on each shelf is set out with the rest of the library.

If your Puritan and Reformed shelf is older than 0.3.6, install the new one. It was rebuilt from cleaner texts, and it takes the old one’s place and keeps your notes on its books. The other three shelves have the same books as before, so they work as they are.

The map packs need Sojourner 0.3.6 or later. To add one, open Settings, choose Library packs, and pick Install a map pack. What each pack shows is described with the atlas. Like the shelves, they come as files you download yourself, so they can just as well arrive on a USB stick.

If something goes wrong

Bug Reports and Corrections

If something does not work, or a text is wrong, or you want the program to do a thing it does not do, write to sojourner at gentleking.org. Bug reports are genuinely welcome, and corrections to the texts most of all.