Introduction

Creating long secure passwords can be difficult. Trying to find a way to store them securely is another story. That is why I always recommend to friends and family to start using a password manager. A good password manager let you store your passwords in a secure database, associate a key file with you database for even tighter security, generate long random passwords for new accounts, and auto-type username and passwords for you. You will only need to remember a single password that opens your password database. Today we will be installing the KeePassXC password manager. KeePassXC is a fork of KeePassX, which hasn't seen much development recently, and is a cross platform port of KeePass Password Safe.

Step 1. Download KeePassXC AppImage

Go to KeePassXC and download the Official AppImage.

Step 2. Make the AppImage executable

Move into the directory in which you saved the file, as in our case cd ~/Downloads.

Make the AppImage executalbe:

chmod a+x KeePassXC-x.x.x-x86_64.AppImage

Step 3. (Optional) Move KeePassXC to a suitable location

Move the KeePassXC AppImage KeePassXC-x.x.x-x86_64.AppImage to /opt/keepassxc directory:

mv KeePassXC-x.x.x-x86_64.AppImage /opt/keepassxc/

Step 4. Executing AppImage

You can execute the AppImage as follows:

./KeePassXC-x.x.x-x86_64.AppImage

Step 5. (Optional) Add .desktop file

There's an issue with keeping the KeePassXC app icon(not sure if OS or AppImage) dockable in elementary OS.

I created a .desktop file .local/share/applications/appimagekit-keepassxc.desktop with the contents below:

[Desktop Entry]
Name=KeePassXC
GenericName=Community Password Manager
GenericName[de]=Passwortverwaltung
GenericName[es]=Gestor de contraseñas
GenericName[fr]=Gestionnaire de mot de passe
GenericName[ru]=менеджер паролей
Exec="/opt/keepassxc/KeePassXC-x.x.x-x86_64.AppImage" %U
Icon=appimagekit-keepassxc
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=Qt;Utility;
MimeType=application/x-keepass2;
X-Desktop-File-Install-Version=0.22
X-AppImage-Comment=Generated by /tmp/.mount_KeePasBjphW0/usr/bin//keepassxc_env.wrapper
TryExec=/opt/keepassxc/KeePassXC-x.x.x-x86_64.AppImage

Actions=Uninstall;

[Uninstall]
Name=Remove desktop integration for KeePassXC
Exec="/opt/keepassxc/KeePassXC-x.x.x-x86_64.AppImage" --remove-appimage-desktop-integration

After a restart, KeePassXC can be kept in dock in elementary OS's application launcher.

Step 6. Use KeePassXC

You may now store various account passwords in a secure and open source password manager!