Technical Tip: How to install latest FortiClient software on the Ubuntu 24.04

FortiClient is an all-in-one comprehensive endpoint security solution that extends the power of Fortinet's Advanced Threat Protection to end-user devices.

This software can be installed on multiple platforms, such as Windows, Android, IOs, Linux, and MacOS.

Linux OS comes in multiple flavors, each using different package managers to manage installed applications. This means that the software that is installed on each flavor needs its dependencies to work properly.  The package Manager is responsible for those dependencies.

For Ubuntu 24.04, those dependencies are not automatically installed but need some manual work from the end-user to have a FortiClient up and running.

On the first installation attempt, the following error message may appear:

sudo dpkg -i forticlient_vpn_7.4.0.1636_amd64.deb

Selecting previously unselected package forticlient.
(Reading database ... 127445 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack forticlient_vpn_7.4.0.1636_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking forticlient (7.4.0.1636) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of forticlient:
forticlient depends on libappindicator1 (>> 0) | libayatana-appindicator1 (>> 0); however:
Package libappindicator1 is not installed.
Package libayatana-appindicator1 is not installed.

dpkg: error processing package forticlient (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.36.0-1.1ubuntu3) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.27-2build1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
forticlient

FortiClient 7.4.6 depends on libnss3-tools:

sudo dpkg -i forticlient_vpn_7.4.6.1867.M_amd64.deb

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of forticlient:
forticlient depends on libnss3-tools (>= 3.21); however:
Package libnss3-tools is not installed.

However, when trying to install dependencies manually, another error is encountered:

sudo apt install libappindicator1

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Package libappindicator1 is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'libappindicator1' has no installation candidate

For FortiClient 7.4.6:

sudo apt install libnss3-tools

To fix this issue, dependencies need to be manually downloaded and installed before FortiClient installation.

Step 1: Check Ubuntu version:

lsb_release -a

Step 2. Install updates and upgrades:

sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

Step 3: Download dependencies:

Required packages can be downloaded manually via HTTP or using wget from CLI:

cd Downloads/

wget -O libappindicator1.deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debiarmn/pool/main/liba/libappindicator/libappindicator1_0.4.92-7_amd64.deb

wget -O libdbusmenu.deb http://ftp.de.debian.org/debian/pool/main/libd/libdbusmenu/libdbusmenu-gtk4_18.10.20180917~bzr492+repack1-3_amd64.deb

Step 4: Install packages:

sudo apt install -y ./libappindicator1.deb ./libdbusmenu.deb

Step 5: Clean the 'Downloads' folder from downloaded packages to preserve space:

rm ./lib*

Step 6: Download FortiClient:

wget https://filestore.fortinet.com/forticlient/forticlient_vpn_7.4.0.1636_amd64.deb 

Step7: Install FortiClient:

$ sudo apt install -y ./forticlient_vpn_7.4.0.1636_amd64.deb

After the final step, FortiClient should be visible under the apps section and a connection can be established once a tunnel is created: