Cisco Packet Tracer

Packet Tracer is a visual simulation tool for network topologies.

Note: This is not just a Linux issue as the issue is on Windows as well, but Packet Tracer does not play with with Dark Mode, so I recommend setting your system to Light Mode while using Packet Tracer

Install

Note: a netacad account is required to download

You can download the "Ubuntu" version .deb from https://www.netacad.com/resources/lab-downloads?courseLang=en-US

Arch-based (AUR Package)

# Download the AUR Package
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/packettracer.git
cd packettracer

# Add the downloaded .deb file to the package
mv ~/Downloads/CiscoPacketTracer_900_Ubuntu_64bit.deb .

# Build and install the package
makepkg -scri

Debian/Mint/Ubuntu

sudo apt install ~/Downloads/CiscoPacketTracer_900_Ubuntu_64bit.deb

Other Distro (Including Fedora) Manual Install

Since they only provide a .deb version, we have to manually install it on other distros. This will require the binutils, tar and xf packages to be installed.

# Create a working folder and move the downloaded file into it
mkdir ~/Downloads/PacketTracer && mv ~/Downloads/CiscoPacketTracer_900_Ubuntu_64bit.deb ~/Downloads/PacketTracer

cd ~/Downloads/PacketTracer

# Extract the program
ar x CiscoPacketTracer_900_Ubuntu_64bit.deb
tar xf data.tar.xz

# Install the program
sudo mkdir -p /opt
sudo mv opt/pt /opt/pt
sudo ln -s /opt/pt/packettracer.AppImage /usr/local/bin/packettracer

Usage

Starting App

The first time you launch this app needs to be from the command-line to accept the EULA, the exact command depends on your distribution. Debian/Ubuntu/Mint and where we installed it manually, you should just be able to run the packettracer command, on Arch-based you need to run /usr/lib/packettracer/packettracer.AppImage

On Arch you may need to launch from CLI every time in testing.

It seems that the "Open in Browser" function for the initial login seems to be broken, fortunately an in-app browser option is available and works.

On the initial screen select "Advanced Settings" and check "User internal web browser for Cisco Networking Academy login"

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