I tried several stuff to configure emoji properly on Linux. I really suffer to get it working

Here is my desktop setup :

  • Distro: Arch Linux
  • WM: Wayland
  • DE: Gnome
  • Terminal: Alacritty

If you don’t know Alacritty, you should check it out. They still have a weird bug with emoji but it’s a great terminal emulator.

I installed the noto emoji, but it emoji one also works.

On arch:

pacman -S noto-fonts-emoji

On ubuntu

apt install fonts-noto

Then in ~/.config/fontconfig/fonts.conf add this config

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM "fonts.dtd">
<fontconfig>
  <alias>
    <family>serif</family>
    <prefer>
      <family>Noto Color Emoji</family>
    </prefer>
  </alias>
  <alias>
    <family>sans-serif</family>
    <prefer>
      <family>Noto Color Emoji</family>
    </prefer>
  </alias>
  <alias>
    <family>monospace</family>
    <prefer>
      <family>Noto Color Emoji</family>
    </prefer>
  </alias>
</fontconfig>

You’ll need to regenerate fontconfig cache with fc-cache -f -v.

It’s not working

Fontconfig is a bit cumbersome to configure. I had trouble with alacrity but it worked in gnome terminal or Firefox. You can troubleshoot with this command:

fc-match -s <YourFont>
# example for me
fc-match -s OperatorMono

If Noto is at bottom of the list, then you probably have some fontconfig issue.

Can you see it ?

♑ ↗ 💁 💼 🌔 🔎 📙 🛰 ♓ 👬 🍣 ⏳ ㊙ 📏 🐴 🙂 🎺 🎾 🎣 📼 👃 🏣 🐮 🏭 💧 🌉 😌 😬 ↙ ↩ 🏴 🚍 🏞 🚴 🍁 🐣 🌪 📷 ♻ 😾 🌷 🐬 🐷 💻 ⬅ 🕧 🔼 🔚 🛌 🛥 🗡 🕟 🖊 ♊ 🕙 ⛺ 🇰🇷 👞 🍍 ☔ 🍽 🏝 🛣 🐚 🚞 ☃ 🎪 🛐 🍰 🍼 🏫 🐯 🔘 ⬆ 🛬 ⚗ 🚺 🈴 😭 🕰 ⤵ 🌳 ✡ 🌥 ⁉ 🍗 👵 🏄 🚂 👎 🙉 ⏱ 😲 📵 🚝 🎶 💞 ☝ 🃏 🐩 💾 ❔ 🚱 ➰ 🙏 🐓 🈯 🈷 🈶 👋 ☁ ⛩ ✍ 🏧 🦃 🕗 🐗 💌 🐫 😗 🏆 🏵 👉 📬 🏓 🎿 😨 👠 🍹 🦀 🐈 👂 🌹 😢 👨 🎆 👶 🚈 🔅 📆 🎌 🐏 🖼 💦 💉 🐎 💢 🏊 😕 🎅 🐀 😵 🐁 0⃣ 🛋 🍾 📫 🎮 📸 ↔ 🚩 🎐 🏉 🗻 🎨 🔽 🇩🇪 🖖 🈚 🌡 👄 🌾 👆 🚦 🕋 🎻 🕍 🍯 🖖 ⛳ 🌺 🍄 🐞 🐸 💈 🍙 🚫 🌞 ⚡ 😜 😉 💐 ♣ 🎏 🐶 🤘 ❣ 👒 😞 🈸 🐼 🏇 🙄 🎰 ⛎ 🌖 🖍 📤 🍿 👗 👳 🔤 ⏮ Ⓜ 🏏 🏺 🖇 🛏 🌸 ♿ ⚒ ⌚ 🏟 🐭 🚙 😳 🌦 🏪 🔋 🍤 🔄 ☯ 🍉 📑 ⚙ ♌ 🐃 💷 🖨 💋 ▪ ⚛ 🐺 🏜 🔲 🎥 🚭 🔑 ✌ ⏬ 🍳 🔰 ⛈ ☀ 🍭 🐐 ✈ 🍩 🏻 📜 💫 🍬 🕹 🕵 🈹 ✋ ❇ 🎁 ☘ 🍨 ⚽ 👤 💵 🛳 🔀 ⬇ 🐤 🏷 🙆 🍥 🔗 🆑 👌 😽 📌 ↘ 🗂 🚯 💜 ♒ 🎧 🔛 📍 💿 📟 🏤 🕉 🎳 🤐 ☂ #⃣ 📰 ⚾ 💶 🖋 🔓 🎚 🔫 👽 🍀 🎛 🗣 📔 👫 🐢 👇 🐹 🎎 😫 👚 🐪 🏎 🎲 🚚 🙅 😁 🎇 💓 🐙 🚁 😚 🌙 👛 💰 😋 👹 🕖 🕐 ⛅ 🚕 👀 ⏭ ❎ 🍊 🌤 📉 🍑 💒 🏥 🍡 🎼 👑 ⛰ 🎩 🖲 👭 🍕 ☮ ⚔ 🐊 🤓 📞 ⌛ 🈲 📖 🌕 🐖 😎 🈂 🈵 👷 ☣ 🏹 🍫 🕕 🤔 😥 🌚 ✊ 😻 🚸 🚵 ➕ 🚡 ♥ 🍅 🌩 🍒 🔴 🎱 🕴 ⏫ ‼ 🕌 🔺 🌧 🎄 🏔 🏮 🆕 🕸 🕤 🕠 🔏 🐻 🔝 🐳 👊 🚘 🌛 7⃣ 🏋 🚃 😓 📻 🍠 📋 💽 ❗ 🈳 🙊 📨 🎭 📒 🌑 🧀 ⏹ 🚲 🔹 ✳ 🚥 🔔 🎡 6⃣ 👺 ⚱ 🍇 😸 🈁 💚 🌠 😧 ⚠ 😮 🐠 👍 🕶 © 🕛 🔆 ♠ ◼ 🙃 🕓 ⛵ 🍴 👅 🚼 🏒 ✂ 💑 🇪🇸 🚤 😘 😱 😼 🚣 📹 🌼 🎯 🙍 💣 🆔 🎓 *⃣ 😹 ✔ 🌭 🐂 😔 🔒 📯 🚔 🔱 🎒 🍷 🦂 😂 💱 ⏩ 🌟 🐘 🏈 🤒 🚨 🌶 😍 🏦 🌃 3⃣ 📊 👿 ↕ 🐲 📪 🎙 🍎 🔷 ♨ 🐑 🕝 🚒 🇮🇹 🏛 📥 🔶 💥 🏖 📐 ☪ ➿ 🛄 🐜 🛍 👼 🐆 🚹 🍐 🚳 ❄ ⏲ ⚜ 📈 🚏 📲 📠 😑 🗄 🐔 🏐 🚐 🐕 🕦 ⚖ 🐅 🌫 🏀 😪 〽 🚉 🍸 🏙 🍶 📄 ▫ 🐄 👦 🅰 🔈 🅱 🎸 1⃣ 🍲 🎬 💮 😒 🚗 🌒 🏠 😄 🆙 📛 🎽 🕞 🔬 ❌ 👈 ⚰ ⛓ ▶ ⏯ 🅾 💘 🅿 💟 📧 🚰 🕊 🏬 🔌 🈺 🍏 🔟 👱 🏂 ⛏ 🚀 💴 🔦 🌀 😶 🔂 👰 🏩 🍦 🚪 ⭐ ⚓ ♦ 8⃣ 🚷 ⛷ 🗿 ⏏ 🗃 ☺ 🐦 👩 ❕ ◀ ⛲ 🏳 🍢 🗝 ♍ 🕳 🚛 🚋 🆖 🔳 👥 🛤 💺 🚟 🚓 🌋 🔣 🍓 🛫 🌨 🖱 🐉 🍔 🐿 🐵 🕥 🎫 🏘 🍖 4⃣ 😙 ⛸ 🌅 🍝 💝 🖐 💤 ❤ 🆗 🐥 📮 👾 🍆 🚊 💳 🎤 🐇 9⃣ 5⃣ 🆓 ♏ 🌓 🏗 🙈 👢 👕 🗳 🍞 🛀 🙋 👝 🌄 💂 🐰 ⛑ 🛎 ♉ 🙎 🔐 ✨ ➡ 😐 ◽ 🚮 😀 💩 📦 ♋ 🖕 🔯 💆 🌍 📇 👖 🉐 🕎 🔍 🎍 👓 ⬛ 📣 ☹ 🎃 📗 👟 😆 💬 🏼 📎 💕 🏽 🔠 🏾 📭 🏿 😷 🗾 📕 😴 🇺🇸 🌮 🆘 💸 🏸 🕣 💃 ⛽ 🎖 🛃 🔜 ⛔ 🚖 🏑 😿 🐋 🖌 🌌 🇫🇷 ↖ 🍚 ☄ 😛 🍈 🍋 🏨 ⏪ 🍘 🎟 🙇 ⛱ ☑ 🐛 😝 🦁 ☦ ⤴ ✖ 🌽 😈 🀄 🗼 🔥 🔧 🌘 💠 🚌 🍧 ⚫ 🔸 🚠 🗜 😣 ➖ 🚻 🔮 🔁 📀 🏌 💎 😊 👜 🍛 🐟 📡 🌱 📂 🙀 👧 😠 😅 🐝 🎗 💅 🐒 ↪ 🐽 💨 🎷 🔖 🐧 🉑 🇯🇵 🌴 🛢 📁 🛂 🌁 🔕 ☠ ✝ ❓ 🌿 🚅 🎵 🛩 🛅 🕷 📶 🔊 📴 🍜 👏 📝 😺 💇 🔪 📱 ◻ ⚪ 🌈 🌲 🤖 🗒 ♈ 🚎 🗯 🐌 🗓 🙌 🔨 📅 😰 🕘 🕔 🍵 📺 💄 🗽 🚇 👸 ⛴ 💭 ™ 💀 ⛹ 🌂 👐 ♐ 🚽 ➗ ㊗ 👯 😩 🍮 👙 🤗 ⭕ 👣 🍪 🎀 ⛪ 🌇 🎠 🎹 🐡 😇 📢 🌵 👁 🔭 🎉 2⃣ 〰 🍺 🐱 👲 🌯 🖥 🆎 🍂 💲 🎋 🦄 🍟 🚶 💊 📘 🐍 😖 🚢 😡 👮 🏢 🚧 💙 🔡 🏚 🆚 🗑 ® 📓 🆒 🔵 👔 🎞 🙁 🕯 🍻 🐾 👡 😟 🎂 ☕ 🔻 👴 🎑 ☸ ℹ 🎊 🔩 ☢ 🤕 📚 🌎 🔉 🍌 🏯 ◾ 🇷🇺 🔢 🎈 🐨 🔇 ♎ 🕑 🔙 🎦 🏅 🏁 🇨🇳 ⌨ 🛠 📳 💔 🏍 ✒ ✴ 😃 💏 🏃 ⛄ 🕢 🚆 🕜 ✉ 📽 🌐 🎢 🤑 🍃 🌗 👻 🌻 ⏸ 🚾 🚬 📃 👘 🌰 🎴 💛 🏡 😦 💗 🌬 😏 🕚 🔃 ⏺ 🌝 🗞 🏰 💹 💯 ✏ 🌏 ☎ 🍱 👪 ✅ 🗺 💡 📩 🇬🇧 🚑 🛁 🕒 🚄 💪 😯 🌆 🕡 💍 📿 🌊 🚿 🔞 ⏰ 🌜 🛡 😤 ⬜ 💖 🚜 🏕