diff --git a/doc/Developer Guide.md b/doc/Developer Guide.md
index ad6af79b1ea..baecd0af95b 100644
--- a/doc/Developer Guide.md	
+++ b/doc/Developer Guide.md	
@@ -210,8 +210,8 @@ sudo apt-get install ajmidid
 The run jac and ajmidid in separate terminals
 
 ```
-jack -d alsa -X alsa_midi
-ajmidid -e
+jackd -d alsa -X alsa_midi
+a2jmidid -e
 ```
 
 Now start surge with carla-single
diff --git a/src/common/gui/PopupEditorDialog.cpp b/src/common/gui/PopupEditorDialog.cpp
index 89f9cac94ad..c4172e27aab 100644
--- a/src/common/gui/PopupEditorDialog.cpp
+++ b/src/common/gui/PopupEditorDialog.cpp
@@ -147,11 +147,27 @@ void spawn_miniedit_text(char* c, int maxchars)
 #elif LINUX
 
 #include "UserInteractions.h"
+#include <string.h>
 
 void spawn_miniedit_text(char* c, int maxchars)
 {
    // FIXME: Implement text edit popup on Linux.
-   Surge::UserInteractions::promptError( "miniedit_text is not implemented on linux", "Unimplemented Feature" );
+   char cmd[1024];
+   snprintf(cmd, 1024, "zenity --entry --entry-text \"%s\"", c );
+   FILE *z = popen( cmd, "r" );
+   if( ! z )
+   {
+      return;
+   }
+   char buffer[ 1024 ];
+   if (!fscanf(z, "%1024s", buffer))
+   {
+      return;
+   }
+   pclose(z);
+
+   strncpy( c, buffer, maxchars);
+
 }
 
 #endif
diff --git a/src/linux/UserInteractionsLinux.cpp b/src/linux/UserInteractionsLinux.cpp
index 5fb8c0819b6..4097eafb966 100644
--- a/src/linux/UserInteractionsLinux.cpp
+++ b/src/linux/UserInteractionsLinux.cpp
@@ -3,7 +3,18 @@
 #include <iomanip>
 #include <sys/types.h>
 #include <unistd.h>
+#include <thread>
 
+/*
+** In June 2019, @baconpaul chose to implement these with an attempt
+** to fork/exec a zenity. (He also did this for mini edit). This is not
+** ideal. Properly you would somehow asynchronously interact with 
+** vstgui and so on, which @jjs started. But we kinda gotta do something.
+**
+** If you want to come along and rip out these zenity calls and replace them
+** with vstgui, please do so! This is purely tactical stuff to get us
+** not silently failing.
+*/
 namespace Surge
 {
 
@@ -13,6 +24,17 @@ namespace UserInteractions
 void promptError(const std::string &message, const std::string &title,
                  SurgeGUIEditor *guiEditor)
 {
+   if (vfork()==0)
+   {
+      if (execlp("zenity", "zenity",
+                 "--error",
+                 "--text", message.c_str(),
+                 "--title", title.c_str(),
+                 (char*)nullptr) < 0)
+      {
+         exit(0);
+      }
+   }
     std::cerr << "Surge Error\n"
               << title << "\n"
               << message << "\n" << std::flush;
@@ -55,8 +77,22 @@ void promptFileOpenDialog(const std::string& initialDirectory,
                           std::function<void(std::string)> callbackOnOpen,
                           SurgeGUIEditor* guiEditor)
 {
-   UserInteractions::promptError("OpenFileDialog is unimplemented in this version of Surge. Sorry!",
-                                 "Unimplemented Function", guiEditor);
+   /*
+   ** This is a blocking model which will cause us problems I am sure
+   */
+   FILE *z = popen( "zenity --file-selection", "r" );
+   if( ! z )
+   {
+      return;
+   }
+   char buffer[ 1024 ];
+   if (!fscanf(z, "%1024s", buffer))
+   {
+      return;
+   }
+   pclose(z);
+
+   callbackOnOpen(buffer);
 }
 };