Add Signal Desktop to Pi-Apps

[milada-horakova]

build script for ubuntu arm64: https://github.com/BernardoGiordano/signal-desktop-pi4
but issues ahead concerning arm32 rpios: BernardoGiordano/signal-desktop-pi4#4

a deluge of kudos is waiting for someone who gets this into pi-apps :)

[Botspot]

This would be AMAZING to add to Pi-Apps. Looks like that build script is assuming aarch64. I'll disable my 64-bit kernel and see what I can do.
If everything fails, we can always stick an arm64 app in a chroot like I did for the WPS Office app. But that consumes a lot of disk-space, so should be avoided if possible.

[Botspot]

On armhf and using the signal-desktop-rpi4 script, I was able to complete each of the commands until make libzkgroup, which failed with this error.
Upgrading rustup to nightly-2021-09-22 seems to be working. I'll continue reporting progress.

[Botspot]

yarn install failed because CARGO_ARCH was unset in binding.gyp.
Through trial and error, I found that replacing the contents of line 14 to the following text will solve the problem:

         'target_arch=="arm64"', {'variables': {'CARGO_ARCH': 'aarch64'}},
         'target_arch=="arm"', {'variables': {'CARGO_ARCH': 'armv7'}}]

(Yes, making this change adds a new line to the file.)

The next error was:

error: Error loading target specification: Could not find specification for target "armv7-unknown-linux-gnu". Run `rustc --print target-list` for a list of built-in targets

I went ahead and ran rustc --print target-list to see which architectures were available, and I saw armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf in the list. I knew that armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf would work, but now I had to work backwards to find what set armv7-unknown-linux-gnu and to change it to armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabihf. I went down several rabbit holes, but eventually realized that this can also be solved in binding.gyp.

Change line 10 in binding.gyp to:

         'OS=="linux"', {'variables': {'NODE_OS_NAME': 'linux', 'CARGO_TARGET_SUFFIX': 'unknown-linux-gnueabihf'}},

Finally, the yarn install command succeeded!

[Botspot]

Now I've reached the yarn generate step.
Before this, I had to install grunt with npm install grunt --save-dev.
Now yarn generate fails due to Node Sass not supporting an arm release.

pi@raspberrypi:~/signal-desktop-pi4/Signal-Desktop-5.17.0 $ yarn generate
yarn run v1.22.17
$ yarn grunt
$ grunt
Loading "Gruntfile.js" tasks...ERROR
>> Error: Node Sass does not yet support your current environment: Linux Unsupported architecture (arm) with Node.js 14.x
>> For more information on which environments are supported please see:
>> https://github.com/sass/node-sass/releases/tag/v4.14.1

I'm currently building node-sass, but how did the arm64 signal repository miss this step? (Node-sass didn't have an arm64 release either)

[milada-horakova]

could this help?

Warning: LibSass and Node Sass are deprecated. While they will continue to receive maintenance releases indefinitely, there are no plans to add additional features or compatibility with any new CSS or Sass features. Projects that still use it should move onto Dart Sass.

source: https://github.com/sass/node-sass

[Dlay2017]

No stress with signal. Just download and install this release.. works fine here with DietPi/Debian 12:

https://github.com/0mniteck/Signal-Desktop-Mobian/blob/master/builds/release/signal-desktop_6.26.0_arm64.deb

or

https://github.com/0mniteck/Signal-Desktop-Mobian/tree/master/builds/release

[Botspot]

@Dlay2017 please check your hyperlink.

[theofficialgman]

Closing as stale. Best would be to assist upstream Signal to build their production builds in github actions CI corresponding to their source code repositories. See signal build documentation https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/blob/main/CONTRIBUTING.md and other electron application CI cross compilation examples https://github.com/shiftkey/desktop/blob/linux/.github/workflows/ci.yml

[Botspot]

Found up-to-date unofficial Signal Desktop arm64 debs here: https://github.com/dennisameling/Signal-Desktop/releases

[Botspot]

Signal is now on Pi-Apps! Find it in the Internet -> Communication folder. Available for ARM64 only.