Support Linux with armv7hf/arm64 processors

[mikefedyk]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

---

Bug Description

I have a Acer Chromebook r13 and I'm trying to use signal desktop on it under crostini on ChromeOS.

Currently the Android app doesn't work on tablets, and it seems that ChromeOS falls under this category.

Also, armv7 compatibility with raspberry pi brings in complications with older board versions that don't support HF, so I'm not asking for that. armv7hf may be an ok compromise. It won't work on old RPI boards, but anything armv7hf compatible and up will.

Any chance the .deb can be built for armv7hf and/or arm64?

Steps to Reproduce

1. Use crostini on arm based Chromebook
2. Try to install signal-desktop .deb with apt-get
3. Notice missing package.

Actual Result:
No .deb package for arm.

Expected Result:
.deb package for arm in signal apt repo.

Screenshots

Platform Info

Signal Version:

Operating System:

cat /etc/release

PRETTY_NAME="Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)"
NAME="Debian GNU/Linux"
VERSION_ID="9"
VERSION="9 (stretch)"
ID=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.debian.org/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://www.debian.org/support"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.debian.org/"

Linked Device Version:

Link to Debug Log

[taigrr]

I have an identical issue. Anybody know if support is coming?

@mikefedyk I'm going to try to build it from source on my chromebook, I'll post my results (if I don't forget.)

[taigrr]

I ended up cross-compiling it because my chromebook was too slow :P

It works great, though. Here are the steps I followed:

git clone https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop.git # I used ssh, not https, but ymmv
git checkout v1.28.0 # or whatever version
# curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash - # install nodejs & npm if you do it on a chromebook
# sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.32.1/install.sh | bash # install nvm
# (restart shell)
sudo npm i -g npm yarn # install nvm, update npm
npm config delete prefix # make it stop complaining
# cd into cloned repo
nvm use # switch node version to be compatible
yarn install --frozen-lockfile # Install and build dependencies (this will take a while)
yarn grunt                     # Generate final JS and CSS assets
yarn icon-gen                  # Generate full set of icons for Electron
SIGNAL_ENV=production yarn build --linux --arm64 # cross-compile a .deb file

To install it, I used sshfs to remote mount the server I built it on, then copied the file from the server's dist directory to the Linux share on the chromebook (file came to be about 80mb)

sudo apt install -f libnotify4 libappindicator1 libnss3 
sudo dpkg -i signal-desktop_1.28.0_arm64.deb

Hope it helps!

[rj45jack]

I ended up cross-compiling it because my chromebook was too slow :P

It works great, though. Here are the steps I followed:

git clone https://github.com/signalapp.git # I used ssh, not https, but ymmv
git checkout v1.28.0 # or whatever version
# curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash - # install nodejs & npm if you do it on a chromebook
# sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.32.1/install.sh | bash # install nvm
# (restart shell)
sudo npm i -g npm nvm yarn # install nvm, update npm
npm config delete prefix # make it stop complaining
# cd into cloned repo
nvm use # switch node version to be compatible
yarn install --frozen-lockfile # Install and build dependencies (this will take a while)
yarn grunt                     # Generate final JS and CSS assets
yarn icon-gen                  # Generate full set of icons for Electron
SIGNAL_ENV=production yarn build --linux --arm64 # cross-compile a .deb file

To install it, I used sshfs to remote mount the server I built it on, then copied the file from the server's dist directory to the Linux share on the chromebook (file came to be about 80mb)

sudo apt install -f libnotify4 libappindicator1 libnss3 
sudo dpkg -i signal-desktop_1.28.0_arm64.deb

Hope it helps!

Thanks for the info on how to build for a Chromebook.

I am getting an error.

warning " > react-contextmenu@2.11.0" has unmet peer dependency "prop-types@^15.0.0". warning " > grunt-gitinfo@0.1.7" has incorrect peer dependency "grunt@~0.4.5". warning "react-styleguidist > webpack-dev-server@2.11.2" has incorrect peer dependency "webpack@^2.2.0 || ^3.0.0". warning "react-styleguidist > webpack-dev-server > webpack-dev-middleware@1.12.2" has incorrect peer dependency "webpack@^1.0.0 || ^2.0.0 || ^3.0.0". error An unexpected error occurred: "EPERM: operation not permitted, symlink '../../../../node-pre-gyp/bin/node-pre-gyp' -> '/var/host/media/removable/usbstick/Signal-Desktop/node_modules/@journeyapps/sqlcipher/node_modules/.bin/node-pre-gyp'".

Any insight?

PS: You were joking about taking a while to build, yikes.

[deltatux]

I ended up cross-compiling it because my chromebook was too slow :P

It works great, though. Here are the steps I followed:

git clone https://github.com/signalapp.git # I used ssh, not https, but ymmv
git checkout v1.28.0 # or whatever version
# curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_10.x | sudo -E bash - # install nodejs & npm if you do it on a chromebook
# sudo apt-get install -y nodejs
wget -qO- https://raw.githubusercontent.com/creationix/nvm/v0.32.1/install.sh | bash # install nvm
# (restart shell)
sudo npm i -g npm nvm yarn # install nvm, update npm
npm config delete prefix # make it stop complaining
# cd into cloned repo
nvm use # switch node version to be compatible
yarn install --frozen-lockfile # Install and build dependencies (this will take a while)
yarn grunt                     # Generate final JS and CSS assets
yarn icon-gen                  # Generate full set of icons for Electron
SIGNAL_ENV=production yarn build --linux --arm64 # cross-compile a .deb file

To install it, I used sshfs to remote mount the server I built it on, then copied the file from the server's dist directory to the Linux share on the chromebook (file came to be about 80mb)

sudo apt install -f libnotify4 libappindicator1 libnss3 
sudo dpkg -i signal-desktop_1.28.0_arm64.deb

Hope it helps!

Thanks for the great tutorial. Was able to cross compile to arm64 & install on my Chromebook in the Crostini VM.

Ran into an issue though, even though the package & its contents were compiled to arm64. When running "signal-desktop", I'm guessing it drops a temporary Chromium binary in /tmp as /tmp/.org.chromium.Chromium.xxxxx. The xxxx represents random string, each time it runs, it generates a new string.

The issue is that "signal-desktop" itself doesn't run as it turns out the Chromium it drops in /tmp is still compiled as x64 and not arm64 which I find odd as the whole package should have been cross compiled into arm64 code yet the Chromium code for some reason is x64 code when dropped into the /tmp folder.

Has anyone run into this issue? It feels like I'm so close yet so far with this.

I also tried to natively compile signal-desktop on my ARM based Chromebook with no avail, the dependencies fail to compile, especially the journeyapps/sqlcipher module where it consistently fails, works fine on my desktop which runs an AMD64 processor.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks!

[taigrr]

@rj45jack I didn't run into that issue at the time I built it, but I'll need to build it again soon here so I'm not completely out of date.

@deltatux that's interesting. I don't remember having to do anything weird to get an arm64 chromium but a lot has changed for such a short amount of time to go by. I'll hopefully look into it again soon and amend my tut.

[cj1171]

@taigrr in attempting to cross-build last night, it seems like the project.json has been changed since when you wrote this up and the flags you included are no longer working. Haven't yet figured out how to tweak it to build cross-platform, will update if I figure out the change!
edit: tried doing 1.29.3 and it builds properly but I run into the same issue as @deltatux

[mihalis68]

I was able to build an installable armv7l architecture .deb file today using the instructions given above (some minor tweaks) but I also get the same problem as @deltatux

I will repeat my build, take notes and provide updated instructions on the build though (when I get some time for another go at this), and then we just need to fix the arch for the chromium dependencies and I can then run Signal desktop on my Pinebook Pro! :)

[keithzg]

I was able to build an installable armv7l architecture .deb file today using the instructions given above (some minor tweaks) but I also get the same problem as @deltatux

I will repeat my build, take notes and provide updated instructions on the build though (when I get some time for another go at this), and then we just need to fix the arch for the chromium dependencies and I can then run Signal desktop on my Pinebook Pro! :)

Mind sharing your tweaks? I can't even get that far, the build command for cross-compiling quoted above, SIGNAL_ENV=production yarn build --linux --arm64, gives me

ERROR: Invalid Option: --linux

and hilariously yarn help build just gives a "full" list of commands I could request help about, none of them being yarn build. It's bad enough that Signal-Desktop doesn't have documentation on how to build it, but even the commands it uses to build aren't documented?

I'm actually also trying to compile for my Pinebook Pro (although after figuring that out I'd like to compile it for other ARM devices too; Open Whisper System's hostility to 3rd-party apps makes using Signal on non-Android portables tricky!), so I'm all ears for any way to make this work . . .

P.S. Compiling on the device would be fine too, if that could be made to work; I haven't had any luck with that myself though.

[mihalis68]

I sadly lost my transcript for a working build (other than the wrong-arch chromium binaries). However if I got it working once I could do it again. I have had a couple of requests to share how. Hoping to get to that this weekend.

[manderss99]

I really would like to get signal on my pi4, anyone got that working?

[Syirrus]

I really would like to get signal on my pi4, anyone got that working?

I’m in the same camp. I found an older compiled version, but it was outdated and would not let me use it. It ran though. Does anyone have a repo or binary fro armhf?

[saroman2]

This would also be quite good to have for the Pinephone.