google-chat-linux-git

An electron-base client for Google Hangouts Chat, since Google didn't see fit to provide one.

upstream project : https://github.com/robyf/google-chat-linux clever other for : https://github.com/ankurk91/google-chat-electron

See Systray support notes.

Windows support

Electron is cross platform. I added the minimum required tweaks to have a decently working app on Windows. You can install the Setup.exe from releases.

There will be "SmartScreen" warning about how unsafe this .exe is, Windows pretending it has detected something nasty and is protecting you. I Don't Care and won't buy a certificate.

If you're not happy with this, build from sources with npm install && npm run dist or get a proper OS with a proper distribution system.

Linux dependencies

Starting with 5.14.x, xdg-desktop-portal must be installed. It's probably already the case on most distributions. see here

Dependency is taken care of in AUR Arch package and Debian package.

CHANGELOG and news

See full CHANGELOG.

5.21.18-3

• update to electron 21
• set --ozone-platform-hint=auto to for better wayland support when available.

5.20.18-2

• update to electron 20
• Fix #54 (systray in wayland)

5.15.17-1

Fix #40 : client breaks out to browser when login needed.

5.15.16-2

Fix language support squalou#42

Add "languages": ["fr","en-US"] in the json to override default OS locale.

5.15.16-1

electron 15

5.14.16-1

• Good Bye Themes ! (they didn't work anymore anyway)
• Good bye Old UI support : Google removed it

This may be the last version, since ... it doesn't bring anything more than using Ferdi, or the native "installed" app from Chrome. Except systray integration for people where it works anyway.

5.14.15-1

• electron 14
• support native filechooser instead of GTK only. see here
• WARNING : native filechooser may not work as nicely as expected on all distributions, see #38

5.12.14-1

Details about systray click behaviour and google account login page.

5.12.13-2

Fix support for new chat UI notifications. Thak you @ankurk91 : you should check his fork https://github.com/ankurk91/google-chat-electron.

Keep mechanism to revert to old one while it still works, UI is so much better.

5.12.12-1

Google did it again : a new UI that breaks everything. There is still hope (for a time). Default URL is redirected to https://mail.google.com/chat ... but previous one is still accessible.

To activate it, go to Menu, and tick use old version of chat OR right click in systray icon and choose Use previous chat UI.

I don't know how long it will work but for now, it does and make systray notifiction and theme work again.

5.12.11-2: tweak for linux url open

fix #34 : Additional 'Advanced' option to open urls using xdg-open rather than shell.openExternal. Works better for some users.

5.12.11-1: better windows support

Respect windows UI integration a bit more.

5.12.10-1: electron 12

• Windows support : npm install && npm run dist can now be run on Windows platform to build an installer.

5.11.10-1: add experimental dark theme (activate on "View" menu)

5.11.9-1: electron 11 (Apple M1 native support)

versioning scheme

Starting with 5.11.9-1 :

• first number is internal architecture, won't change anytime soon
• second is the electron version.
• third is a 'feature' level
• dash-number is a packaging number : same features, only minor bugfix and packaging changes : no news, only better things

support native filechooser

• make sure you install xdg-desktop-portal or xdg-desktop-portal or xdg-desktop-portal-kde or xdg-desktop-portal-wlr ... depending on your DE and distrib.
• logout / login and open google-chat-linux, whenever needing to use the filechooser it should use your DE default one.

Troubleshooting

• in case nothing happens when needing to upload / download a file

  • launch from console, and check for Can't open portal file chooser: GDBus.Error. If it is displayed, then your xdg-desktop-portal is not installed.

• if the wrong filechooser is displayed (gtk on kde), make sure GTK_USE_PORTAL=1 is set. It should be set by the app itself, you may want to set it yourself and check if it works better. export GTK_USE_PORTAL=1; /opt/google-chat-linux/google-chat-linux for instance

  • if necessary set GTK_USE_PORTAL=1 in your login script (/etc/profile.d/custom.sh, or $HOME/.bashrc, whatever).

configure spellcheck language

After first run, quit, then edit $HOME/.config/google-hangouts-chat-linux.json, add "languages": ["fr","en-US"] in the json to override default OS locale.

auth with third party provider

If your login redirects to some OAuth provider (other than Google), login may fail.

In Menu (Alt, or systray right click), choose use third party auth mode. Login should work but you loose some features (systray related). Use the same menu after login to restore normal mode. Repeat anytime login is required.

Freeze ?

If sometimes the app looks like beeing frozen, and comes back to life after a few seconds, you may want to try --disable-gpu flag when starting the app from a terminal. It is a known issue with electron, especially with intel video drivers (you may want to try modesetting driver instead by the way).

You may want to /usr/share/applciations/google-chat-linux.desktop and add the flag on the Exec line. (do it at each new version or copy the .desktop file to $HOME/.local/share/applications/)

build and run

npm install
./google-chat-linux.sh

make it work manually

npm install electron
export PATH=$HOME/node_modules/.bin:$PATH

fix the rights on sandbox executable as the error message will suggest:

sudo chown root:root $HOME/node_modules/electron/dist/chrome-sandbox && sudo chown 4755 $HOME/node_modules/electron/dist/chrome-sandbox
electron .

OR if you're in a hurry :

export ELECTRON_DISABLE_SANDBOX=true; export NODE_OPTIONS="--no-force-async-hooks-checks"; electron .

Linux packages

Arch (Manjaro, Anarchy)

a package 'google-chat-linux-bin' is availabe on AUR for Arch Linux and derivatives.

Debian based (Ubuntu, Mint ...)

Have a look in tags section, download the relevant .deb file and install with sudo dpkg -i <package-name.db> command. (Thank you CYOSP ;-) )

Tested on Ubuntu 18.04, 20.04, 21.04, Mint 20.1

Note some environment variables are set in index.js : GTK_USE_PORTAL, ELECTRON_DISABLE_SANDBOX and NODE_OPTIONS="--no-force-async-hooks-checks". This should work. Else, set them manually.

manually build a deb package

Run :

npm run dist

will build a .deb file in dist/. Run for instance sudo dkpg -i dist/google-chat-linux*.deb.

Installation of the .deb file is tested under Ubuntu, and works fine. Under Mint it installs well but react with emotes crashes the app. Go wonder.

NOTE : to run from a terminal you'll have to :

• either sudo chown root:root /opt/google-chat-linux/chrome-sandbox && sudo chown 4755 /opt/google-chat-linux/chrome-sandbox after the .deb is inYYstalled
• or run export ELECTRON_DISABLE_SANDBOX=true; export NODE_OPTIONS="--no-force-async-hooks-checks" before the launch of /opt/google-chat-linux/google-chat-linux

The provided .desktop file takes care of it, so running from your desktop launcher will work.

Windows package

A package is available in releases. Or else build it yourself :

npm run dist

A Setup.exe will be built under \dist\ directory.

Systray Support

Note : from 0.5 on, electron 9 bring back Tray integration BUT "click" events are ignored.

Workaround for the tray 'click' event

sudo touch /opt/google-chat-linux/libappindicator3.so
sudo touch /opt/google-chat-linux/libappindicator3.so.1

this way : left click raises the window again !

These files are added in distributed packages... in hope there are no side effects.

electron/electron#14941

More precisely :

• On Linux the app indicator will be used if it is supported, otherwise GtkStatusIcon will be used instead.
• When app indicator is used on Linux, the click event is ignored.
• https://www.electronjs.org/docs/api/tray
• There is sadly nothing I can do about it. (except cry a bit as such nonsenses and wonder how other apps (slack, telegram) deal with all this)