Today I got a message from signal-desktop 8.5.0 that it’s too old and needs to be updated - until then sending messages is blocked. My signal desktop is installed from the “/repositories/network:/im:/signal/” repo and 8.5.0 is the latest version available across all experimental/community repos .
I know I can switch to flatpak/appimage but I’d like to understand what happened - is the 8.5.0 version really that old, or did signal server start blocking any unofficial clients?
Thank you, this bug describes my problem exactly.
According to GitHub, the current version is 8.16.0.
According to the Play Store, it is 8.16.1.
But the same applies here.
The package on Flathub is uncertified.
It is therefore not from signal.org itself.
Nor is the one from the network-im-repo: https://build.opensuse.org/project/show/network:im:signal
Seems like the maintainer doesn’t have the time anymore and signal will not be updated by him anymore (see link above).
You can check on github who is maintaining the Signal version on flathub:
Also there is a certain level of review done by flathub reviewers.
Good point @DuctTape, the maintainer was clear that there will be no more updates from him. Seems like flatpak or appimage remain for now.
There is also the possibly to use the " Linux AppImage " provided by signal. Seems that this is a “signal-desktop” in one big binary.
And: By copying all files from “~/.config/Signal” to the directory “~/.config/Signal AppImage” all my previous signal data are accessible in Signal-AppImage.
I went with this, put the AppImage under ~/.apps, and created a “signal-desktop.desktop” under ~/.local/share/applications/ with the following content (replace “user” in the Exec line):
[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Signal Desktop
Comment=Private messaging
Exec=/home/user/.apps/signal-desktop.AppImage
Icon=signal-desktop
Terminal=false
Categories=Network;InstantMessaging;
StartupNotify=true
Works as before, with system tray icon and all.
I’m running two different instances of signal-desktop, with different configs set with the --user-data-dir command line param. Will see if the appimage supports it.
Unfortunately I haven’t found a way to pass --user-data-dir to signal-desktop run from AppImage. I examined AppRun of the package and didn’t see anything that would prevent it, but nevertheless signal-desktop, if run from AppImage, always uses ${HOME}/.config/Signal AppImage.
So far I’m stuck.
You can join Andreas Schneider (gladiac), Bruno Pitrus (dziobian) and i thod (ithod) as Maintainer. See
Otherwise, Signal offers Appimage on its download page.
Download appimg from signal.
Make it executable
chmod +x signal-desktop.AppImage
make symlink to your messages
ln -s ~/.config/Signal “~/.config/Signal AppImage”
Run it like you want. Make .desktop, cli, sh script etc to run it.
Until we wait update i can think of one more way - distrobox, but appimg feels easy to do. Also flathub, but it seems not official.
Ok, I managed to run two of Signal AppImage simultaneously, with two different accounts.
Although --user-data-dir is ignored by AppImage, the XDG_CONFIG_HOME env variable is respected. So it’s enough to run the second instance with XDG_CONFIG_HOME set to an alternative value.
My problem is solved.
This is not right.
Package on flathub is unzerticated!
Call the webpage on flathub.
What is not right? I didn’t say it was certified. Certified on flathub means that the software on flathub is published by the owner/developer. Signal is not published on flathub by signal.org. That’s why I provided the link to github that shows the contributers. The main maintainer seems to be Dr. Bernhard Bermeitinger, who apparently works at the University of St. Gallen (Switzerland) and gives lectures on computer science.
But an uncertified status doesn’t mean that there is no review or testing. In case you are interested in the flathub security approach: https://docs.flathub.org/blog/app-safety-layered-approach-source-to-user
Especially the chapter “Submission & Human Review” and “Automated Review”. From what I read, human reviews are performed for new applications and when permissions are changed. I am not saying it is a 100% secure mechanism, but better than nothing.
Non-official repos and home repos are not reviewed at all to my knowledge.
The correct command is:
ln -s ~/.config/Signal ~/.config/"Signal AppImage"
The other one is formatted a bit strange. Most important it isn’t shown as CODE in the post so it is difficult to see where white space is. But it is correct IMO when it is copied/pasted.
But I like your form better 
.
Currently I use a .rpm from Github. Works well at Tumbleweed.
I use SNAP to install signal desktop with Tumbleweed
no version problem.
Snap is not supported, nor available on TW, so you must have it from some 3rd party repo. Most likely from a home: repo. Flatpak is supported.