Howto: get and install signal desktop package built for debian/ubuntu

Ask Fedora
1

I saw that various people have problems with this, and so I thought I would post my notes on what I do to get Signal Desktop application running on Fedora using alien/dpkg. A key point is ignoring the dependencies that dpkg reports so it uses the Fedora equivalent libraries.

version

example

export signal_version="7.84.0"

pre-requisites

you need the debian/ubuntu package manager, so install install alien/dpkg

e.g.

sudo dnf install dpkg

getting package

wget https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/pool/s/signal-desktop/signal-desktop_${signal_version}_amd64.deb

remove package

before uninstalling or upgrading, remove the postrm script:

sudo rm /var/lib/dpkg/info/signal-desktop.postrm

to remove the package entirely

dpkg -r signal-desktop

install or upgrade package

to install, or upgrade package (once the postrm is deleted as above)

sudo dpkg -i signal-desktop_${signal_version}_amd64.deb

ignore missing package errors like those below, try and run signal-desktop
at the command line then use “dnf” to install the equivalent packages for
Fedora.

dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of signal-desktop:
 signal-desktop depends on libnotify4; however:
  Package libnotify4 is not installed.
 signal-desktop depends on libxtst6; however:
  Package libxtst6 is not installed.
 signal-desktop depends on libnss3; however:
  Package libnss3 is not installed.
 signal-desktop depends on libasound2; however:
  Package libasound2 is not installed.
 signal-desktop depends on libpulse0; however:
  Package libpulse0 is not installed.
 signal-desktop depends on libxss1; however:
  Package libxss1 is not installed.
 signal-desktop depends on libc6 (>= 2.31); however:
  Package libc6 is not installed.
 signal-desktop depends on libgtk-3-0; however:
  Package libgtk-3-0 is not installed.
 signal-desktop depends on libgbm1; however:
  Package libgbm1 is not installed.
 signal-desktop depends on libx11-xcb1; however:
  Package libx11-xcb1 is not installed.

if signal won’t start, try running it at the command line with “/opt/Signal/signal-desktop”, then install the Fedora packages using “dnf” to get the libraries it needs.

2

why so complicated, and not just use https://flathub.org/en/apps/org.signal.Signal

2 Likes
3

I don’t feel it’s so complicated. I would rather avoid any kind of third party package manglement if I can, the least worst IMNSHO is alien/dpkg.

although if I was really REALLY keen, I’d find a way to build and package Signal properly; I suppose I could bodge it by unpacking the deb and repacking into an RPM.

4

That is not “packaging it” in Fedora terms, only wrapping the binary in a different container format. Which is exactly what the flathub package does.

I really think isolating with flatpaks is a much better recommendation on Fedora than introducing an alien package manager like dpkg and have it install things without isolation from rpm/dnf installs.

1 Like