Electron-builder: AppImage: Support for Electron for ARM

[jeroenrinzema]

• Version: 17.0.1
• Target: Linux Appimage for ARM

I am currently developing a application for the raspberry pi which requires the AppImage to be in ARM format. It would be nice if i could build my application in ARM format with electron-builder.

[jeroenrinzema]

Is there already any progress on this feature? Or is there any way how i can help to include this into electron-builder?

[mattsoftware]

If I try to build on the raspberry pi, there is no 7za binary. So I think that would be the first thing to attempt (./node_modules/7z-bin-linux/armv7l/7za would be required as part of the 7z-bin-linux package)

If I try to build on my mac, the resulting AppImage binary is for x86-64, not for the intended armv7l...

matt$ yarn run dist
yarn run v0.19.1
$ build --armv7l --linux
Skip app dependencies rebuild because platform is different
Packaging for linux armv7l using electron 1.6.10 to dist/linux-armv7l-unpacked
⚠️  Application icon is not set, default Electron icon will be used
Building AppImage for arch armv7l
✨  Done in 43.10s.

matt$ file dist/electron-0.1.0-armv7l.AppImage
dist/electron-0.1.0-armv7l.AppImage: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1, dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 2.6.24, BuildID[sha1]=c271a1d61198e53b90595d8bf0a7d50a57e0a53e, stripped

Please note I have only been using this for less than a day, so I may be missing something.

[mattsoftware]

Right. So after another day I have realised that AppImage does not have a valid target for arm, so this is not an electron-builder issue. (yet)

[develar]

no 7za binary

For now you can set env USE_SYSTEM_7ZA=true and system 7za will be used (so, simply install manually).

[probonopd]

Right. So after another day I have realised that AppImage does not have a valid target for arm, so this is not an electron-builder issue. (yet)

What do you mean by this? AppImages can be built for ARM, e.g., here are builds of appimagetool for ARM:
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/OBS:/AppImage/toolchain.arm/aarch64/ (64-bit ARM)
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/OBS:/AppImage/toolchain.arm/armv7hl/ (32-bit ARM)

And here are some test AppImages for ARM:
http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/OBS:/AppImage:/Templates/AppImage.arm/

[Yovar]

@develar I'm having the same issue as @mattsoftware but on the Raspberry PI itself. When I run the build I get no error, but the executable doesn't seem to be built for the right architecture.

pi@raspberrypi:~/projects/myapp $ npm run dist -- --armv7l

[email protected] dist /home/pi/projects/myapp
build "--armv7l"

No native production dependencies
Packaging for linux armv7l using electron 1.6.15 to dist/linux-armv7l-unpacked
Building AppImage for arch armv7l
pi@raspberrypi:~/projects/myapp $ file dist/myapp-1.0.0-armv7l.AppImage
dist/myapp-1.0.0-armv7l.AppImage: ELF 64-bit LSB executable, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), dynamically linked, interpreter /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2, for GNU/Linux 2.6.24, BuildID[sha1]=...

The machine itself seems to be using the right architecture:

pi@raspberrypi:~/projects/myapp $ uname -a
Linux raspberrypi 4.9.59-v7+ #1047 SMP Sun Oct 29 12:19:23 GMT 2017 armv7l GNU/Linux

Has anyone been able to successfully build an AppImage for armv7l using electron-builder, or is it a feature still under development? In the latter case I'd like to contribute, is there a todo list on the subject?

Best regards.

[develar]

@Yovar If you want to help — please provide a link (or setup docker container to build) to runtime for ARM. Officially this file is not provided, only runtime-i686/runtime-x86_64.

When runtime will be provided, I will fix https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/blob/master/packages/electron-builder-lib/src/targets/AppImageTarget.ts#L99 and bundle it as a part of our distribution.

[probonopd]

openSUSE is building it for 64-bit and 32-bit ARM:
https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/OBS:/AppImage/toolchain.arm/

Inside the appimagetool package, you'll find usr/lib/appimagetool/runtime. But please do check its version, as it may be outdated, in which case we should ask them to build the latest one in order not to re-introduce bugs we have already fixed.

[develar]

Yes, I have already checked — latest for arm is 12 oct. is it outdated?

[probonopd]

Unfortunately yes. Ping @adrianschroeter, I thought it would build the latest one from GitHub?

[adrianschroeter]

Both, linuxdeployqt and also AppImageKit (providing runtime binary) are following now directly your git master.

(linuxdeployqt was build failing and AppImageKit was set to frozen)

[adrianschroeter]

@probonopd part of the problem was that there is still a patch needed to specify the own build version of mksquashfs. And that breaks easily on code changes.

It would be nice if the mksquashfs binary location could become a configure/compile time option.

[probonopd]

It would be nice if the mksquashfs binary location could become a configure/compile time option.

Do I understand it correct that you would like it to __not__ pick up the one on the $PATH but give preference to a different one, e.g., in something like lib/appimage/mksquashfs, @adrianschroeter?

[adrianschroeter]

@probonopd that is correct. This is my current patch for reference:

https://build.opensuse.org/package/view_file/OBS:AppImage/AppImageKit/own-mksquashfs.patch?expand=1

I have to admit that I don't know if we can make our normal mksquashfs working, but this way it should be safe to be used atm.

[develar]

Fixed in upcoming 19.53.1 Please try, because I cannot perform integration test.

[hakankaraduman]

Hi develar, I try to build appimage for rpi on lubuntu. I get the error unsupported arch arm message.

[develar]

@adrianschroeter Could you please update https://download.opensuse.org/repositories/OBS:/AppImage/toolchain.arm/? Latest 5 Feb, but https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/releases/tag/11 was released last month.

[AdrianoFerrari]

Hi @develar . I'm pretty sure you meant to ping @adrianschroeter instead?