Franz: Franz 5 for Linux

Created on 16 Oct 2017 · 29Comments · Source: meetfranz/franz

Feature Description

Optimize Franz for Linux.

Motivation and Context

Even though the Franz Linux community isn't the biggest in numbers, we are not going to exclude them.
Providing a Linux build however requires a vast knowledge of the major desktop environments and their pitfalls. This is something we constantly struggled with in the past while trying to provide a certain quality level.

What needs to be done

[ ] Check dependencies to get development build running on Linux
[ ] Test builds on major desktop environments, especially:
- [ ] Recipe download/installation
- [ ] Notifications
- [ ] Tray icons
- [ ] Window behavior (minimizing, restoring, ...)

help wanted

Source

adlk

👍16

Most helpful comment

From the feedback I'm getting so far I feel comfortable enough to officially release Franz 5 for Linux with beta 12. https://github.com/meetfranz/franz/milestone/2

adlk on 26 Oct 2017

👍9

All 29 comments

Would help if I add ubuntu build instructions? I can make a PR updating the README.md with steps to reproduce it

GustavoKatel on 17 Oct 2017

👍6

@GustavoKatel It would be very interesting, just as I can test the features in Ubuntu as well

matheus-souza on 17 Oct 2017

Working on it :+1:

GustavoKatel on 17 Oct 2017

There you go. Please let me know if it works for you @matheus-souza

GustavoKatel on 17 Oct 2017

@GustavoKatel, @matheus-souza Have you been able to run yarn build?

adlk on 18 Oct 2017

Huh it seems that the electron-builder is using the mac icns icons, therefore requires an extra dependency (libicns - which happens that I have installed). I can make a second PR removing this dependency and including a better linux packaging configuration. Is that ok?

GustavoKatel on 18 Oct 2017

👍1

I haven't had the time fire up a Linux VM yet to test it but did your update to the electron-builder config do the trick?
If so, then I'm going to add the Linux environment to travis in the next few days and we can proceed on this topic.

adlk on 18 Oct 2017

Yes. I had to manually set the icon for the linux tag. I created the build-helpers/images/icons directory and placed a 1024x1024 png icon there. It should be fine for now

GustavoKatel on 18 Oct 2017

🎉1 👍1

In Arch x64, I had an warning: Command failed: /home/fabricio/.cache/electron-builder/AppImage/AppImage-09-07-16-linux/xorriso

Solved instaling xorriso by running sudo pacman -S xorriso and setting the ENV export USE_SYSTEM_XORRISO=true

After this yarn build was successful, but AppImage do not have icons

fabricionaweb on 18 Oct 2017

👍1

That's weid. AppImage is supposed to vendor a xorriso bin. Can you check if /home/fabricio/.cache/electron-builder/AppImage/AppImage-09-07-16-linux/xorriso exists and can be executed?

ls -lh /home/fabricio/.cache/electron-builder/AppImage/AppImage-09-07-16-linux/xorriso

GustavoKatel on 20 Oct 2017

Tested installation of Franz 5.0.0 beta 10, Kubuntu 17.10
No installation problems at all, well done.

mroeling on 20 Oct 2017

👍1

Hi, I was trying to build Franz 5 for Debian 64 Bit, but I have a bad installation of Npm and Nodejs and I ca't build it, Can someone build it and send it to me PLS. Thk you

ghost on 23 Oct 2017

I've send my Kubuntu 17.10 build through WeTransfer: https://we.tl/jIoWg9R5fS

mroeling on 23 Oct 2017

@mroeling REALLY THANK YOU

ghost on 23 Oct 2017

@adlk since you are already using travis, why don't you have a travis build for linux as well? It seems to me that that would be the best first step to add linux support. At least, if travis works on Ubuntu 14.04, you can say that it does the job on Ubuntu 14.04.

alecive on 23 Oct 2017

@fabricionaweb I had the same issue and you solution worked perfectly.
@GustavoKatel The xorriso bin fetched with AppImage exists and is executable, however the issue xorriso isn't the issue itself, but the required library libreadline.so

Error: Exit code: 127. Command failed: /home/max/.cache/electron-builder/AppImage/AppImage-09-07-16-linux/xorriso <...>       
/home/max/.cache/electron-builder/AppImage/AppImage-09-07-16-linux/xorriso: error while loading shared libraries: libreadline.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Not sure where electron/xorriso looks for that library, but it is installed on my system. However the installed version is 7.0.x . Not sure if the so.6 means that bundled xorriso it is looking for version 6?

Anyway, installing and using a systemwide installed xorriso and using it as fabriciona suggested works as a workaround

Edit: Also missing the icon btw.

maxanier on 24 Oct 2017

I've finally been able to set up travis to build for linux as well:
Here is the very first build:
http://franz-travis.s3-website.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/?prefix=138/

I haven't done any testing yet but I'm glad that we are moving forward.

adlk on 25 Oct 2017

🎉3

That's great! I tried to install it on Ubuntu 14.04 and it went fine:

[alecive@malakim]$ sudo dpkg -i franz_5.0.0-beta.11_amd64.deb 
[sudo] password for alecive: 
Selecting previously unselected package franz.
(Reading database ... 353230 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack franz_5.0.0-beta.11_amd64.deb ...
Unpacking franz (5.0.0-beta.11-138) ...
Setting up franz (5.0.0-beta.11-138) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.22-1ubuntu1.1) ...
Processing triggers for mime-support (3.54ubuntu1.1) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.10.1-0ubuntu2) ...
Processing triggers for bamfdaemon (0.5.1+14.04.20140409-0ubuntu1) ...
Rebuilding /usr/share/applications/bamf-2.index...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.13-1) ...

but then it fails on run:

[alecive@malakim]$ franz 
(node:10522) UnhandledPromiseRejectionWarning: Unhandled promise rejection (rejection id: 1): Error: Cannot find module '../screen'
(node:10522) DeprecationWarning: Unhandled promise rejections are deprecated. In the future, promise rejections that are not handled will terminate the Node.js process with a non-zero exit code.

Thanks!

alecive on 25 Oct 2017

@alecive thanks for the heads up. Any chance you are running a self-built version to it parallel?
This error is usually caused by forcing Franz to be a single instance app. It checks if there is already another instance and quits.

adlk on 25 Oct 2017

Installed and run normally on Ubuntu 14.04 :smiley:

matheus-souza on 25 Oct 2017

@adlk yes there was franz 4.0 running. I closed it and now it works flawlessly, thanks so much!

alecive on 25 Oct 2017

👍1

@adlk I am actually having a number of problems when running it though. I will be opening separate issues to address them!

alecive on 25 Oct 2017

From the feedback I'm getting so far I feel comfortable enough to officially release Franz 5 for Linux with beta 12. https://github.com/meetfranz/franz/milestone/2

adlk on 26 Oct 2017

👍9

The application icon was missing for me in Gnome 3. Apparently, the only mandatory size is 48x48: https://developer.gnome.org/ThemedIcons/ (Application icons).
I fixed the issue by creating a 48x48 version (from the shipped 1024x1024), saving it as /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/franz.png and running:

sudo gtk-update-icon-cache /usr/share/icons/hicolor

This is on Antergos (Arch) but I guess it should work the same for any Gnome 3 install.

e11o on 22 Nov 2017

❤1

I am using the App Image in Fedora 26 and the App Icon isnt showing after I have installed the app. Is this something I can change?

marct83 on 29 Nov 2017

@marct83 This is a known issue which should be fixed with the next beta.

adlk on 29 Nov 2017

@adlk 5.0.0-beta.15 is out but the icon is still not showing for me on Fedora 27. Same for you @marct83?

francesco-beccaria on 22 Jan 2018

The same for me happens with the AppImage for Beta 18.
The icon appears properly in my Favorites and in the app-menu, but the icon for the RUNNING application, is a generic one.