Signal-desktop: Signal Desktop on Linux does not work anymore

Created on 19 Oct 2018 · 13Comments · Source: signalapp/Signal-Desktop

Basically, after update, I cannot start signal-desktop on Ubuntu 17.10.

If I run it through commandline, I got this output, but GUI window does not appears:

signal-desktop

Set Windows Application User Model ID (AUMID) { appUserModelId: 'org.whispersystems.signal-desktop' }
NODE_ENV production
NODE_CONFIG_DIR /opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/config
NODE_CONFIG {}
ALLOW_CONFIG_MUTATIONS undefined
HOSTNAME undefined
NODE_APP_INSTANCE undefined
SUPPRESS_NO_CONFIG_WARNING undefined
userData: /home/matej/.config/Signal
config/get: Successfully read user config file
Uncaught error or unhandled promise rejection: SyntaxError: Unexpected token � in JSON at position 0
    at JSON.parse (<anonymous>)
    at start (/opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/app/base_config.js:16:24)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/app/ephemeral_config.js:10:25)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/app/ephemeral_config.js:14:3)
    at Module._compile (module.js:642:30)
    at Object.Module._extensions..js (module.js:653:10)
    at Module.load (module.js:561:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:504:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:496:3)
    at Module.require (module.js:586:17)

If I look for a Signal in "app finder", I can see two icons, one for Signal and the other for Signal Private Messenger. If I run "Signal Private Messenger", I got a window saying "Success" Your Signal Desktop migration data was successfully saved here. Remember this location:... ... and then button to "Get New Version", which shows this text:

curl -s https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | sudo apt-key add -
echo "deb [arch=amd64] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main" | sudo tee -a /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list
sudo apt update && sudo apt install signal-desktop
/opt/Signal/signal-desktop --import

Of course, after "upgrading" (APT says: signal-desktop is already the newest version (1.16.3).), I still cannot run signal-desktop - I get the same issue as already described here.

Additional info about my system:
Linux cryptoloop 4.13.0-46-generic #51-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jun 12 12:36:29 UTC 2018 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Any help?

Bug

Source

MatejKovacic

👍1

All 13 comments

OK, some additional info... Signal Private Messenger was actually Chrome extension (weird, I thought I have already uninstalled it several months ago).

I have now uninstalled it, but still cannot run signal-desktop (no GUI window appears).

MatejKovacic on 19 Oct 2018

I have now installed signal-desktop-beta, and it works, however, it wants me to link new device... I did it, but I have a question - is it possible to import existing config (and history of messages) to beta version?

MatejKovacic on 19 Oct 2018

👍1

Same problem here since the update of today.

$signal-desktop 
Set Windows Application User Model ID (AUMID) { appUserModelId: 'org.whispersystems.signal-desktop' }
NODE_ENV production
NODE_CONFIG_DIR /opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/config
NODE_CONFIG {}
ALLOW_CONFIG_MUTATIONS undefined
HOSTNAME undefined
NODE_APP_INSTANCE undefined
SUPPRESS_NO_CONFIG_WARNING undefined
userData: /home/goeury/.config/Signal
config/get: Successfully read user config file
config/get: Did not find ephemeral config file, cache is now empty object
Uncaught error or unhandled promise rejection: Error: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libstdc++.so.6: version `GLIBCXX_3.4.21' not found (required by /tmp/.org.chromium.Chromium.zRj9ij)
    at process.module.(anonymous function) [as dlopen] (ELECTRON_ASAR.js:166:20)
    at Object.Module._extensions..node (module.js:671:18)
    at Object.module.(anonymous function) [as .node] (ELECTRON_ASAR.js:180:18)
    at Module.load (module.js:561:32)
    at tryModuleLoad (module.js:504:12)
    at Function.Module._load (module.js:496:3)
    at Module.require (module.js:586:17)
    at require (internal/module.js:11:18)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/node_modules/@journeyapps/sqlcipher/lib/sqlite3.js:4:15)
    at Object.<anonymous> (/opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/node_modules/@journeyapps/sqlcipher/lib/sqlite3.js:190:3)

Running on ubuntu 14.04.
Tried to uninstall and reinstall signal, did'n fixed the problem.

skeld on 19 Oct 2018

@skeld You are experiencing this bug: https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/issues/2604

scottnonnenberg-signal on 19 Oct 2018

@MatejKovacic Looks like your ~/.config/Signal/ephemeral.json file got corrupted. Did you close SIgnal without shutting it down normally? Did your computer crash? What does the file look like?

The workaround is to delete that file, but I'm interested in how your configuration got there in the first place.

scottnonnenberg-signal on 19 Oct 2018

👍1

OK, deleting ephemeral.json solved the problem, but now I have another problem... I restored the backup of ~/.config/Signal/ and "resynced" the messages... there were some errors.

So I decided to restore the ~/.config/Signal/ (with corrupted ephemeral.json) back, delete ephemeral.json and run the Signa Desktop again - but now I am missing messages from yesterday...

BTW, how the file got corrupted?

Crappy Ubuntu crashed completely, so I needed to shut the computer off... and after restart, Signal was not working.

Maybe there should be some solution for this? Something like, if Signal finds out that ephemeral.json is corrupted, it should ask something like "It seems your crappy computer crashed again and f$#ed up you Signal configuration file. Do you want to delete corrupted file, or would you like to get rid of your crappy OS first?"

It seems quite reasonable solution for me right now... :(

MatejKovacic on 20 Oct 2018

@scottnonnenberg-signal are you doing a "safe" write when writing to that file? Write the content to ephemeral.json.tmp (not atomic operation, can be corrupted if interrupted), then rename it to ephemeral.json (atomic, either succeeds or fails completely), which overwrites the old file.