Signal-desktop: Update to Electron 11 to fix restart mechanism on macOS Big Sur

[noahsbwilliams]

Hi Signal team,

I've discovered the source of a bug re: updating Signal on Big Sur. Hope this helps!

• [x] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

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Bug Description

Electron < 11 includes a precompiled version of squirrel that causes the "restart to update" functionality to break on Big Sur.

Upgrading Electron to ≥ V11 fixes this issue as documented here.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Wait for update
2. Click "Restart to Update"

Actual Result:

• Application quits but fails to restart. Updates are present when user manually restarts application.

Expected Result:

• Application restarts in updated state.

Platform Info

Signal Version: v1.39.4

Operating System:

macOS Big Sur 11.1

[EvanHahn-Signal]

Thanks for reporting. We're planning on upgrading to Electron 11 in early 2021 which should address this issue.

[noahsbwilliams]

Fantastic! Happy holidays!

[kaimast]

Is there a tracking bug for Electron 11 (and eventually 12)?

[EvanHahn-Signal]

We have an internal issue to track the upgrade, which I'm personally working on.

I think this issue is sufficient, though!

[physkets]

@EvanHahn-Signal Would you advice that distros use their system electron, now that you're up-to-date?

[EvanHahn-Signal]

I'm going to close this issue because we're now on Electron 11.

@EvanHahn-Signal Would you advice that distros use their system electron, now that you're up-to-date?

I don't know. My gut says to use the version of Electron that we include (rather than a system Electron) because there could be subtle version mismatches that we want to avoid. But it probably depends on the distro and the way you decide to build the app.