PE1AQP's Notes about instant-messaging programs: Signal.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Below a few notes about my experiences with Signal.
Signal
The Desktop version of Signal is, of course, started from the command-line, mostly via some sort of script. At this time, several options can be given. These options are not very well documented. My reason to start this web-page was exactly to provide, at least for my self, some documentation of the options I use(d). Perhaps these notes help someone else as well.
BEWARE: I cannot guarantee correctness of the notes below, or that these notes are still useful in a day, a week, a month or 10 years time. They were helpful for me at the time of writing (Summer 2024). Use at your own risk.
Language
The smartphone versions of the Signal app have a configuration setting to interactively change the language used for the user-interface and for spell-checking messages. The (Linux- ?) desktop version doesn't have this possibility; it derives the language setting from the environment at time of starting the program.
Since I use the program in a few different language groups, I created a few scripts that start Signal for a specific language. For example, I start the program for the German language (with German spell-checking of the messages, what I really need) with the following script:
File: ~/bin/,signalDE
#+beginsrc
#!/bin/bash LANG=deDE.UTF-8 nohup signal-desktop >> ~/logs/signal.log
2>&1 & #+endsrc
- Note 1: In fact my real file contains a few more things.
- Note 2: Following the suggestion by Brandon Rhodes, filenames of my scripts start with a comma.
Keyring Unlocking Problems.
After a software update in July 2024, starting signal-desktop (on Linux) caused a pop-up requiring an authentication password for the keyring, on system were I don't use a keyring !
A problem seen and reported by others as well, some time ago and more recently.
The fix, or at least a work-around, is the option
--password-store="basic" :
#+beginsrc #!/bin/bash LANG=deDE.UTF-8 nohup signal-desktop #–password-store="basic" >> ~/logs/signal.log 2>&1 & #+endsrc
Sandboxing Signal on Linux
Or better: NO-Sandboxing on Debian-derived Linux distro's such as Ubuntu: askubuntu: signal-desktop-in-the-background. Has also some options about usage of the "tray".
Use option --no-sandbox.
Multiple user-profiles
Interesting ideas. Not yet tried.
- https://wiki.systemli.org/howto/several_signal_desktop_instances
- https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/issues/1720
Use option ---user-data-dir=/home/<user>/<some relevant directory>
or option: --profile=/etc/firejail/signal-desktop.profile.