Arch Linux User Repository

If you have troubles, read this message!

Please go to the relevant section of this comment in order to make both your and my life easier :)

1. Errors when starting the app like: the chat area is all blue
2. (Obsolete) I get an error when upgrading packages

Now, to the resolutions!

1. The app opens but I got a blue screen and nothing more / The app refuses to start / ...

The package depends on Node.js native stuff which are compiled at build time, which makes it break on Electron updates.

With a PKGBUILD between 2020-11-15 till 2021-09-08, you should always have gad a correct matching between Electron and Franz versions.

After 2021-09-08, while the Electron packages follows just the official Arch package dependency, as it is based on not-rolling versions (AKA following a specific Electron branch) breakages are unlikely.

If you would like to help me on this, whenever you have problems starting it, do the following:

1. Open Franz
2. Franz is broken: maybe for a recent update?
3. Reinstall Franz from AUR; this will make it rebuild the native blobs
4. Re-open Franz
5. Franz should work fine; if so, it was a Node.js/Electron/else update problem

If the above steps help you, report the package as outdated here and write in the comment something like:

Electron update broke Franz

If you have some other issues, you should open the developer tools and give me its output, in addition to what is your environment, so I can figure out if it is a packaging issue (my job to fix) or an upstream/code issue (their job to fix); in the second case, I will open a bug request and mention it in a comment, so that you can track it.

2. (Obsolete) I cannot upgrade Electron

The following resolution is not valid since 2021-09-08, it is kept for historic purposes

This is intended; since the PKGBUILD for Franz 5.5.0-4, the package marks as dependency a version-locked Electron package in order to avoid issues with binary modules over upgrades.

In such scenario, you should, assuming _electron="electron" in the PKGBUILD (meaning the Electron used is bundled in the package electron):

1. Mark this package as out of date
2. Do you regular updates with: pacman -Syu --ignore electron

If you want however to upgrade the Electron package, do

1. Upgrade the electron package with pacman -S --assume-installed electron=FRANZ.REQUIRED.VERSION electron
2. Rebuild Franz if needed

Hope this was a good explanation, might get updates if I missed something :)

@ritwick I just rebuilt the package and everything went well.

Seems something was wrong with your machine, as there was some process exiting and unable to set locale stuff.

Anyone experiencing build fail?

Error: npm exited with code 1 Output:

macos-notification-state@1.2.0 install /home/ritwick/.cache/yay/franz/src/franz/build/node_modules/macos-notification-state node-gyp rebuild

complete output: https://notepad.pw/franzerrorinstall

@ItachiSan It's done. Specified Electron 3.1.6 and build succeeded. No more blue screen too. Thanks for your work mate.

Ok then @archieslove, can you change the PKGBUILD and echo the electron_version variable in the prepare function?

My guess is that it parses both the versions of electron and electron2.

If it is correct, I have a proper fix for that!

@ItachiSan

local/electron 3.1.6-1

Build cross platform desktop apps with web technologies

local/electron2 2.0.18-1

Build cross platform desktop apps with web technologies

local/electronmail-bin 3.1.0-1

Unofficial desktop app for several E2E encrypted email providers

@ThaChillera glad it finally works for you :)

@archieslove I think I might know the issue; can dig into it tonight. Can you give me the output of pacman -Qs electron ? Just to confirm my idea.