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If the above steps help you, report the package as outdated here and write in the comment something like: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 Mark this package as out of date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 :)

Hey @FFY00, I took over the package; going to update it soon.

ItachiSan, feel free to take over. I have not been able to take the time needed to maintain my AUR packages.

The package needs a few major reworks:

• Many dependencies are useless.
• The package depends on Electron 2 (electron2) and not Electron 3 (electron).
• Disabling dev mode could be done a bit cleaner (so that people can re-enable it).

My take on would be this:

https://gist.github.com/ItachiSan/4e0b1aedceb1fa7bf772f1fd0a7be5b9

It was made for the previous packaged version (beta 18).

Franz is now on version 5.0.0_beta.20.

Also please remove the make dependency on nodejs-lts-carbon. Franz compiles fine with nodejs. Same goes for the yarn dependency and npm.

Unable to install

To ensure your native dependencies are always matched electron version, simply add script "postinstall": "electron-builder install-app-deps" to yourpackage.json` At least electron-updater 4.0.0 is recommended by current electron-builder version. Please set electron-updater version to "^4.0.0"

Plexcon, what?

Update franz 5.0.0_beta.18-2

Why dev mode :(

It looks like the project got abandoned by the developers (There is a radio silence of 5 months on github)

There is another app with the same functionality. Couldn't compile it myself, but rambox-bin works.

Oh dear.