Axolotl on PinePhone / Mobian

[arno_nuehm]

I just installed axolotl on my Pinephone and got it working, then set up the client on my desktop system as well linking it to the same phone number. What does it mean when you send a message and your text box has an orange border and there is an orange triangle with an exclamation point in the lower right-hand corner? I have not been able to find any docs yet for this.

Hello there,

it means, that the message was not sent corretcly. Some questions and hints:

Which version / installation method did you use?
Did you de-register your old Signal account?
Are you trying to send this message in a group?
Is the number you sent this message to a Signal user?
Have you tried to reset the encryption between yourself and the other user by tapping the three dots in the top right corner and tapping "Reset encryption"?
Have you tried to send a message to the same user with your (official Signal) desktop client?

Let me know, if some of these hints worked out.

Cheers!

Thanks, I figured it meant some kind of error but there seems to be no docs or way to get any details on what the error is.

Is axolotl restricted to being registered to a phone number on only one device? For test purposes I de-registered both and just set up the desktop version, using the Pinephone only to receive the confirmation SMS code. The error condition persists.

I'm not trying to send this from or to a group, only individuals are involved. (It did work using the Pinephone to send messages to the same user, so the number is definitely registered with Signal.) Resetting encryption did not help either.

The official Signal desktop client seems to require scanning a QR code that it displays on startup and I don't see a way to do that with the Pinephone, so I'm unable to use that. (I do not have any Android or iOS devices that can be used to scan the code.)

I've just re-registered axolotl on the Pinephone and sent a message to the same phone number and it went through OK (check marks instead of error triangle).  Maybe if I run desktop axolotl from the command line it will spit out some useful diagnostics to stderr? Obviously this is not a Pinephone problem, there's apparently something going on with my Ubuntu desktop system that axolotl doesn't like so I should probably pursue this issue in the Ubuntu forums. (I could not find a forum specifically for axolotl.)

Ok, glad to hear it worked.

But here are some general things about Axolotl/Signal you should be aware of:

Due to Signals restriction, only one primary client with the same phone number is allowed in the Signal world. Using Axolotl (primary client) on your Pinephone AND on your desktop pc is not working. You have to use the official Signal desktop client or any other secondary client on your desktop pc.
Lucky for you, the camera app Megapixels on your Pinephone is able to decode qr-codes automatically and you can link your Signal desktop with Axolotl using the string of the qr-code.

One other thing: The support for Signal v2groups is still not implemented in Axolotl.

And no need to run Axolotl from your command line. The electron gui works just fine - or try the server/browser setup from the wiki.

So, enjoy Signal on your Pinephone!