Franz/Rambox style communication app

[Wizzard]

The one thing that I missed on my old Pinebook was the lack of a good communication application that integrates all the services like Hangouts, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Telegram, Discord, etc. into one application. Yes, I could open all those web services in a browser, but it is not convenient.

As I know, Franz and Rambox does not have Linux arm64 version. Is there something similar that run on Linux arm64?

[danielt]

The one thing that I missed on my old Pinebook was the lack of a good communication application that integrates all the services like Hangouts, Facebook Messenger, Skype, Telegram, Discord, etc. into one application. Yes, I could open all those web services in a browser, but it is not convenient.

As I know, Franz and Rambox does not have Linux arm64 version. Is there something similar that run on Linux arm64?

Given both use an open-core model you might be able to build them yourself! For example rambox offers a quickstart guide that might help:
https://github.com/ramboxapp/community-e...quickstart

[Wizzard]

I tried it before on Pinebook, but without success. I will try it on PB Pro too, when I don't find anything.

[Wizzard]

I think I found a possible alternative. All In One Messenger for Chromium.

https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detai...jbda?hl=sk

Testing it now on PC and will try it on PBP at home. I just miss the option to minimize to tray.

[slyecho]

Given both use an open-core model you might be able to build them yourself! For example rambox offers a quickstart guide that might help:
https://github.com/ramboxapp/community-e...quickstart

I tried to compile it, but the problem is the Sencha Cmd that it uses, I could download it from their site and run it since it only uses Java, however there is some error during the build.

[llsf]

Rambox/Hamsket doesn't seem to be possible due to Sencha on aarch64.

Franz can be compiled, or the more open fork ferdi:

https://github.com/getferdi/ferdi/releases

There's an AUR-package for it, but it always lags behind a bit; I'll see if I can get it working for the most recent release and report back.

https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ferdi

I only rarely use it, though, because electron really is not a nice thing to use on a somewhat resource constrained device.

/edit: Forgot to add: the only major change required in the PKGBUILD was:

Code:

@@ -78,7 +78,7 @@ package() {

  # Install the .asar files
  install -dm 755 "$pkgdir"/usr/lib/ferdi
-  cp -r --no-preserve=ownership --preserve=mode out/linux-unpacked/resources "$pkgdir"/usr/lib/ferdi/
+  cp -r --no-preserve=ownership --preserve=mode out/linux-arm64-unpacked/resources "$pkgdir"/usr/lib/ferdi/

  # Install icon
  install -Dm 644 "$srcdir"/ferdi.desktop "$pkgdir"/usr/share/applications/ferdi.desktop

[Wizzard]

I tried that All In One Messenger in Chromium and it works. The only problem is that I dont know how to attach it on the taskbar and to minimize it to tray. I saw also another similar apps for Chromium and even Firefox, so I will check for more options.

[llsf]

So I finally managed to somewhat clean up my things and put them on github:

https://github.com/lsfxz/pinebookpro-things

The ferdi-PKGBUILDs now work with the latest beta / straight from git.

If on a different distro, you might be able to at least glean some hints at building it manually from them.

[Wizzard]

I give it up, I just use Chromium as an instant messenger in small window with all the tabs with Hangouts, Messenger, Skype, etc. and have set it to restore the session at startup. I is fast and lightweight and memory effective.

The only think it does not have is the ability to minimize to tray.

[llsf]

Should you change your mind at some point: Ferdi is now available prebuilt as well (https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=9452) and hamsket can be easily built/run from the upstream binary as well: https://gitlab.com/ohfp/pinebookpro-thin...amsket-bin or https://gitlab.com/ohfp/pinebookpro-thin...ightly-bin.

Should you be on a different OS than Manjaro, you could just take a look at the PKGBUILDs; for hamsket especially you pretty much just need to unpack it and run the app.asar directly via electron.