signal-desktop

Signal Desktop

This guid is written by using Signal Desktop on branch Master version 1.30.0-beta.4

Requirement

• NVM 12.4.0

How To

1. Install requirement

on MacOS, Install xcode

xcode-select --install # Install Command Line Tools if you haven't already.
sudo xcode-select --switch /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools # Enable command line tools

On Win7, Install .Net 4.5.1 & Windows SDK 8.1 & Windows Build Tools

npm install --global --production --add-python-to-path windows-build-tools

On Linux, Install python, gcc, g++, make

sudo apt-get install python, gcc, g++, make

2. Clone signal-desktop

3. Mount signal desktop directory

cd Signal-Desktop

4. Install yarn

npm install —global yarn

5. Install & build with yarn

yarn install —frozen-lockfile

6. Generate final JS & CSS

yarn grunt

7. Generate full-set icon

yarn icon-gen

8. Build with webpack

yarn build:webpack

9. You can test with

yarn test 

10. Start the app

yarn start

11. To connect to own production server, create local-development.json, the value is the same as production.json but without updateEnabled.

{
  "serverUrl": "https://domain.com",
  "cdnUrl": "https://cdn-domain.com",
  "serverTrustRoot": "public-key-generated-in-signal-server-step-4",
  "updatesEnabled": true
}

Using own Server

1. Update config/deafult.json, set serverUrl & cdnUrl by using your Server URL & your CDN url, don’t include trailing slash on serverUrl and cdnUrl.

2. Update config/default.json, set certificateAuthority using CA’s SSL Certificate.

3. Update config/default.json, set serverTrustRoot using your CAPublicKey (Also used in android as UNIDENTIFIED SENDER TRUST ROOT).

4. Update js/modules/web_api.js, find functions called getAttachment and putAttachment, then replace ${cdnUrl}/attachments/${id} with ${cdnUrl}/ (Do this if you do the same in android client).

5. Still on the same functions, set a default value for certificateAuthority variable (see below) new line in your certificateAuthority needs to be formatted to “\n”.

change this

...
certificateAuthority,
...

to this

...
certificateAuthority: "-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE----- ... -----END CERTIFICATE-----\n",
...

6. yarn generate

7. yarn build

8. yarn start

FAQ

Q: How could I get certificate authority?

A: I called it the certificate of the certificate issuer. You can try browsing a https web using chrome, click on lock pad beside the URL address bar, then click on "Certificate (Valid)", you will see the top most & orange certificate, that is what you need, drag it to your desktop to save it.