The main credit for this article goes β Signal Desktop on FreeBSD Using Linux Binary Compatibility β here. I used linux-browser-installer all this time on FreeBSD with Ubuntu system at /compat/ubuntu β¦ but when I tried to install Signal Desktop there it said that its too old version of Ubuntu β because it was focal. The mentioned guide opened my eyes that I can use something more recent like trixie for example.
When I first got Signal Desktop working in this Debian system I really hated how ugly the fonts look β kinda like XKCD:1015 curse.
So with some tinkering I was able to fix that.
One may also joke that this type of article title will convert into a series as FreeBSD Cope with WiFi Fuckup already happened in the past π
Lets start the configuration.
Debian
Enable and start Linux Binary Compatibility mode on FreeBSD.
freebsd # service enable linux freebsd # service linux start
We need debootstrap(8) to install Debian system in /compat/debian dir.
freebsd # pkg install debootstrap
The default path for Linux Compatibility Layer on FreeBSD is /compat/linux so to not interfere with that as its RHEL clone based β we will use /compat/debian instead.
freebsd # echo compat.linux.emul_path=/compat/debian >> /etc/sysctl.conf
We need something more recent then focal that is used with linux-browser-installer project β and as shown in the mentioned article the trixie is proven to work. Lets populate /compat/debian with it.
freebsd # debootstrap trixie /compat/debian
It will take some time β on my 2018 ThinkPad T480 laptop and 30Mbps network connection it took less then 5 minutes.
As we will want to run X11 apps some additional dirs needs to be mounted with /etc/fstab config β that is on the FreeBSD host side β not inside the Linux /compat/debian dir.
freebsd # cat << FSTAB >> /etc/fstab # DEBIAN linprocfs /compat/debian/proc linprocfs rw,failok,late 0 0 linsysfs /compat/debian/sys linsysfs rw,failok,late 0 0 devfs /compat/debian/dev devfs rw,failok,late 0 0 fdescfs /compat/debian/dev/fd fdescfs rw,failok,late,linrdlnk 0 0 tmpfs /compat/debian/dev/shm tmpfs rw,failok,late,size=1g,mode=1777 0 0 /tmp /compat/debian/tmp nullfs rw,failok,late 0 0 /var/run/dbus /compat/debian/run/dbus nullfs rw,failok,late 0 0 FSTAB
I added failok option so if anything βbadβ happens FreeBSD system will just ignore it and boot normally.
Now create dirs that does not already exist and mount these filesystems.
freebsd # mkdir -p /compat/debian/run/dbus freebsd # mount -val linsysfs on /compat/debian/sys (linsysfs, local, fsid 1eff008a8a000000, vnodes: count 2 ) devfs on /compat/debian/dev (devfs, fsid 1fff007171000000, vnodes: count 2 ) fdescfs on /compat/debian/dev/fd (fdescfs, fsid 20ff005959000000, vnodes: count 2 ) tmpfs on /compat/debian/dev/shm (tmpfs, local, fsid 21ff008787000000, vnodes: count 2 ) /tmp on /compat/debian/tmp (nullfs, local, fsid 22ff002929000000, vnodes: count 2 ) /var/run/dbus on /compat/debian/run/dbus (nullfs, local, fsid 23ff002929000000, vnodes: count 2 )
We also need to make sure of proper permissions for some of them.
freebsd # chmod 1777 /compat/debian/dev/shm
We will now update and upgrade our Debian system.
freebsd # chroot /compat/debian apt update freebsd # chroot /compat/debian apt upgrade Summary: Upgrading: 0, Installing: 0, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 0
We will also need some libraries for GPU stuff β along with their deps.
freebsd # chroot /compat/debian apt install -y libgl1 \ libegl1 \ libgl1-mesa-dri \ libglx-mesa0 \ libgbm1 \ libvulkan1
We will also need to add messagebus group for DBus β¦ and (re)configuration about it.
freebsd # chroot /compat/debian groupadd --system messagebus freebsd # chroot /compat/debian getent group messagebus freebsd # chroot /compat/debian dpkg --configure dbus freebsd # chroot /compat/debian dpkg --configure -a
Signal Desktop
Now lets try to install Signal Desktop β¦ the official instructions use too much sudo(8) so we will simplify them.
Simplified steps below.
freebsd # fetch -o - https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc \ | gpg --dearmor > /compat/debian/usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg freebsd # fetch -o /compat/debian/etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-desktop.sources \ https://updates.signal.org/static/desktop/apt/signal-desktop.sources
Now we can update the repos and install signal-desktop package.
freebsd # chroot /compat/debian apt update Get:1 https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial InRelease [5963 B] Hit:2 https://deb.debian.org/debian trixie InRelease Get:3 https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial/main amd64 Packages [101 kB] Fetched 107 kB in 0s (362 kB/s) All packages are up to date. freebsd # chroot /compat/debian apt install -y signal-desktop
Next we need to prepare the Signal Desktop start script. Most of it is taken from the linux-browser-installer project. I will also notify its maintainer that newer trixie seems to work correctly β maybe he will move to it from older focal release.
freebsd # cat /usr/local/bin/linux-signal-desktop #!/bin/sh get_pa_sock_path() { PA_SOCK_PATH=$( sockstat \ | awk -v me=$(whoami) -F'[ \t]+' ' $1 == me && $2 == "pulseaudio" && $6 ~ /native/ { print $6; exit 0 }' ) } get_pa_sock_path if [ ! -S "${PA_SOCK_PATH}" ] then while killall pulseaudio do sleep 0.5 done pulseaudio --start get_pa_sock_path fi [ -S "${PA_SOCK_PATH}" ] && export PULSE_SERVER=unix:${PA_SOCK_PATH} /compat/debian/opt/Signal/signal-desktop --no-sandbox \ --disable-gpu \ --no-zygote \ --in-process-gpu \ --use-tray-icon \ --disable-font-subpixel-positioning \ --disable-lcd-text \ --font-render-hinting=none
Also in colored form below.
Now the Signal Desktop should run β but fonts look like shit on my system.
To fix that we need to install some stuff and configure it also.
freebsd # chroot /compat/debian apt install fontconfig
Next we need to create simple and working font rendering config because the default one makes things only worse.
freebsd # ls /compat/debian/etc/fonts/conf.d 10-hinting-slight.conf 50-user.conf 10-scale-bitmap-fonts.conf 51-local.conf 10-sub-pixel-none.conf 57-dejavu-sans-mono.conf 10-yes-antialias.conf 57-dejavu-sans.conf 11-lcdfilter-default.conf 57-dejavu-serif.conf 20-unhint-small-dejavu-lgc-sans-mono.conf 58-dejavu-lgc-sans-mono.conf 20-unhint-small-dejavu-lgc-sans.conf 58-dejavu-lgc-sans.conf 20-unhint-small-dejavu-lgc-serif.conf 58-dejavu-lgc-serif.conf 20-unhint-small-dejavu-sans-mono.conf 60-generic.conf 20-unhint-small-dejavu-sans.conf 60-latin.conf 20-unhint-small-dejavu-serif.conf 65-fonts-persian.conf 20-unhint-small-vera.conf 65-nonlatin.conf 30-metric-aliases.conf 69-unifont.conf 40-nonlatin.conf 70-no-bitmaps-except-emoji.conf 45-generic.conf 80-delicious.conf 45-latin.conf 90-synthetic.conf 48-spacing.conf README 49-sansserif.conf
Yep β¦ way too much β lets fix that.
freebsd # cd /compat/debian/etc/fonts freebsd # pwd /compat/debian/etc/fonts freebsd # mv conf.d conf.d.OFF freebsd # mkdir conf.d freebsd # cp /compat/debian/usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-hinting-none.conf conf.d/ freebsd # cp /compat/debian/usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-sub-pixel-none.conf conf.d/ freebsd # cp /compat/debian/usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-unhinted.conf conf.d/ freebsd # cp /compat/debian/usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/10-yes-antialias.conf conf.d/ freebsd # cp /compat/debian/usr/share/fontconfig/conf.avail/11-lcdfilter-none.conf conf.d/ freebsd # chroot /compat/debian fc-cache -fsv freebsd # chroot /compat/debian fc-cache -fv
Lets check how NOW the Signal Desktop font rendering looks like.
Yep β¦ much better.
Google Chrome
Now β¦ I was using the linux-browser-installer project to use Google Chrome β the one with ugly DRM stuff like Widevine just to watch paid F1 TV stream β¦ I know that its possible to watch Widevine stuff on Chromium on FreeBSD with compiled www/linux-widevine-cdm port β¦ and it works β but its slower in full screen mode β like not even able to play it without hiccups.
β¦ but my Google Chrome install is in the /compat/ubuntu and now Signal Desktop is in the /compat/debian β¦ and I do not want to start playing with FreeBSD Linux Jails for such simple things as βdesktopβ to provide two different Jails for just two apps β¦ so I will just add Google Chrome inside that new /compat/debian place.
First keys and repos.
freebsd # fetch -o - https://dl.google.com/linux/linux_signing_key.pub \ | gpg --dearmor -o /compat/debian/usr/share/keyrings/linux_signing_key.gpg freebsd # echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/linux_signing_key.gpg] http://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb/ stable main" \ > /compat/debian/etc/apt/sources.list.d/google-chrome.list freebsd # chroot /compat/debian apt update freebsd # chroot /compat/debian apt install -y google-chrome-stable
Next the Google Chrome start script β also based on the same script.
freebsd # cat /usr/local/bin/linux-google-chrome #!/bin/sh get_pa_sock_path() { PA_SOCK_PATH=$( sockstat \ | awk -v me=$(whoami) -F'[ \t]+' ' $1 == me && $2 == "pulseaudio" && $6 ~ /native/ { print $6; exit 0 }' ) } get_pa_sock_path if [ ! -S "${PA_SOCK_PATH}" ] then while killall pulseaudio do sleep 0.5 done pulseaudio --start get_pa_sock_path fi [ -S "${PA_SOCK_PATH}" ] && export PULSE_SERVER=unix:${PA_SOCK_PATH} /compat/debian/opt/google/chrome/chrome --no-sandbox \ --test-type \ --no-zygote \ --in-process-gpu \ --disable-dev-shm-usage
Also in colored form below.
Lets try how it works.
Seems to work β¦ and if it works with F1 TV it means it will also work with Spotify and Netflix and other things like that.
Summary
So after some frustrations with lack of native recent Signal Desktop on FreeBSD the official Linux version seems to work well in that Debian environment. That also shows how good and mature the FreeBSD implementation of Linux Binary Compatibility feature is. I now run FreeBSD with Linux GPU drivers with some additional Linux KPI (or Yippee Ki-Yay maybe?) interface β¦ same for many WiFi drivers. I now added Linux version of Signal Desktop to the Linux version of Google Chrome that I already run earlier β¦ I do not like where this is going.
One could ask β¦ why just not use Linux instead? β¦ and that is a valid question. I use FreeBSD for my reasons described here in Quare FreeBSD? article and I know that FreeBSD project is not βbig enoughβ to do all these things the proper and native way β that is why some βshortcutsβ are needed.
I wish we all would live in a better world β both FreeBSD and not FreeBSD related β¦ but we have what we have. I remember quite interesting quote about this from J. Robert Oppenheimer which goes like βThe Optimist thinks this is the best of all possible worlds, the Pessimist fears it is true.β
Take care.