axolotl

Axolotl is a crossplattform Signal client

For the Ubuntu Phone and more

Axolotl is a complete Signal client, it allows you to create a Signal account and have discussions with your contacts. Unlike the desktop Signal client, Axolotl is completely autonomous and doesn't require you to have created an account with the official Signal application.

It is built upon the Go textsecure package and a vuejs app that runs in a electron/qml WebEngineView container.

To use it from your Ubuntu Touch device, simply install it from the open store:

Axolotl is also available as a snap package, to install it on Ubuntu desktop:

What works

• Phone registration
• Contact discovery
• Direct messages
• Group messages mostly
• Photo, video, audio and contact attachments in both direct and group mode
• Preview for photo and audio attachments
• Storing conversations
• Encrypted message store
• Desktop client provisioning/syncing partially

What is missing

• Push notifications
• Most settings that are available in the Android app
• Encrypted phone calls

There are still bugs and UI/UX quirks.

Installation of development environment

• Install Golang
• Install node js
• Add gopath to ~/.bashrc https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/SettingGOPATH
• install dependencies sudo apt install mercurial bzr
• Check out this git go get -d github.com/nanu-c/axolotl
• cd $(go env GOPATH)/src/github.com/nanu-c/axolotl
• get go dependencies go get -d ...
• install axolotl-web dependencies: cd axolotl-web&&npm install

Translations

Axolotl uses gettext for translations. Use the po files in /po/ for translations. For testing set up development enviroment and run

• npm run translate-extract extracting the language strings. This updates only the pot file
• npm run translate-update for updating all the translation files
• npm run translate-compile for updating the json file used by axolotl-web. Without that you don't see any results
• or npm run translate for all of the 3 commands at the same time. This should be run befor commiting any changes on axolotl-web

Run development

• cd $(go env GOPATH)/src/github.com/nanu-c/axolotl
• go run .
• in a new terminal cd axolotl-web&&npm run serve
• point a browser to the link printed in the terminal like http://localhost:8080

Run frontend and connect to phone ip

That way running the backend is avoided, instead your current registration on ubuntu touch is used

• cd axolotl-web
• VUE_APP_WS_ADDRESS=10.0.0.2 npm run serve replace 10.0.0.2 with the ip of your phone

Build Axolotl for all arches with clickable and snap

requires clickable and snapcraft to be installed

go clean

echo "Build ut linux armhf"
clickable clean build

echo "Build linux amd64 snap"
mkdir -p build/linux-amd64-snap
snapcraft clean axolotl
snapcraft
mv *.snap build/linux-amd64-snap/

echo "Build linux amd64"
mkdir -p build/linux-amd64/axolotl-web
env GOOS=linux GOARCH=amd64 go build -o build/linux-amd64/axolotl .
cp axolotl-web/dist build/windows-amd64/axolotl-web -r

echo "Build linux arm5"
mkdir -p build/linux-arm5/axolotl-web
env GOOS=linux GOARCH=arm GOARM=5 go build -o build/linux-arm5/axolotl .
cp axolotl-web/dist build/linux-arm5/axolotl-web -r

echo "Build linux arm7"
mkdir -p build/linux-arm7/axolotl-web
env GOOS=linux GOARCH=arm GOARM=7 go build -o build/linux-arm7/axolotl .
cp axolotl-web/dist build/linux-arm7/axolotl-web -r

echo "Build linux arm64"
mkdir -p build/linux-arm64/axolotl-web
env GOOS=linux GOARCH=arm64 go build -o build/linux-arm64/axolotl .
cp axolotl-web/dist build/linux-arm64/axolotl-web -r

echo "Build windows amd64"
mkdir -p build/windows-amd64/axolotl-web
env GOOS=windows GOARCH=amd64 go build -ldflags -H=windowsgui -o build/windows-amd64/axolotl.exe .
cp axolotl-web/dist build/windows-amd64/axolotl-web -r

echo "Build windows 386"
mkdir -p build/windows-386/axolotl-web
env GOOS=windows GOARCH=386 go build -ldflags -H=windowsgui -o build/windows-386/axolotl.exe .
cp axolotl-web/dist build/windows-amd64/axolotl-web -r

echo "Build darwin amd64"
mkdir -p build/darwin-amd64/axolotl-web
env GOOS=darwin GOARCH=amd64 go build -o build/darwin-amd64/axolotl .
cp axolotl-web/dist build/darwin-amd64/axolotl-web -r

Installation on UT

If you want to use the current stable version, simply install it from the OpenStore

The build-system is now integrated in the clickable Version 3.2.0.

• primary steps from installation
• Get clickable
• Run clickable, this also transfers the click package to the Ubuntu Touch Phone
• Run clickable launch logs to start signal and watch the log

Run flags

• -sys for either lorca-> native chromium (has to be installed), ut -> runs in the ut enviroment, me -> qmlscene, or without that flag it runs electron
• -eDebug show developer console in electron mode

Contributing

Please fill issues here on github https://github.com/nanu-c/axolotl/issues

Migrating from janimo/axolotl

1. Download and install the app from the OpenStore; do not launch the app!
2. Copy the directory /home/phablet/.local/share/textsecure.jani/.storage to /home/phablet/.local/share/textsecure.nanuc/.storage
3. Copy the file /home/phablet/.config/textsecure.jani/config.yml to /home/phablet/.config/textsecure.nanuc/config.yml. Edit the copied file by changing storageDir: /home/phablet/.local/share/textsecure.nanuc/.storage (not strictly required: also update userAgent: TextSecure 0.3.18 for Ubuntu Phone to reflect the current version).
4. Not strictly required. Copy your conversation history by copying the file /home/phablet/.local/share/textsecure.jani/db/db.sql to /home/phablet/.local/share/textsecure.nanuc/db/db.sql
5. Not strictly required. Copy the attachments by copying the directory /home/phablet/.local/share/textsecure.jani/attachments to /home/phablet/.local/share/textsecure.nanuc/attachments. Download the db.sql to your computer and run sqlite3 db.sql "UPDATE messages SET attachment = REPLACE(attachment, '/home/phablet/.local/share/textsecure.jani/attachments/', '/home/phablet/.local/share/textsecure.nanuc/attachments/') WHERE attachment LIKE '/home/phablet/.local/share/textsecure.jani/attachments/%';". Upload the now updated db.sql back to your phone.
6. Remove the old app! If you do not remove the old app and you send or receive new messages with the other app you, conflicts may occur.