Added ARM architectures to the Linux build

[SpacingBat3]

It is possible to package the app using the electron-builder app on the ARM architectures (tested on ARM64: Raspberry Pi 4B, Manjaro ARM 20.10).

Fix

Allows to build the app as an tar.gz archive with the electron-builder tool.

Test

1. Clone this repository and cd to it.
2. Use the npm install to get it's all dependencies.
3. Install electron-builder globally on your machine and package this repo with it for ARM64 and ARMv7 architectures:

electron-builder -l tar.gz --arm64 --armv7l

Release

In my opinion this change could be included in RELEASE-NOTES.md – however I haven't done this yet, as I would wait with that for the next release.

[belcherj]

All the builds function, I tested here: #2462

I did not test the artifacts as I do not have a machine to test.

[belcherj]

Thank you for your contribution!!

[SpacingBat3]

I haven't added this to the other file formats with a reason: building AppImages, DEB files, pacman packages etc. is broken now with the electron-builder while building the app on ARM host – or at least I couldn't make it working with my Raspberry Pi 4. The error while building on ARM is produced when the electron-builder tries to run an X86 application with foreign arch (and of course it fails because X86 binaries won't run on ARM machines without an emulation) that is downloaded and then used to produce these packages. That's why tar.gz (or any tar* file format) is now the only working option!

[SpacingBat3]

If you've tested it on X86 machine, consider emulating ARM machines with the QEMU and trying to do the test.
I'm gonna verify once again things on ARMv7 again to check if it is actually failing or not... Maybe I were wrong in this review?
But with my knowledge it also fails on ARMv7 hosts.

[belcherj]

Interesting. I can put in a PR to remove it from all but the tar.gz build.

Do you run your own build of Simplenote on your ARM device? Is that when the AppImage, Deb, and rpm build fails?

[SpacingBat3]

@belcherj I've actually built many electron apps using the electron-builder and I believe this behaviour is independent of the application I've built – every time building an electron app as DEB, AppImage, RPM or even pacman packages. And yes, I've tried built all these apps on my Raspberry Pi, as I've written earlier – including yours.

I'm also myself a dev of Discord Web App that uses the Electron and is currently focused at support for the ARM devices. I haven't also succeed building it any distro-specific packages yet and I believe that's fault with the electron-builder itself. I might even consider making an issue on their GitHub repository and point you to it once I'll have enough time.

Right now I'm myself working on the Raspberry Pi 4 SBC under the ARM64 distro, but many people had also an issue building the electron apps on the ARMv7 arch and I believe that there's the same reason that is with ARM64.

I hope this comment will brighten a little a building process on the ARM hosts and helps you to set a proper configuration for the electron-builder.

BTW I'm not myself using this app, but someone pointed me to it by this issue that were made in my own GitHub repository and I've decided to check this out...

[dmsnell]

BTW I'm not myself using this app, but someone pointed me to it by this issue that were made in my own GitHub repository and I've decided to check this out...

mad props @SpacingBat3 - really appreciate you sharing your knowledge here.

[rekab72]

@SpacingBat3 Thank you so much. Following the post I successfully built all on Raspberry Pi 4 8GB Ubuntu MATE 20.10 and am now using "Simplenote-linux-2.1.0-beta2-arm64.AppImage" with all of the new feature the Simplenote team have been adding. Along with your electron-discord-webapp https://github.com/SpacingBat3/electron-discord-webapp the Pi 4 is almost a desktop replacement. @dmsnell @belcherj Thanks too for keeping this going and making the changes to support ARM again.

[SpacingBat3]

(...) Following the post I successfully built all on Raspberry Pi 4 8GB Ubuntu MATE 20.10 and am now using "Simplenote-linux-2.1.0-beta2-arm64.AppImage" (...)

Oh, I've earlier tried to built an AppImage on ARM64 and I've failed, but now it seems to work as well!

[SpacingBat3]

... but this is an error when building the distro-specific packages (like deb, pacman, rpm etc.), that I've translated back from my native language back to English:

/home/spacingbat3/.cache/electron-builder/fpm/fpm-1.9.3-2.3.1-linux-x86/lib/ruby/bin/ruby: line 6: /home/spacingbat3/.cache/electron-builder/fpm/fpm-1.9.3-2.3.1-linux-x86/lib/ruby/bin.real/ruby: cannot execute the binary file: Wrong format of the executable file.

This means that electron-builder downloads the ruby file for Linux X86 only and not for any of the ARM64 architectures (and I believe it can fail when the Linux X86_64 don't have installed any 32-bit libs).

Conclusion: AppImage, tar.gz and (probably, as I couldn't set multipass working with the Manjaro ARM) snap can be easily built with the electron-builder tool on the ARM architectures.

[rekab72]

@belcherj 2.2.0-beta1AppImage works as designed. No issues. Thanks. Going to post info about Simplente again in Raspberry Pi forum.

[belcherj]

Please open an issue if there are remaining issues with the ARM builds. Want to make sure we get everyone full sorted.

[daic11]

Hello! The main problem was with fpm package that require electron during build
It downloads it automatically x86 version and their repo don't include aarm64.

I am very thankful to this topics:
th-ch/youtube-music#85
jordansissel/fpm#1801 (comment)

The main repo of aarm64 build, my hero!
https://github.com/jgresham/fpm-arm-binary

Main longread explanation how it works:
signalapp/Signal-Desktop#6063 (comment)

So, the solution is to build fpm by yourself and build any electron apps for aarm64 after.

// First install podman and run
podman run -it --platform=linux/arm64 ubuntu:20.04 bash

// Update vm
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y curl git build-essential rpm

// Build aarm64 fpm
git clone https://github.com/jgresham/fpm-arm-binary
cd fpm-arm-binary/
chmod +x compile-script.sh
./compile-script.sh

// Make fpm usable by fpm command
sudo mv fpm-arm64-exe /usr/local/bin/fpm
sudo chmod +x /usr/local/bin/fpm
which fpm
fpm --version

// Install node with npm and pnpm
curl -fsSL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_current.x | sudo -E bash -
sudo npm install -g npm@latest
npm install -g pnpm

// Build Youtube Music, Simple Note, Signal-Desktop, Discord, etc. Anything on Electron
export USE_SYSTEM_FPM=true
git clone https://github.com/th-ch/youtube-music
cd youtube-music
pnpm install --frozen-lockfile
pnpm dist:linux:rpm-arm64