Your Linux Signal Is NOT Broken

So don't try to troubleshoot in the middle of a Snap upgrade.

OK, for all of you who are using Signal on Linux, listen up!

If you followed my lead and adopted Ubuntu Budgie, or any of the other Debian derivatives, your first introduction to package management was using apt & friends to manage .deb files.

There are three other ways you might get software, as Linux is again going through package manager convulsions.

AppImage files are stand along binaries, we’re literally back to the static linking vs libraries of the 1970s. Flatpak is another package manager that I occasionally use, but I know little about the motivations behind it.

The one you do have to pay attention to is Snap. Package managers are a religious issue, like the endless war between emacs and vi users. There’s talk about Ubuntu shifting to purely snap, but there are also articles debunking this notion.

Regarding Snap:

Here’s what’s on my system that is handled by snap. There’s a lot of system stuff, I use snap for Element, Pycharm, and Signal.

I learned a painful lesson about snap updates earlier this year. I started my system and *gasp* Signal was nowhere in sight, so I started troubleshooting. This involved some frantic rsync between laptop and desktop … and after an hour, realizing it had been in the midst of an update.

If your system wakes up sans Signal, this is the universe telling you to get some coffee, clean your hut, whatever, just leave it alone. Snap update is running, it literally WILL take some minutes to get through things, and then Signal will be available via the graphical interface. Worst case, you might have to drag it back into position on Plank once it’s started.

Conclusion:

Don’t be a half awake panicked nimrod like I was back in January or February. You are on your way to being a Linux sage, and knowing when to just go do something else because snap is active is part of that.