GNUnet Messenger for the Librem 5

Hardware Librem 5
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I like this idea :slightly_smiling_face:

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Today I implemented most parts required for contact exchange in public using QR codes. It uses an alternative of DNS in GNUnet called GNS to resolve custom URIs to read records from the DHT. Like this you can easily exchange contacts now or invite multiple people into a group chat as well.

Here are some pictures how it looks in current state. Unfortunately I donā€™t have a Librem 5 yet to post images with it running the application.

Next I will probably implement recording and sending voice mails. My goal is to get a first release candidate done this month, fingers crossed. ^^

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Release might get delayed until I fix some current issues. But I could record a little footage of it running on the Pinephone Pro. I would expect it to run as smooth on the Librem 5 but I canā€™t verify that myself. More information about the latest changes this month can be read here.

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The application got released as tarball to be compiled from source and as flatpak on flathub.org. Maybe someone can try and confirm or deny whether the application works on the Librem 5. ^^

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Any plans to roll this out to Android or iOS? Seems a hard sell to me to use it unless family and friends also use a Linux phone, and they may have no interest given better flagship phone cameras in those ecosystems, etc.

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You can still use your phone for communicating with any random desktop user (the app does not seem mobile-only).

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I think there have been some efforts lately to get a Phosh environment running on Android. Iā€™m not sure whether this allows installing and running Linux apps easily already but this could be a way to close gaps.

However kagixa is right, the application is not designed to be for mobile Linux only. As libhandy/libadwaita intends it, the application will run on any GNU/Linux desktop (be it mobile or not). For example here it runs on a Steam Deck. ^^ā€™

In current state there are quite some issues regarding connections with GNUnet anyway. There are already efforts to address those issues but it will need more time. So I would expect the application to get practically usable over the next 1~2 years, replacing any other messaging app in daily usage (and this estimation is very optimistic ^^ā€™).

But I would already be interested whether the QR code scanning might work on the Librem 5 already or if there are any other device specific issues. Otherwise there are still a lot of missing features compared to other messaging apps (for example profile pictures, voice calls, video calls, blocking other usersā€¦). I would definitely prioritize those features over Android or iOS support. For compatibility I would like to see a Matrix bridge in the future but I havenā€™t looked into implementation details yet. ^^ā€™

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Yes it run very smooth on Librem 5. Thanks great work.
I have plans to create a Spanish Group for Librem 5 by using Messenger-Gnunet app.
But to create the group i would like that ā€˜GMessengerā€™(Messenger-gnunet) will support daemon mode and purism_feedbackd also that GMessenger support Spanish translation.
Also that GMessenger implement a donation button to support development.
Thanks.

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Itā€™s probably best to request changes via the issue tracker. Potentially as separate issues to be tracked properly.

Iā€™m currently still developing the terminal interface for the Messenger service. So people using a WM in their desktop donā€™t need to use a graphical interface with a mouse. ^^

After that there are multiple fixes and changes planned to optimize the service first because I still encountered some issues with connections during testing between two Pinephones and a laptop (this needs to be addressed before people can reliably use it).

For translation I think most labels are marked as translatable. So this is probably a question of other people providing translation files but I thatā€™s just an assumption. For donations you can either donate to the GNUnet e.V. to support the overall development or you could donate to me as the main contributor to this Messenger application.

I also write on my blog regularly what I implemented in the past month. Just keep in mind that I have a list of things to do. So if you want to have those requested features implemented faster, it might be a better idea to get another developer into the project. I donā€™t mind checking and merging smaller contributions to help with the user experience. Those changes would be welcome! ^^

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Hereā€™s an update for interested people: Iā€™ve received my ordered Librem 5 a few days ago and I started to test the current state of the Messenger application on it. As a result I adjusted the flatpak manifest from flathub.org for PureOS and opened a merge request. If that one gets accepted, users should be able to install the GNUnet Messenger on their Librem 5 from the software store without issues.

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Additional update here: Iā€™ve got funding again from NLnet for further development on the GNUnet Messenger. The next update will come after the release of GNUnet 0.21.0 because Iā€™ve already commited a ton of changes in the messenger service which will trickle down to the application layer in terms of new features and more reliability.

Also Iā€™ve managed to get camera input working on the Pinephone Pro now via Pipewire and Gstreamer with requesting permissions via libportal. So the next version of the Messenger application should improve user experience quite a lot. Iā€™m currently working on privacy features like blocking/unblocking other users and giving selected contacts access to a profile picture of your user account.

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Thats a great news that Gnunet Messeget got fund again.! Thank for your free software work, i proud of you, you a rockstar.

This forum is mainly for Librem 5, i not sure why to mention painphonepro. But crimson.

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I assume it works the same way on the Librem 5 too. But I couldnā€™t test it yet since building the whole software stack is easier on an rolling release distro like Archlinux. But in the end I will make a flatpak release available which can be easily installed on the Librem 5 as well.

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Thanks, make GnuNet Messenger Fancy and my Wallet is yours. Keep us updated for.

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It seems that a flatpak has been added to the pureos-store repository but itā€™s somewhat outdated now. The latest release 0.9.0 is available on Flathub and camera sensors nearly work for exchanging contact information physically. But thereā€™s still a format issue, I need to fix. Otherwise the 0.9.0 release uses the latest GNUnet 0.21.0 and brings more stability.

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Will there also be a ā€œnon flatpackā€ version?

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Thanks :pray:

thejackimonster a Gnuine programmer. :gem:

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Yours Evil Flatpak-Whatever version doesnā€™t work Here(notBoot). Just reportingā€¦

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There was definitely one patch which didnā€™t start because it was missing the permission for pipewire access. But that should be fixed by now. Can you try to run it from terminal via flatpak run org.gnunet.Messenger to see what it says about the issue?

Otherwise it might be necessary to cleanup the applications data because there were a ton of changes in GNUnet which make it incompatible with old data for some services.

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The flatpak version is just a way to install everything you need in a simplified package. On rolling release distributions like Archlinux you can theoretically install gnunet, libgnunetchat and messenger-gtk rather easily from the AUR.

But since PureOS is based on Debian which doesnā€™t offer the most current version of GNUnet in its repository, you would probably need to compile from source by following the installation guide.

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