Axolotl

Axolotl is a complete cross-platform Signal client, compatible with the Ubuntu Phone and more. 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 Vue frontend that runs in an electron/qml WebEngineView container.

Features

• 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

Planned

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

There are still bugs and UI/UX quirks.

Installation

Axolotl can be installed through different means.

Package	Maintainer	Comment
	nanu-c	For Ubuntu Touch
	nanu-c	For Ubuntu desktop
Flathub (work in progress)	olof-nord	Pull Request
	nuehm-arno	https://github.com/nuehm-arno/axolotl-mobian-package

To find out how to build from source and install yourself, please see below:

• with Clickable: see here.
• with Snap: see here.
• with Flatpak: see here.
• with AppImage: see here.
• for Mobian: see here.

Installation of development environment

• Install Golang
• Install node js (see the .nvmrc) file for the supported version
• Add gopath to ~/.bashrc https://github.com/golang/go/wiki/SettingGOPATH
• install dependencies sudo apt install mercurial gettext
• 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 mod download
• install axolotl-web dependencies: cd axolotl-web && npm install

When setting up for the first time and maybe occasionally later you need to update the browser list with your installed browsers. Change into the axolotl-web subfolder and run the following command:

npx [email protected] --update-db

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:9080

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

Run flags

• -axolotlWebDir Specify the directory to use for axolotl-web. Defaults to "./axolotl-web/dist".
• -e for either lorca-> native chromium (has to be installed), ut -> runs in the ut enviroment, me -> qmlscene, server -> just run the webserver. Defaults to run with electron.
• -eDebug show developer console in electron mode
• -version Print version info
• -host Set the host to run the webserver from. Defaults to localhost.
• -port Set the port to run the webserver from. Defaults to 9080.

Environment variables

• AXOLOTL_WEB_DIR Specify the directory to use for axolotl-web. This is used by axolotl during startup.
• AXOLOTL_GUI_DIR Specifies the directory used for GUI specifications. This is used by axolotl only when in qt mode.

Contributing

• Please fill issues here on github https://github.com/nanu-c/axolotl/issues
• Help translate Axolotl to your language(s). For information how to translate, please see TRANSLATE.md.
• Contribute code by making PR's (pull requests)

If you contribute new strings, please:

• make them translatable using v-translate in the enclosing tag
• avoid linebreaks within one tag, that will break extracting the strings for translation
• try to reduce formatting tags within translatable strings

examples:

• <p v-translate>Translate me!</p> instead of <p>Translate me!</p>
• <p><strong v-translate>Translate me!</strong></p> instead of <p v-translate><strong>Translate me!</strong></p>
• <p v-translate>Translate me!</p><br/><p v-translate> Please...</p> instead of <p v-translate>Translate me! <br/> Please...</p>

Migrating from janimo/axolotl

For information how to migrate from janimo/axolotl, please see MIGRATE.md.