How to install Signal on Debian 12 XFCE?

When I try to

On my Debian 12 XFCE app qube, I follow Signal’s Debian installation instructions but get a different error at every step of the way:

user@Signal:~$ wget -O- https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | gpg --dearmor > signal-desktop-keyring.gpg cat signal-desktop-keyring.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg > /dev/null bash: wget: command not found gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found.

user@Signal:~$ echo 'deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main' |\ sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-xenial.list deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg] https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial main

user@Signal:~$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install signal-desktop Get:1 https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial InRelease [5,887 B] Hit:2 https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm InRelease Get:3 https://deb.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security InRelease [48.0 kB] Err:1 https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial InRelease The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY D980A17457F6FB06 Get:4 https://deb.qubes-os.org/r4.2/vm bookworm InRelease [4,739 B] Get:5 https://deb.qubes-os.org/r4.2/vm bookworm/main amd64 Packages [38.0 kB] Reading package lists... Done W: GPG error: https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial InRelease: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY D980A17457F6FB06 E: The repository 'https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt xenial InRelease' is not signed. N: Updating from such a repository can't be done securely, and is therefore disabled by default. N: See apt-secure(8) manpage for repository creation and user configuration details.

As for Fedora 41 XFCE, I think that Signal is only available in as an unofficial flatpak and getting Flathub to work on Fedora XFCE seems to be quite involved.

Any help on getting Signal up and running would be much appreciated!

You have it here:

bash: wget: command not found

wget is not installed on your qube.
Also, if the signal qube is an app qube, you will have to do all the steps inside the template instead. Since it doesn’t have network access, you can use the built-in proxy to grab the key:

curl -sx http://127.0.0.1:8082 https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg &>/dev/null

Alright, I entered the command you recommended and it did not return any errors nor success confirmation. However the second command gave me a “not found” and valid OpenPGP errors. Could this be because I didn’t include the proxy in the command? How do I use the proxy feature?

user@debian-12-xfce:~$ curl -sx http://127.0.0.1:8082 https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | gpg --dearmor | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg &>/dev/null
user@debian-12-xfce:~$ wget -O- https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | gpg --dearmor > signal-desktop-keyring.gpg
cat signal-desktop-keyring.gpg | sudo tee /usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg > /dev/null
bash: wget: command not found
gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found.

You don’t need the second. The command I provided is a direct replacement for the first step of the installation documentation.

The documentation has 3 steps/commands. So your command replaced steps 1 and 2. When I enter the third step, I now get a locating package error:

user@debian-12-xfce:~$ sudo apt update && sudo apt install signal-desktop
Hit:1 https://deb.debian.org/debian bookworm InRelease
Hit:2 https://deb.debian.org/debian-security bookworm-security InRelease
Hit:3 https://deb.qubes-os.org/r4.2/vm bookworm InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
E: Unable to locate package signal-desktop

It replaces step 1 only, you still need step 2 for this to work.

Oh goodness, in my previous reply I thought I was entering the second command but was in fact entering the first. The steps now work, thank you very much for your help and sorry for the confusion!

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