Trouble installing Signal on Whonix 18 Qubes 4.3

User Support
1

Hi,

I have installed Signal before on 4.2 and 17. I remember following the steps and having to adjust for wget.

Step one is below:

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

This is the output:
--2026-02-10 19:22:25-- https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc Resolving updates.signal.org (updates.signal.org)... failed: Non-recoverable failure in name resolution. wget: unable to resolve host address ‘updates.signal.org’ gpg: no valid OpenPGP data found. zsh: exit 4 wget -O- https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | zsh: exit 2 gpg --dearmor > signal-desktop-keyring.gpg

Before, someone said to do use curl instead - I believe this worked before.

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

When I run this, I get this message:

WARNING: Tor proxy doesn't seem to be functional. Stream isolation will be disabled.

I don’t believe this happened before.

I try to move on to #2 , and replace wget with curl.

curl -sx 127.0.0.1:8082 signal-desktop.sources https://updates.signal.org/static/desktop/apt/signal-desktop.sources;
cat signal-desktop.sources | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-desktop.sources > /dev/null

WARNING: Tor proxy doesn't seem to be functional. Stream isolation will be disabled.
Types: deb
URIs: https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt
Suites: xenial
Components: main
Architectures: amd64
Signed-By: /usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg

Then finally I try to run the last command, to install, and get this error:

Error: Unable to locate package signal-desktop
zsh: exit 100   sudo apt install signal-desktop

I’m a bit out of my element here, if someone can help that would be fantastic. Thanks a lot

2

sudo is not working in whonix18
Even I, who is not using whonix at all, seen that on the forum.
Log as root.

1 Like
3

I used the sysmaint and I got the same error -

WARNING: Tor proxy doesn't seem to be functional. Stream isolation will be disabled.

I just ran xterm as root and tried it again - curl one - same Tor proxy error.

4

It doesn’t look like you have internet connectivity in that appVM. At least DNS isn’t working. Can you ping or do anything else network related ?

I would just download the needed files in another appVM and then copy it to this appVM and do the steps one by one instead of piped together

5

Tested & working

In whonix dispvm:

scurl-download https://updates.signal.org/static/desktop/apt/signal-desktop.sources
scurl https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/keys.asc | gpg --dearmor > signal-desktop-keyring.gpg
qvm-move signal-desktop.sources signal-desktop-keyring.gpg

In template as root:

cd /home/user/QubesIncoming/dispXXXX/
install -m644 signal-desktop.sources /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-desktop.sources
install -m644 signal-desktop-keyring.gpg /usr/share/keyrings/signal-desktop-keyring.gpg
2 Likes
6

It is very simple. Start your templateVM in SYSMAINT mode (advanced settings//kernel boot mode SYSMAINT). Start Terminal and install wget sudo apt install wget. Then export https_proxy=127.0.0.1:8082. Afterwards just follow the instructions on the signal web page https://signal.org/download/# :

# NOTE: These instructions only work for 64-bit Debian-based
# Linux distributions such as Ubuntu, Mint etc.

# 1. Install our official public software signing key:
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

# 2. Add our repository to your list of repositories:
wget -O signal-desktop.sources https://updates.signal.org/static/desktop/apt/signal-desktop.sources;
cat signal-desktop.sources | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/signal-desktop.sources > /dev/null

# 3. Update your package database and install Signal:
sudo apt update && sudo apt install signal-desktop

Afterwards create an appVM, connect it to your whonix gateway and fire up your SIGNAL-Desktop. Works out of the box… :sunglasses:

3 Likes
7

Thank you SO much. This is the solution!

Hope this helps other people, thanks qubesfan

8
1 Like