vjba / whatstron

Desktop WhatsApp client for Linux, built with Electron

WhatsTron

WhatsTron is a desktop WhatsApp client for Linux, built with Electron

Features

• Persistent login as is the standard browser behaviour
• Tray icon for quick access to app functions
• Super speedy load time compared to firing up a browser, thanks to Electron
• Close to tray so you don't accidentally close the app. Just click on the tray icon and then 'Restore Window'
• Update notification when a new version is available

Installation

Packages (.AppImage, .deb)

Please see the repository Releases page for the latest package releases. .AppImage users will need to allow execution permission of the downloaded file by following the commands:

cd ~/Downloads
chmod +x WhatsTron-x.y.z-x86_64.AppImage

Yarn or NPM

Using the package manager yarn or npm to install WhatsTron, run:

git clone https://github.com/vjba/WhatsTron.git
cd whatstron
yarn
yarn start

Usage

Using your preferred method of package manager:

yarn start  # run the electron app
yarn lint   # lints the code to conform with StandardJS
yarn pack   # generate an unpacked build to /dist/linux-unpacked
yarn dist   # builds packages for AppImage

Launch Issue

With packages (.AppImage, .deb)

Due to the default kernel option unprivileged_userns_clone=0 now being shipped within Debian and Arch, WhatsTron versions > 1.2.0 will not launch. You can alter this setting by entering the command sysctl kernel.unprivileged_userns_clone=1

With Yarn and NPM

When running yarn start or npm start you may encounter to follow error:

[1234:5678/123456.234567:FATAL:setuid_sandbox_host.cc(123)] The SUID sandbox helper binary was found, but is not configured correctly. Rather than run without sandboxing Im aborting now. You need to make sure that /home/user/whatstron/node_modules/electron/dist/chrome-sandbox is owned by root and has mode 4755.

To fix this error enter the following commands

# changes owner of chrome-sandbox to root
chown root node_modules/electron/dist/chrome-sandbox

# changes permissions of chrome-sandbox to 4755 / -rwsr-xr-x
chmod 4755 node_modules/electron/dist/chrome-sandbox

Contributing

Please read CONTRIBUTING.md

Changelog

Please read CHANGELOG.md

License

MIT

whatstron's Issues

Chrome needs to be updated notice

Open links on default browser

An option to open links with the default browser instead of a new window.

Change dark gtk titlebar?

Is it possible to change the titlebar to default color?

I am running elementary os and its opening to the dark variant

CSS Theming

Will it be possible to add CSS Theming? I am willing to create several css themes.

Tray action errors

Clicking on the following tray buttons displays errors with uncaught exceptions:

• Delete App Data
• Restart App

Second instance detection not working

When opening the app again from desktop environment, a second instance is launched.