Electron Apps on Porteus 32bit - is it possible?

Technical issues/questions of an intermediate or advanced nature.
glestwid
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Electron Apps on Porteus 32bit - is it possible?

Post#1 by glestwid » 22 May 2019, 10:10

Hi,

I am writing an electron-based app and I need to run it on Porteus 32bit. Is it possible and what component would it require aside from Electron from github?

burdi01
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Electron Apps on Porteus 32bit - is it possible?

Post#2 by burdi01 » 23 May 2019, 08:22

Refer to e.g. https://discourse.appimage.org/t/32-bit-appimages/296
Is you AppImage 32-bit? If it is not you can forget running it on a 32-bit system -- for as far as I am aware that is.
I tested the 64-bit balenaEtcher AppImage on Porteus 4.0 32-bit: Execution format error (as was to be expected), and on Porteus 4.0 64-bit: Success!
:D

glestwid
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Electron Apps on Porteus 32bit - is it possible?

Post#3 by glestwid » 23 May 2019, 10:11

BTW, can you give me a sample of Electron app for 32bit Porteus?

burdi01
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Electron Apps on Porteus 32bit - is it possible?

Post#4 by burdi01 » 23 May 2019, 14:50

BTW, can you give me a sample of Electron app for 32bit Porteus?
No, I do not.
However, I think you ask a wrong question. An AppImage is supposed to be distribution-independent, however it expects certain features on the "host" - such as the kernel to be able to run an application with the "bittiness" of the AppImage and the required libraries etc. to be available. So the 64-bit balenaEtcher AppImage I mentioned runs on 64-bit Slackware, Ubuntu and Porteus, but not on Porteus 32-bit (no kernel support) or on my 64-bit PartedMagic fork (not all libraries available).
So what is the "bittiness" of your application (and hence your AppImage) and are you targeting any (or most) host(s) -- if so a simple test should be possible. Or are you specifically targeting Porteus? In that case a .xzm module might be more appropriate.
:D

BTW: Have a look at https://electronjs.org/blog/linux-32bit-support
Last edited by burdi01 on 23 May 2019, 15:11, edited 1 time in total.

burdi01
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Electron Apps on Porteus 32bit - is it possible?

Post#5 by burdi01 » 23 May 2019, 15:06

When reading back this thread it occurs to me that you speak of an electron-based *app* while I speak of an electron-based *AppImage*. Please elaborate.
:D

glestwid
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Electron Apps on Porteus 32bit - is it possible?

Post#6 by glestwid » 23 May 2019, 19:05

Yes, I meant an app, not an AppImage.

burdi01
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Electron Apps on Porteus 32bit - is it possible?

Post#7 by burdi01 » 24 May 2019, 09:45

Yes, I meant an app, not an AppImage.
Ok, accept my apologies for initially misunderstanding you.

Assuming you mean with "app" a normal application such as e.g. a calculator the answer to your initial question is that there is nothing "special" to adding an application to Porteus as compared to adding it to another distribution: the kernel should support its "bittiness", the required libraries should be available and it is recommended to adhere to the system's package format.
For the required libraries "ldd" is your friend, and the recommended Porteus "package" format is the module (.xzm).

Please have a look at http://www.porteus.org, especially the INFO, FAQ and FORUM tabs.
:D

glestwid
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Electron Apps on Porteus 32bit - is it possible?

Post#8 by glestwid » 28 May 2019, 08:43

Ok, I have already downloaded electron-1.4.16-i586 from USM and would like to know what else I should have deployed on my Porteus machine for the development. Any ideas?
Top

burdi01
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Electron Apps on Porteus 32bit - is it possible?

Post#9 by burdi01 » 28 May 2019, 09:51

I added researching things to my todo list. I expect to have an update within a few days.
BTW: How "hard" are your 32-bit and Porteus 3.2 requirements -- 64-bit and Porteus 4.0 are more current nowadays.
Also, which desktop flavour are you targeting?
:D

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Electron Apps on Porteus 32bit - is it possible?

Post#10 by glestwid » 28 May 2019, 11:39

Yes, I am pretty hardly bound to 32bit because of the target's machine CPU (kind of embedded PC). Regarding the display I don't quite understand what you mean. I think there would be KDE or Gnome or Mate as a GUI.

burdi01
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Electron Apps on Porteus 32bit - is it possible?

Post#11 by burdi01 » 28 May 2019, 15:47

Ok, that answers the 32-bit question.
Now please elaborate on my 3.2.2 vs 4.0 question.
And please elaborate on why you *think* there would be KDE or Gnome or Mate as a GUI. The GUI should not be a major factor, but why do not you *know*? And did you ever have a look at http://dl.porteus.org/i586/ ?
According to the Electron website 5.0.2 is current, so why are you talking about the ancient 1.4.16 version?.
What is your development environment? Porteus + 05-devel.xzm should work, but Slackware 14.2 or even Current should also be an option. And what about e.g. VirtualBox?
What is your linux development and/or packaging experience?
Are we talking about a commercial/business/ proprietary project or a private/amateur/opensource one?
And last but not least: I am based in the Netherlands: in which timezone are you?
:D

glestwid
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Electron Apps on Porteus 32bit - is it possible?

Post#12 by glestwid » 28 May 2019, 21:00

Now please elaborate on my 3.2.2 vs 4.0 question.
Currently I have tried to run v3.2.2 on that platform only. Have not had a chance of running v4.0 there yet because the real device is under maintenance right now (need to add specific devices there). But later I'll definitly try v4 there.
And please elaborate on why you *think* there would be KDE or Gnome or Mate as a GUI. The GUI should not be a major factor, but why do not you *know*?
And did you ever have a look at http://dl.porteus.org/i586/ ?
According to the Electron website 5.0.2 is current, so why are you talking about the ancient 1.4.16 version?.
1.4.16 was offered by USM. I don't know where to get the latest XZM for Electron 32bits.
What is your development environment? Porteus + 05-devel.xzm should work, but Slackware 14.2 or even Current should also be an option. And what about e.g. VirtualBox?
I have 2 Vms - one with Slackware 14.2 32bit and the other is Porteus-MATE v3.2 32bit as well.
What is your linux development and/or packaging experience?
Are we talking about a commercial/business/ proprietary project or a private/amateur/opensource one?
It is an amateur project for me and my brother. In the past I used to write console apps for Slackware and FreeBSD, then I had to switch to Windows GUI development. But never have I written a GUI app on SL/Porteus before. In addition to that I would like to get an experience of Electron apps development that would be useful in future development of cross-platform GUI.
And last but not least: I am based in the Netherlands: in which timezone are you?
I am in Tallinn, originally from Ukraine. :)

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Electron Apps on Porteus 32bit - is it possible?

Post#13 by burdi01 » 29 May 2019, 13:36

Ok, I created a USB stick with Porteus Mate 3.2.2 i586 and the 05-devel.xzm.
You said you downloaded electron 1.4.16 from USM. When I searched USM for "electron" nothing came up. Please make your download available to me -- e.g. via Google Drive -- or tell me the full URL such that I can download it myself.
:D

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Electron Apps on Porteus 32bit - is it possible?

Post#14 by glestwid » 29 May 2019, 14:59


burdi01
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Electron Apps on Porteus 32bit - is it possible?

Post#15 by burdi01 » 30 May 2019, 09:19

Downloaded the .xzm bundle.

In the meantime I googled for "electron slackware" and found an electron 1.4.16 i586 .txz package as well as a slackbuild. After installpkg'ing that package it turned out that "electron" starts ok -- which is kind of surprising as an "ldd | grep found" gave that 2 out of the 85 or so dependencies were missing: libnode.so and libffmpeg.so.

I mounted the bundle and opened the package in engrampa and found that the bundle is a repack of the package -- even the package tools artefacts are there (the old version, Slackware Current moved on some time ago).

Is your application already in a state to be tested, and if so what are the results?
Also you should search for the missing dependencies.
:D

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