Arch Linux User Repository

@NoReceipt and @unphysicalix, freetube builds and works just fine with electron20. Here it's a patch:

diff --git a/PKGBUILD b/PKGBUILD
index 48d5bfb..a4437f5 100755
--- a/PKGBUILD
+++ b/PKGBUILD
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ pkgrel=1
 pkgdesc='An open source desktop YouTube player built with privacy in mind.'
 arch=('x86_64' 'i686' 'arm' 'armv6h' 'armv7h' 'aarch64')
 license=('AGPL3')
-depends=( 'gtk3' 'nss' 'electron16' )
+depends=( 'gtk3' 'nss' 'electron20' )
 makedepends=('npm' 'yarn')
 url=https://freetubeapp.io
 source=(https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/archive/v$pkgver-beta.tar.gz
@@ -16,9 +16,9 @@ source=(https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/archive/v$pkgver-beta.tar.gz
         freetube.desktop
         freetube.sh)
 sha256sums=(7ae2e27d38b200c3b9a421bb1b794ef330d21c3e2f1550e50e27ff02a10a7d07
-            babebfdd34de7b67a59e9f3dd08746d2b70c519ed2414fb56efec24f82393605
+            b8a1621b6a56cf548a967a45323677fd121c2b31d85b08326e305bb84719d824
             928f0d7f07afdecf35fcf48ba109ab7e28f51bb233327263faa2c0499d669581
-            802c0ce0c894f7b5ddb7aba35e4447ddc5d10d1e2232dcec820a4b5a5cafef71)
+            c8e6ce01885f1e7dd0c0aef55dba795b469ad4999c29ecc1d1afda24c7a33f17)

 prepare() {
   patch "$srcdir/$_pkgname-$pkgver-beta/_scripts/build.js" < package-only-necessary.diff
@@ -34,7 +34,7 @@ package() {
   install -d "${pkgdir}"/usr/lib/${pkgname}
   cp -R "./$_pkgname-$pkgver-beta/build/linux-unpacked/resources/app.asar" "$pkgdir/usr/lib/$pkgname"
   install -Dm755 "./freetube.sh" "$pkgdir/usr/bin/$pkgname"
-  
+
   cd $_pkgname-$pkgver-beta
   install -Dm644 "./_icons/icon.svg" "$pkgdir/usr/share/pixmaps/$pkgname.svg"
   cd ..
diff --git a/.SRCINFO b/.SRCINFO
index dbab756..3e7650a 100644
--- a/.SRCINFO
+++ b/.SRCINFO
@@ -14,14 +14,14 @@ pkgbase = freetube
        makedepends = yarn
        depends = gtk3
        depends = nss
-       depends = electron16
+       depends = electron20
        source = https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/archive/v0.17.1-beta.tar.gz
        source = package-only-necessary.diff
        source = freetube.desktop
        source = freetube.sh
        sha256sums = 7ae2e27d38b200c3b9a421bb1b794ef330d21c3e2f1550e50e27ff02a10a7d07
-       sha256sums = babebfdd34de7b67a59e9f3dd08746d2b70c519ed2414fb56efec24f82393605
+       sha256sums = b8a1621b6a56cf548a967a45323677fd121c2b31d85b08326e305bb84719d824
        sha256sums = 928f0d7f07afdecf35fcf48ba109ab7e28f51bb233327263faa2c0499d669581
-       sha256sums = 802c0ce0c894f7b5ddb7aba35e4447ddc5d10d1e2232dcec820a4b5a5cafef71
+       sha256sums = c8e6ce01885f1e7dd0c0aef55dba795b469ad4999c29ecc1d1afda24c7a33f17

 pkgname = freetube
diff --git a/freetube.sh b/freetube.sh
index 6594f63..a223ba3 100644
--- a/freetube.sh
+++ b/freetube.sh
@@ -1,3 +1,3 @@
 #!/bin/sh

-exec electron16 /usr/lib/freetube/app.asar "$@"
+exec electron20 /usr/lib/freetube/app.asar "$@"
diff --git a/package-only-necessary.diff b/package-only-necessary.diff
index d0067a4..67da800 100644
--- a/package-only-necessary.diff
+++ b/package-only-necessary.diff
@@ -3,15 +3,15 @@
 @@ -24,12 +24,13 @@
      arch = Arch.arm64
    }
- 
+
 -  targets = Platform.LINUX.createTarget(['deb', 'zip', 'apk', 'rpm', 'AppImage', 'pacman'], arch)
 +  targets = Platform.LINUX.createTarget(['dir'], arch)
  }
- 
+
  const config = {
    appId: `io.freetubeapp.${name}`,
    copyright: 'Copyleft © 2020-2021 freetubeapp@protonmail.com',
-+  electronDist: '/usr/lib/electron16',
++  electronDist: '/usr/lib/electron20',
    // asar: false,
    // compression: 'store',
    productName,

And building freetube doesn't take that much, :) So no need to move to the *-bin version, hehe. Hopefully @picokan will soon update...

BTW, if you just rebuild it, without updating, most probably it'll work as well, if you previously build and install electron16 from AUR, it's there. aurutils with some configs automatically tries building electron16.

Another option, is neither updating, nor rebuilding, just editing /usr/bin/freetube, and replacing there electron16 with electron20. I tested that earlier, and it works.

Of course my preference is to update the package to electron20, which is current electron...

@NoReceipt

electron 16 is not a stable release anymore... I am using freetube-bin now, this uses the upstream code which supposedly uses electron 20. Less compiling for me for now.

$ freetube 
/usr/lib/electron16/electron: error while loading shared libraries: libFLAC.so.8: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

There is a problem with electron16, electron20 seems to works. Is it possible to update the app to use electron20?

@dwango This doesn't seem to be a freetube specific error. It could be related to these problems:

https://alt.os.linux.mageia.narkive.com/ARnQCpG3/xdg-settings-error-message-in-chromium-re-zoom#

https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=256377

Does not start and gives the following exit message: xdg-settings: default-url-scheme-handler not implemented for xfce

I also suggest to stick to the version that upstream suggests and supports even somehting newer looks basically working (and might fail somewhere else). When it fails to start after your last attempt make sure there's no hanging electron process pending. I had to kill the hanging ps.

Actually freetube is working just fine with system electron 17, so I see no reason to go with an even older electron version.

You need to use Electron 16, not 17. You can check the required version in the Freetube sources, for example for the current 0.16.0: https://github.com/FreeTubeApp/FreeTube/blob/v0.16.0-beta/package.json#L111

And even if it doesn't open, there might be other causes for that which should be investigated separately. I'd suggest to start by using the correct version of electron that Freetube has been tested with, and then investigate other problems.

@PutridPete where exactly should I change for electron17? I changed it in the PKGBUILD and the in freetube.sh but nothing changed, it still not opening. I've tried with other electron versions too, but have the same result.

What I did was edit the PKGBUILD and scripts so it pulls a dependency on electron17 package and then rebuilt it. Make sure freetube.sh contains exec electron17 /usr/lib/freetube/app.asar "$@" instead of just electron without the 17. Works fine for me thus far.