Arch Linux User Repository

Please make sure to import the correct GPG key first:

$ curl -sS https://download.spotify.com/debian/pubkey_C85668DF69375001.gpg | gpg --import -

And always build in a clean chroot. It is as easy as:

pacman -S devtools
git clone https://aur.archlinux.org/spotify.git
cd spotify
pkgctl build
pacman -U <path-to-spotify-package>

It is expected that the package will break now and then, as spotify continuously changes download binaries, gpg keys etc (which is not appropriate, but we cannot change this). Please be patient if an update does not occur the next day, you can still use an existing spotify install or update the version yourself.

@lightofpast Just pushed v1:1.2.20.1210-2 that now allows you to set custom launch flags in a spotify-flags.conf file under $XDG_CONFIG_HOME or ~/.config :)

Thanks for creating the package!

In the PKGBUILD, the Exec field gets patched with parameter for an URL (%U). According to the Desktop file spec, %u would be the more appropiate variable; using %U in a flag is not allowed in the spec. This would make the resulting Desktop file comply with the spec (hopefully without changing the behavior):

diff --git a/PKGBUILD b/PKGBUILD
index f6ecc38..85763ce 100644
--- a/PKGBUILD
+++ b/PKGBUILD
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ package() {
     tar -xzf data.tar.gz --no-same-owner -C "${pkgdir}"

     # Enable spotify to open URLs from the webapp
-    sed -i 's/^Exec=.*/Exec=spotify --uri=%U/' "${pkgdir}/usr/share/spotify/spotify.desktop"
+    sed -i 's/^Exec=.*/Exec=spotify --uri=%u/' "${pkgdir}/usr/share/spotify/spotify.desktop"

     install -Dm 644 "${pkgdir}/usr/share/spotify/spotify.desktop" "${pkgdir}/usr/share/applications/spotify.desktop"
     install -Dm 644 "${pkgdir}/usr/share/spotify/icons/spotify-linux-512.png" "${pkgdir}/usr/share/pixmaps/spotify-client.png"

I've run into this because uwsm is stricter about the spec than KDE for example.

For the update to version 1:1.2.52.442-2 a new GPG key is needed. And despite being mentioned in the build script, the automatic import failed. But manually importing fixed it.

Changing the line from gromit's pinned post to this before running the update did the trick for me:

curl -sS https://download.spotify.com/debian/pubkey_C85668DF69375001.gpg | gpg --import -

Many users experience this error while loading spotify on old CPUs:

 [1]    76568 illegal hardware instruction (core dumped)  spotify

It looks like the new UI uses AVX instructions, if your CPU has no AVX extension, spotify will likely fail to start. The latest version of spotify that can run on non-AVX CPUs is 1.2.45.454-gc16ec9f6.

You can build yourself this outdated but still working perfectly non-AVX spotify version by following these instructions:

• Download the AUR spotify git package revision corresponding to the former published 1.2.45.454 version: https://aur.archlinux.org/cgit/aur.git/commit/?h=spotify&id=86a7174b6f92a794e5d2a4abd5d191734eb0c71d

• Modify the PKGBUILD to this content:

# Maintainer: Christian Heusel <christian@heusel.eu>
# Maintainer: Robin Candau <antiz@archlinux.org>
# Contributor: NicoHood <archlinux {cat} nicohood {dog} de>
# Contributor: TobFromme < TobFromme {hat} pm {dont} me >
# Contributor: Ashley Whetter <(firstname) @ awhetter.co.uk>
# Contributor: Eothred <yngve.levinsen@gmail.com>

pkgname=spotify
pkgver='1.2.45.454'
epoch=1
_commit=gc16ec9f6
pkgrel=1
pkgdesc='A proprietary music streaming service'
arch=('x86_64')
license=('custom')
url='https://www.spotify.com'
depends=('alsa-lib>=1.0.14' 'gtk3' 'libxss' 'desktop-file-utils' 'openssl' 'nss' 'at-spi2-atk' 'libcurl-gnutls' 'libsm' 'libayatana-appindicator')
optdepends=('ffmpeg4.4: Adds support for playback of local files'
            'zenity: Adds support for importing local files'
            'libnotify: Desktop notifications')
options=('!strip')

# NOTE: We switched from stable to testing on 18th march, as the spotify
# stable repository is always outdated. Testing seems to be in sync with snap:
# https://snapcraft.io/spotify
# http://repository.spotify.com/dists/testing/Release
# http://repository.spotify.com/dists/testing/non-free/binary-amd64/Packages
# http://repository.spotify.com/dists/testing/Release.gpg
source=("${pkgname}-${pkgver}-${_commit}-x86_64.deb"
        "spotify.sh"
        "spotify.protocol"
        "LICENSE")
sha512sums=('4396ac2c05cbf4b64e57d4ace40967c6d14061471597d1884d6b8420587f0f3689038a35534bb0b4c75e9f01675246e2c36261048880c677a8897caa60b7a8c9'
            'da48b628a4ea925dd8521133ebf364b261b11aed252d264dde6605d915cdb631919ffe672c58534bcdb60869e5d87a49a60a8198780b99517123f0031e83fdb1'
            '999abe46766a4101e27477f5c9f69394a4bb5c097e2e048ec2c6cb93dfa1743eb436bde3768af6ba1b90eaac78ea8589d82e621f9cbe7d9ab3f41acee6e8ca20'
            '2e16f7c7b09e9ecefaa11ab38eb7a792c62ae6f33d95ab1ff46d68995316324d8c5287b0d9ce142d1cf15158e61f594e930260abb8155467af8bc25779960615')

# Import key with:
# curl -sS https://download.spotify.com/debian/pubkey_6224F9941A8AA6D1.gpg | gpg --import -
validpgpkeys=('63CBEEC9006602088F9B19326224F9941A8AA6D1') # Spotify Public Repository Signing Key <tux@spotify.com>
# Old Keys:
# E27409F51D1B66337F2D2F417A3A762FAFD4A51F
# F9A211976ED662F00E59361E5E3C45D7B312C643
# 8FD3D9A8D3800305A9FFF259D1742AD60D811D58
# 931FF8E79F0876134EDDBDCCA87FF9DF48BF1C90
# 2EBF997C15BDA244B6EBF5D84773BD5E130D1D45

package() {
    tar -xzf data.tar.gz --no-same-owner -C "${pkgdir}"

    # Enable spotify to open URLs from the webapp
    sed -i 's/^Exec=.*/Exec=spotify --uri=%U/' "${pkgdir}/usr/share/spotify/spotify.desktop"

    install -Dm 644 "${pkgdir}/usr/share/spotify/spotify.desktop" "${pkgdir}/usr/share/applications/spotify.desktop"
    install -Dm 644 "${pkgdir}/usr/share/spotify/icons/spotify-linux-512.png" "${pkgdir}/usr/share/pixmaps/spotify-client.png"

    for size in 22 24 32 48 64 128 256 512; do
        install -Dm 644 "${pkgdir}/usr/share/spotify/icons/spotify-linux-${size}.png" \
            "${pkgdir}/usr/share/icons/hicolor/${size}x${size}/apps/spotify.png"
    done

    # Move spotify binary to its proper location
    mkdir -p "${pkgdir}/opt/spotify"
    mv "${pkgdir}/usr/share/spotify" "${pkgdir}/opt/"

    # Copy launch script which allows the use of custom flags
    install -Dm 755 spotify.sh "${pkgdir}/usr/bin/spotify"

    # Copy protocol file for KDE
    install -Dm 644 spotify.protocol "${pkgdir}/usr/share/kservices5/spotify.protocol"

    # Install license
    # https://www.spotify.com/legal/end-user-agreement
    install -Dm 644 LICENSE "${pkgdir}/usr/share/licenses/${pkgname}/LICENSE"

    # Fix permissions
    chmod -R go-w "${pkgdir}"
}

• The .deb package can't be downloaded anymore from the official Spotify repository, I removed the .deb download and repository GPG check from the PKGBUILD.

• You need to look for yourself this file on the Web: spotify-client_1.2.45.454.gc16ec9f6_amd64.deb (I can't redistribute it but it can still be easily found on mirrors) and copy it into the AUR package top directory under the name spotify-1.2.45.454-gc16ec9f6-x86_64.deb.

• Build the package with makepkg -i and enjoy the non-AVX spotify client running!

@armag67, thanks for the digging work. I expected something like this (that's why I added my processor details to previous msg). Sadly, this is to be expected if developers don't open-source their code.

Found it! https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Linux/Illegal-instruction-core-dumped/td-p/6439555 After some research on the net, it turns out that recent versions of the Spotify binary require a fairly recent processor. I uninstalled Spotify, cleared its cache and installed an old version from 2023: spotify-snapstore (https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/spotify-snapstore which is marked as outdated) on my old machine under KDE. This is a troubleshooting solution if your processor is too old...

@henkm On my Plasma box (Manjaro) also, Spotify core dumps with the message 'Instruction non permise' in Wayland and in X11, but Spotify works great on my Xfce (Manjaro) box...

The program dumps core upon start-up with a SIGILL*. Unfortunately the backtrace doesn't look very helpful, probably because there is no debug package:

0 0x000063a50cc1b31d in ?? ()

1.2.50.335-1 built in chroot

*Intel Pentium Dual-Core E5200

Hi all. I've been having issues with downloading the .deb for this package for a while now. Same issue I've seen mentioned here before. I've been working around it by manually downloading the .deb file. I got tired of doing that every upgrade so I added some download retry logic to the PKGBUILD to do it automatically. Modified PKGBUILD here: https://pastebin.com/ek1ehpQW

With that PKGBUILD it will retry 3 times, resuming where it left off:

❯ makepkg
==> Making package: spotify 1:1.2.50.335-1 (Thu 21 Nov 2024 02:54:16 PM MST)
==> Checking runtime dependencies...
==> Checking buildtime dependencies...
  -> Downloading Spotify .deb package...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
  1  136M    1 1654k    0     0   313k      0  0:07:28  0:00:05  0:07:23  379k
curl: (18) end of response with 141922858 bytes missing
Download failed, retrying in 3 seconds...
Attempt 2 of 3: Resuming download...
** Resuming transfer from byte position 1694290
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
 82  135M   82  111M    0     0  21.3M      0  0:00:06  0:00:05  0:00:01 27.0M
curl: (18) end of response with 24767680 bytes missing
Download failed, retrying in 3 seconds...
Attempt 3 of 3: Resuming download...
** Resuming transfer from byte position 118849468
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100 23.6M  100 23.6M    0     0  34.4M      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:-- 34.4M
  -> Downloading Release file...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  2447  100  2447    0     0   6177      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  6179
  -> Downloading Release signature...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100   833  100   833    0     0   2119      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  2125
  -> Downloading Packages file...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed
100  1132  100  1132    0     0   3190      0 --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  3188
==> Validating source files with sha512sums...
    spotify-1.2.50.335-g5e2860a8-x86_64.deb ... Passed
    spotify.sh ... Passed
    spotify.protocol ... Passed
    LICENSE ... Passed
    spotify-1.2.50.335-1-Release ... Skipped
    spotify-1.2.50.335-1-Release.sig ... Skipped
    spotify-1.2.50.335-1-x86_64-Packages ... Skipped
==> Verifying source file signatures with gpg...
    spotify-1.2.50.335-1-Release ... Passed
==> Extracting sources...
  -> Extracting spotify-1.2.50.335-g5e2860a8-x86_64.deb with bsdtar
==> Starting prepare()...
  -> Spotify .deb package already exists, skipping download
  -> Release file already exists, skipping download
  -> Release signature already exists, skipping download
  -> Packages file already exists, skipping download
spotify-1.2.50.335-1-x86_64-Packages: OK
spotify-1.2.50.335-g5e2860a8-x86_64.deb: OK
==> Entering fakeroot environment...
...

@gromit feel free to add this to the official PKGBUILD :)

@gromit Okay thanks