Provide an AppImage for Linux

[bsclifton]

Carried over from https://github.com/brave/browser-laptop/issues/10250

Description

I would like to try out your browser but without letting it change repositories or libraries in my system.

Providing an AppImage would have, among others, these advantages:

• Applications packaged as an AppImage can run on many distributions (including Ubuntu, Fedora, openSUSE, CentOS, elementaryOS, Linux Mint, and others)
• One app = one file = super simple for users: just download one AppImage file, make it executable, and run
• No unpacking or installation necessary
• No root needed
• No system libraries changed
• Works out of the box, no installation of runtimes needed
• Optional desktop integration with appimaged
• Optional binary delta updates, e.g., for continuous builds (only download the binary diff) using AppImageUpdate
• Can optionally GPG2-sign your AppImages (inside the file)
• Works on Live ISOs
• Can use the same AppImages when dual-booting multiple distributions

Here is an overview of projects that are already distributing upstream-provided, official AppImages.

If you are interested, I am happy to help you make it happen. Just let me know.

Latest status

@posix4e has set this up for browser-laptop; it was never officially released though

[probonopd]

Please let me know if I can assist you with this in any way. Does Brave build on Ubuntu 14.04 (trusty), the oldest currently still-supported LTS release of Ubuntu?

[bsclifton]

@probonopd it should build there without a problem 😄 Unlike browser-laptop before, the build process involves grabbing all of the Chromium code (which takes ~1 hour) and then compiling it all (which may take ~6 or more hours)

You can check the binaries on our release page if you want to avoid the build / setup required: https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases

[azubieta]

Please :smile:

[probonopd]

Are the packages on https://github.com/brave/brave-browser/releases suitable for Ubuntu 14.04?

Then we could use https://github.com/AppImage/AppImages pkg2appimage to convert the deb to AppImage without having to recompile.

[bsclifton]

@probonopd yes- those should be fine. They're not signed though- if you want to get the signed packages, please check out the notes here: https://brave-browser.readthedocs.io/en/latest/installing-brave.html#linux

[probonopd]

On that page it mentions Ubuntu 16.04+ though while I am looking to support all still-supported LTS releases of Ubuntu, which currently includes 14.04.

[posix4e]

18.04 is the current lts

[probonopd]

Yes, 14.04 is no longer supported. 16.04 (Xenial) is now the oldest still-supported LTS, and hence the one that should be considered the baseline target system.

[probonopd]

I am happy to help the Brave team make an AppImage. Just let me know.

[posix4e]

Amazing, I've been looking for help. Please email me at alexnewmanbrave@wuli.nu and we can take it from there.

[posix4e]

Sorry for the delay. I talked to the brave people and we are good to hook up travis

• [ ] Hook up travis on a fork and verify it works
• [ ] Open a new issue to merge into the brave travis account
• [ ] Profit

[azubieta]

@posix4e let's know if you need some assistance.

[probonopd]

I have started working on it but keep running into issues building Brave (even before beginning to AppImage-ify it). Any hints appreciated.

• Travis build script: https://github.com/probonopd/brave-browser/blob/patch-1/.travis.yml
• Travis build log: https://travis-ci.com/probonopd/brave-browser

[posix4e]

Travis support helping at all?

[mihaiplesa]

@hcsubser added this recently https://github.com/hcsubser/Brave-AppImage and there's one release there

[hcsubser]

@hcsubser added this recently https://github.com/hcsubser/Brave-AppImage and there's one release there

There is now a better unofficial appimage of brave at: https://github.com/srevinsaju/Brave-AppImage which is also fully automatic but covers all versions and not just bleeding edge versions of brave like mine

[probonopd]

That's great @hcsubser and clearly shows that it can be done.

Would still be good to have an official one since running (no offense!) binaries from "random third parties" is generally discouraged for security reasons; especially for a web browser.

[posix4e]

Perhaps the better upstream would be willing to submit it as a patch and be a part of the official brave process?

[mihaiplesa]

We're happy to take this in at Brave similar to how it was done for snaps.

[probonopd]

@azubieta do you think you could have a look at this?

[azubieta]

Added to my TODO

[0-5-0]

Any luck with this? It would be great to have the Brave browser in appimage format and from a trusted source.

[wknapik]

@0-5-0 there's an official Snap and an unofficial Flatpak (see brave.com/linux).

I don't think it makes sense for Brave to maintain an AppImage. It's the least popular of the 3 and AppImageKit hasn't had a new release in 2 years.

IMO this issue should be closed as WONTFIX.

[Samueru-sama]

Hey since brave already releases a zipped portable build, you can just turn that into an appimage, which is already done here for example.

The appimage is just a more convenient way to distribute portable builds.

The only detail is that if you go with this approach, please use this appimagetool instead as it uses the static appimage runtime (works on distros that only have fuse3 instead of fuse2): https://github.com/probonopd/go-appimage

[Xmetalfanx]

I would love to see an official Appimage. Any chance (reading through this issue fast but i am not sure how many third party releases for AppImages there may be out there) that if they do good work, the third party people doing those releases could help out or even become (even if just for making the appimage or automating it based on new Brave releases) part of the team and those AppImages could be listed here as now "official" releases?