No desktop notificiations on ChromeOS / Chromebook (crostini): libnotify error

[moppman]

Using a supported version?

• [X] I have searched searched open and closed issues for duplicates.
• [X] I am using Signal-Desktop as provided by the Signal team, not a 3rd-party package.

Overall summary

Signal Desktop is not showing desktop notifications on ChromeOS / Crostini in the default Debian 12 container.

Steps to reproduce

1. Start Signal Desktop via terminal
2. Receive message
3. No desktop notification

Expected result

Desktop notification on new messages

Actual result

When a new Signal message is received, I'm seeing

msg":"Approving request for permission 'notifications'"}
[3975:0307/193426.454066:ERROR:libnotify_notification.cc(50)] notify_notification_show: domain=1456 code=0 message="GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Failed: Failed to call Notify"

in the terminal output.

For further debugging, I did the following:

1. I used Electron Fiddle (AppImage v0.36.0) to run a little example Electron app that showcases notifications. This worked flawlessly.
2. notify-send is also showing desktop notifications as expected

Note that the Signal Desktop debug log is showing no error when receiving messages:

INFO  <timestamp> Approving request for permission 'notifications'
INFO  <timestamp> NotificationService: clearing notification and requesting an update

The error is only present in the terminal output.

EDIT with additional info after ayumi's initial feedback down below: The working fiddle example is running on Electron v28.2.0, matching the current Signal Desktop prod version. Also, Signal Desktop notifications have never worked on this Chromebook, first version was v6.25.0

Screenshots

No response

Signal version

7.1.1

Operating system

ChromeOS 122

Version of Signal on your phone

No response

Link to debug log

No response

[ayumi-signal]

Hi @moppman, sorry this is happening for you and thank you for doing a test Electron Fiddle. It sounds like notifications are working on Electron 28.2.0, matching the prod version? May I also ask, have Signal desktop notifications ever worked? If so, then as we upgrade dependencies then they might get fixed eventually.

It may be difficult for us to investigate this issue because we don't have a good workflow for ChromeOS testing and it's a less popular OS for signal users.

[moppman]

Hi @ayumi-signal , thanks for getting back to me so quickly!

It sounds like notifications are working on Electron 28.2.0, matching the prod version?

Yes, the fiddle is running on 28.2.0 and working fine.

have Signal desktop notifications ever worked?

No. I just checked: the first Signal Desktop version on this machine was v6.25, and notifications have never worked unfortunately.