Cannot install Wire in Ubuntu 24.04 - missing libappindicator1

[aprilzeland]

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Wire version: 3.36.3462_amd64 Operating system: Xubuntu 24.04

What steps will reproduce the problem?

1. Go to Ubuntu 24.04
2. Install Wire either from deb or using apt-get install
3. Installation fails

What is the expected result? Should be installed

What is the actual result? Not install due to missing dependency libappindicator1

Please provide any additional information below. Attach a screenshot if possible. Paketlisten werden gelesen… Fertig Abhängigkeitsbaum wird aufgebaut… Fertig Statusinformationen werden eingelesen… Fertig Einige Pakete konnten nicht installiert werden. Das kann bedeuten, dass Sie eine unmögliche Situation angefordert haben oder, wenn Sie die Unstable-Distribution verwenden, dass einige erforderliche Pakete noch nicht erstellt wurden oder Incoming noch nicht verlassen haben. Die folgenden Informationen helfen Ihnen vielleicht, die Situation zu lösen:

Die folgenden Pakete haben unerfüllte Abhängigkeiten: wire-desktop : Hängt ab von: libappindicator1 ist aber nicht installierbar E: Probleme können nicht korrigiert werden, Sie haben zurückgehaltene defekte Pakete.

Can anybody fix it, please? I am left without my main messenger on the desktop :( Thanks in advance.

[aprilzeland]

For those who will face same issue: here is a temporal fix until Wire team will release the correct deb:

1. Download latest deb package, in my case it was Wire-3.36.3462_amd64.deb
2. Unpack the deb: dpkg-deb -R Wire-3.36.3462_amd64.deb wire-dir
3. Go to wire-dir and edit the file DEBIAN/control: replace this Depends: libappindicator1, libasound2, libgconf-2-4, libnotify-bin, libnss3, libxss1 with this: Depends: libayatana-appindicator3-1, libasound2, libgconf-2-4, libnotify-bin, libnss3, libxss1
4. Pack the deb: dpkg-deb -b wire-dir wire.deb Now you can install the Wire from the new wire.deb as usual.

[buhund]

Having the same issue. Unfortunately, @aprilzeland your suggested temporary fix didn't work for me :( (k)Ubuntu 24.04.

[aprilzeland]

Having the same issue. Unfortunately, @aprilzeland your suggested temporary fix didn't work for me :( (k)Ubuntu 24.04.

Could You please clarify what step is not working for You and what error is being displayed?

[buhund]

Could You please clarify what step is not working for You and what error is being displayed?

Sorry, I should of course have included this from the getgo 🙈 I still get the missing dependencies error after following the steps as described.

Selecting previously unselected package wire-desktop.
(Reading database ... 301333 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack wire.deb ...
Unpacking wire-desktop (3.36.3462-3462) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of wire-desktop:
 wire-desktop depends on libayatana-appindicator3-1; however:
  Package libayatana-appindicator3-1 is not installed.
 wire-desktop depends on libgconf-2-4; however:
  Package libgconf-2-4 is not installed.

dpkg: error processing package wire-desktop (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.27-2build1) ...
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 wire-desktop

I've tried installing the dependencies manually:

sudo apt-get install libayatana-appindicator3-1 libgconf-2-4

Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree... Done
Reading state information... Done
Package libgconf-2-4 is not available, but is referred to by another package.
This may mean that the package is missing, has been obsoleted, or
is only available from another source

E: Package 'libgconf-2-4' has no installation candidate

[aprilzeland]

That is strange because You are talking that Your OS is 24.04. Could You please show Your output for this command? grep -rhE ^deb /etc/apt/sources.list*

[buhund]

Certainly:

- >  grep -rhE ^deb /etc/apt/sources.list*

deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble-security main restricted universe multiverse
deb http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble-updates main restricted universe multiverse
deb [arch=amd64,i386 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/steam.gpg] https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ stable steam
deb-src [arch=amd64,i386 signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/steam.gpg] https://repo.steampowered.com/steam/ stable steam
deb [arch=amd64 signed-by=/etc/apt/keyrings/docker.asc] https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu   noble stable

[aprilzeland]

Excuse me for late answer.

I just can show You my sources list, may be this will give You any idea to add something to You list. I do not know how to get the correct source path for that packet :(

deb http://ua.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble main restricted deb http://ua.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble-updates main restricted deb http://ua.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble universe deb http://ua.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble-updates universe deb http://ua.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble multiverse deb http://ua.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble-updates multiverse deb http://ua.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ noble-backports main restricted universe multiverse deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security main restricted deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security universe deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu noble-security multiverse

Please notify if You will be lucky to fix the issue.

[lucidBrot]

Same problem on debian trixie. After following the instructions in the wiki I end up with the not installable dependencies libappindicator1 and libgconfg-2-4:

generic@nevermore:~$ sudo apt install wire-desktop
[sudo] password for generic: 
Some packages could not be installed. This may mean that you have
requested an impossible situation or if you are using the unstable
distribution that some required packages have not yet been created
or been moved out of Incoming.
The following information may help to resolve the situation:

Unsatisfied dependencies:
 wire-desktop : Depends: libappindicator1 but it is not installable
                Depends: libgconf-2-4 but it is not installable

The same happens when trying to install from the deb file in the releases (Wire-3.36.3462_amd64.deb).

@aprilzeland 's advice to replace libappindicator1 with libayatana-appindicator3-1 is explained with debian having replaced that.

or those who will face same issue: here is a temporal fix until Wire team will release the correct deb:

1. Download latest deb package, in my case it was Wire-3.36.3462_amd64.deb
2. Unpack the deb: dpkg-deb -R Wire-3.36.3462_amd64.deb wire-dir
3. Go to wire-dir and edit the file DEBIAN/control: replace this

   Depends: libappindicator1, libasound2, libgconf-2-4, libnotify-bin, libnss3, libxss1

with this:

   Depends: libayatana-appindicator3-1, libasound2, libgconf-2-4, libnotify-bin, libnss3, libxss1

4. Pack the deb: dpkg-deb -b wire-dir wire.deb
   Now you can install the Wire from the new wire.deb as usual.

Keybase had a similar issue in June and notably they simply removed the libgconf-2-4 dependency as well.

So my line now looks like this after my step 3:

Depends: libayatana-appindicator3-1, libasound2, libnotify-bin, libnss3, libxss1

5. Install the deb from the patched file:

   sudo apt install ./wire.deb
   

This worked for me. @buhund maybe it will work for you too.

[buhund]

@lucidBrot That worked! I have a feeling it was installing via 'sudo apt install ./wire.deb' that did the trick. If I tried opening the .deb via double-click, it would still display the missing dependency warning. Anyway, thanks!

[yaitskov]

I looked at https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/master/pkgs/by-name/wi/wire-desktop/package.nix it does strange thing - instead of building wire from sources in installs deb file. wire readme file doesn't mention any rare dependency. At first glance building wire from source should be first option.

[RogueScholar]

For anyone seeking more information on the underpinnings of the situation (re: what had to change in Electron to move past the need for these dependencies), I reported this way back in May of 2023 (see Issue #6690, which contains links to the upstream changes). A subset of my recommendations were implemented by PR #8240 around three months ago, and those changes went live with the most recent stable release (v3.39.3653) that occurred on January 20^th of this year.

The arc of the software development universe is long and bends towards usability (but only when a ridiculous amount of force is applied in that direction). 🍻