Quick Fix: Signal Desktop Not Launching

Thu, 13 Apr 2023 09:58:37 -0500

I use the Signal Desktop app for encrypted messaging, but every time I update it, it fails to launch. The fix is quick, but annoying. The problem is a permissions issue with the chrome-sandbox executable. The location of this file might change based on distribution.

# chmod 4755 /opt/Signal/chrome-sandbox

This fixes my issue every time. In fact, it tells you exactly what to do if you try to run it from a terminal, but if you try execute the app from an application launcher, you get no indication of what's wrong.