ScudCloud - Linux Client app for Slack

ScudCloud is a non official open-source Linux (Debian, Ubuntu, Kubuntu, Mint, Arch, Fedora) desktop client app for Slack.

ScudCloud improves the Slack integration with Linux desktops featuring:

multiple teams support
native system notifications
count of unread direct mentions at launcher/sytray icon
alert/wobbling on new messages
channels quicklist (Unity only)
optional tray notifications and "Close to Tray"
follow your desktop activity and will stay online while you're logged in (if correct packages are installed)

Install

Ubuntu/Kubuntu and Mint

Open a Terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run:

sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:rael-gc/scudcloud
sudo apt update && sudo apt dist-upgrade
echo ttf-mscorefonts-installer msttcorefonts/accepted-mscorefonts-eula select true | sudo debconf-set-selections
sudo apt install scudcloud

If you want spell checking, add the hunspell dictionary for your language and make sure dependencies are installed. For en-us:

sudo apt-get install hunspell-en-us libqtwebkit-qupzillaplugins python3-hunspell

If you want to use a Slack icon instead of ScudCloud (which is not possible to include in this package due to copyright), download any 128px Slack icon to your home folder saving as scudcloud.png and run:

sudo dpkg-divert --add --rename --divert /usr/share/pixmaps/scudcloud.png.real /usr/share/pixmaps/scudcloud.png
sudo cp ~/scudcloud.png /usr/share/pixmaps/
sudo chmod +r /usr/share/pixmaps/scudcloud.png
sudo update-desktop-database

Debian and derivatives like BunsenLabs Linux

Make sure the software-properties-common and lsb-release packages are installed, then run:

sudo apt-add-repository -y ppa:rael-gc/scudcloud
DISTRIB_CODENAME=$(lsb_release -sc)
sudo sed -i "s/${DISTRIB_CODENAME}/trusty/g" /etc/apt/sources.list.d/rael-gc-scudcloud-${DISTRIB_CODENAME}.list
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install scudcloud

If you want spell checking and a Slack icon, follow related instructions on Ubuntu Install section.

Arch Linux

There is a PKGBUILD available on the Arch User Repository. You can install it using whichever AUR method you use. For instance, if you use cower:

cower -d scudcloud
cd scudcloud
makepkg -si

openSUSE

There are repositories available for these distributions. All you need to do is follow these instructions.

Fedora

sudo dnf install scudcloud

Manual Install

The manual install is intended for not supported distros (if you want to contribute with a package for your distro, you're welcome!).

First, you'll need to install at least packages for python3, python3-setuptools, python3-pyqt5.qtwebkit (or equivalent qt5 version of qtwebkit for python3) and python-dbus (dbus library for python3).

Then run the following steps:

Download the latest release
Unpack/unzip it
Change into the newly created directory
Run sudo python3 setup.py install

Running From Dev Tree

ScudCloud can be run from the development tree. Simply run the following from the root of the project tree:

python3 -m scudcloud

Troubleshooting

1. Default domain and loading order

You can change the default domain (or the domain loading order) editing or just deleting the config file:

~/.config/scudcloud/scudcloud.cfg

2. Where is the package for my distro?

If not listed above, you're welcome to contribute. In this meanwhile, try the Manual Install instructions.

3. Spell checking is not working

Make sure you have the following packages installed:

libqtwebkit-qupzillaplugins
python3-hunspell
hunspell-en-us

4. `Keep me signed in` is not working / My team is not saved

For some reason, ScudCloud was not able to create the configuration folder. Please, manually create this folder:

mkdir -p ~/.config/scudcloud/

If it exists and .cfg file is present, try change permissions in config file:

chmod -R 0755 ~/.config/scudcloud/scudcloud.cfg

5. How to start ScudCloud minimized?

You can start ScudCloud minized to tray with:

scudcloud --minimized=True

6. High DPI Support

ScudCloud offers zoom support. The zoom level will be persisted between sessions.

Increase zoom pressing Ctrl +, usually fired with Ctrl Shift =
Decrease with Ctrl -
Reset it with Ctrl 0

7. No icon in systray/notification area

Make sure that File > Close to Tray is checked.

8. Code blocks are not using fixed width font

This is the font-family required (i.e., you need of them): Monaco, Menlo, Consolas, Courier New, monospace.

9. Viewing snippets consumes too much resources

This is a known behavior of python webkit. But you can disable snippets inline view (they'll be opened in browser).

To achieve this, edit the config file located at ~/.config/scudcloud/scudcloud.cfg and add the following line:

Snippets=False

10. How to open webkit console?

Start ScudCloud with:

scudcloud --debug=True &

Then right click in the conversation pane and select Inspect Element. Maximize the new window and click in the Console tab.

License

ScudCloud is is released under the MIT License.