Fractal

Fractal is a Matrix messaging app for GNOME written in Rust. Its interface is optimized for collaboration in large groups, such as free software projects.

• Come to talk to us on Matrix: https://matrix.to/#/#fractal-gtk:matrix.org
• Main repository: https://gitlab.gnome.org/World/fractal/

Installation instructions

You can find Fractal installation instructions through packages on the GNOME wiki.

Build Instructions

You need Meson and Ninja (as well as Rust and Cargo) to build Fractal.

GNU/Linux

meson . _build --prefix=/usr/local
ninja -C _build
sudo ninja -C _build install

macOS

brew install gtk+3 dbus bash adwaita-icon-theme
# empirically needs 3.22.19 or later of gtk3+
# ...and run configure as:
/usr/local/bin/bash -c "meson . _build --prefix=/usr/local"
ninja -C _build
sudo ninja -C _build install

Translations

If you want to add a new language you should update the file fractal-gtk/po/LINUGAS and add the new lang to the list.

To generate .pot files you should run:

ninja -C _build fractal-pot

To generate .po files you should run:

ninja -C _build fractal-update-po

Password Storage

Fractal uses Secret Service to store the password so you should have running some daemon that give that service. If you're using GNOME or KDE this should work for you out of the box with gnome-keyring or ksecretservice.

There's a way to avoid the need of secret service and store the password in a unsecure way, in a plain json file. We don't recommend to use this form, but if you want, it's possible to configure using gsettings:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.Fractal password-storage 'Plain text'

Or if you're using flatpak

$ flatpak run --command="bash" org.gnome.Fractal
$ gsettings set org.gnome.Fractal password-storage 'Plain text'
$ exit

To go back to use Secret service:

$ gsettings set org.gnome.Fractal password-storage 'Secret Service'

Supported m.room.message (msgtypes)

msgtypes	Recv	Send
m.text	Done	Done
m.emote	Done	Done
m.notice
m.image	Done	Done
m.file	Done	Done
m.location
m.video	Done	Done
m.audio	Done	Done

Full reference in: https://matrix.org/docs/spec/client\_server/r0.2.0.html#m-room-message-msgtypes

Frequently Asked Questions

• Does Fractal have encryption support? Will it ever?

Fractal does not currently have encryption support, but there is an initiative for it.

The current effort is to create a monolithic module for Fractal to interact with. Said module will handle all cryptographic tasks. The goal is to reduce the amount of work required for implementing end-to-end encryption by having one thing to interact with, instead of a huge API surface.

Code and further information for this module can be found at World/metaolm.

• Can I run Fractal with the window closed?

Currently Fractal does not support this. Fractal is a GNOME application, and accordingly adheres GNOME guidlines and paradigms. This will be revisited if or when GNOME gets a "Do Not Disturb" feature.

The origin of Fractal

This project is based on Fest https://github.com/fest-im/fest, formerly called ruma-gtk.

Instead of using RUMA Client, Fractal calls directly to the matrix.org REST API.

The first version of this project was called guillotine, based on French revolution, in relation with the Riot client name, but it's a negative name so we decide to change for a math one.

The name Fractal was proposed by Regina Bíró.