Add support for macOS ARM

[johnblommers]

Describe your feature request

Would like a universal binary able to run natively on the ARM based new M1 Macintosh computers.

What problem does this feature solve? [optional]

Performance is the big benefit for an Apple Silicon native version.

Additional context [optional]

Ideally build a universal binary that contains both Intel and ARM code.

[fxha]

This would be great if anyone would like to contribute but unfortunately, we don't own a M1 device and I don't know whether the used native addons support ARM or what we need to change to get a working build. The ARM package also need testing and we are unable to do so. In addition, we have to set-up a ARM based macOS CI instance to build releases.

List of native addons:

• @hfelix/electron-spellchecker (owned by us): @hfelix/spellchecker and cld (dependency)
• fontmanager-redux ("maintained" by us)
• keyboard-layout
• keytar
• vscode-ripgrep (binary file)
• ced

Ref. #1904

[JackTheFlap]

I was able to build with a M1 Macbook Air. I did experience an issue with signing with my own developer key.

Error Message:
⨯ Command failed: codesign --sign XXXXXXXXX --force --timestamp --options runtime --entitlements /Users/j/marktext/node_modules/app-builder-lib/templates/entitlements.mac.plist /Users/j/marktext/build/mac-arm64/Mark Text.app/Contents/MacOS/Mark Text
/Users/j/marktext/build/mac-arm64/Mark Text.app/Contents/MacOS/Mark Text: replacing existing signature
/Users/j/marktext/build/mac-arm64/Mark Text.app/Contents/MacOS/Mark Text: code object is not signed at all
In subcomponent: /Users/j/marktext/build/mac-arm64/Mark Text.app/Contents/LICENSE

Other than that issue (which is probably an error on my part...) everything seems to be working fine.

Edit, original comment was removed as I forgot to hide my serial number

[Endogen]

I would also love to have an ARM build. @JackTheFlap can you provide info about how to build it on M1?

[JackTheFlap]

@Endogen

• Install node, python and cmake with homebrew
• Install yarn with npm
• Follow the build instructions (clone repo, yarn run build + yarn install)

As stated in my earlier comment the signing seems to fail with a standard Apple developer account but Marktext seems to be working fine ignoring this.

[Endogen]

@JackTheFlap Oh so no changes needed to the default build instructions and you get an ARM build? Great. Can you maybe check that it's really not running on Rosetta? Open the process overview and on the CPU tab you should see a column that displays the architecture. Make sure that the marktext process doesn't have the value "Intel" there.

Sorry if this is unnecessary because it's maybe obvious that it's running natively

[JackTheFlap]

@Endogen I used Silicon Info in the screenshot to show it was running natively but here's one from Activity Monitor I just took.

[karkraeg]

Building works fine and improves the speed to a great degree. Couldn't anyone who built this upload the DMG for others? Or would this be problematic because of the missing codesign? Otherwise I‘d be happy to share the M1 dmg.

[Ivan-Malinovski]

I just built it too, and I can confirm that it's heaps faster. At least at starting up. I haven't tried it a lot, but it does seem to work just fine.

[Endogen]

I'd love to have an official M1 version

[Donkey-Doug]

Why does the ARM build have to be specific for the Apple M1? Other ARM laptops/devices exist.

[johnblommers]

An ARM build for the Apple M1 has to interface with macOS APIs. An ARM build for Linux has to interface with Linux APIs. An ARM build for Windows has to interface with Windows APIs.
Cross-platform applications that run on Linux, macOS and Windows often use the Electron framework because it provides exactly the necessary APIs for both Intel and AMD processors.

[freepicheep]

@JackTheFlap I followed the instructions that you gave and get these errors. Do you have any advice? I'm running on a 2021 M1 Pro.

friedrichstoltzfus@Friedrichs-MacBook-Pro marktext % yarn install    
yarn install v1.22.17
$ node .electron-vue/preinstall.js
[1/4] 🔍  Resolving packages...
[2/4] 🚚  Fetching packages...
[3/4] 🔗  Linking dependencies...
warning " > eslint-plugin-vue@6.2.2" has incorrect peer dependency "eslint@^5.0.0 || ^6.0.0".
[4/4] 🔨  Building fresh packages...
[-/16] ⠂ waiting...
[2/16] ⠂ cld
[12/16] ⠂ lzma-native
[-/16] ⠂ waiting...
error /Users/friedrichstoltzfus/Code/marktext/node_modules/cld: Command failed.
Exit code: 1
Command: node-gyp rebuild
Arguments: 
Directory: /Users/friedrichstoltzfus/Code/marktext/node_modules/cld
Output:
gyp info it worked if it ends with ok
gyp info using node-gyp@8.2.0
gyp info using node@17.0.1 | darwin | arm64
gyp info find Python using Python version 3.9.7 found at "/opt/homebrew/opt/python@3.9/bin/python3.9"
gyp info spawn /opt/homebrew/opt/python@3.9/bin/python3.9
gyp info spawn args [
gyp info spawn args   '/opt/homebrew/Cellar/node/17.0.1/libexec/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/gyp/gyp_main.py',
gyp info spawn args   'binding.gyp',
gyp info spawn args   '-f',
gyp info spawn args   'make',
gyp info spawn args   '-I',
gyp info spawn args   '/Users/friedrichstoltzfus/Code/marktext/node_modules/cld/build/config.gypi',
gyp info spawn args   '-I',
gyp info spawn args   '/opt/homebrew/Cellar/node/17.0.1/libexec/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/addon.gypi',
gyp info spawn args   '-I',
gyp info spawn args   '/Users/friedrichstoltzfus/Library/Caches/node-gyp/17.0.1/include/node/common.gypi',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dlibrary=shared_library',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dvisibility=default',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dnode_root_dir=/Users/friedrichstoltzfus/Library/Caches/node-gyp/17.0.1',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dnode_gyp_dir=/opt/homebrew/Cellar/node/17.0.1/libexec/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dnode_lib_file=/Users/friedrichstoltzfus/Library/Caches/node-gyp/17.0.1/<(target_arch)/node.lib',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dmodule_root_dir=/Users/friedrichstoltzfus/Code/marktext/node_modules/cld',
gyp info spawn args   '-Dnode_engine=v8',
gyp info spawn args   '--depth=.',
gyp info spawn args   '--no-parallel',
gyp info spawn args   '--generator-output',
gyp info spawn args   'build',
gyp info spawn args   '-Goutput_dir=.'
gyp info spawn args ]
gyp info spawn make
gyp info spawn args [ 'BUILDTYPE=Release', '-C', 'build' ]
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/cldutil.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/cldutil_shared.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/compact_lang_det.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/compact_lang_det_hint_code.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/compact_lang_det_impl.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/debug.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/fixunicodevalue.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/generated_entities.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/generated_language.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/generated_ulscript.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/getonescriptspan.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/lang_script.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/offsetmap.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/scoreonescriptspan.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/tote.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/utf8statetable.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/cld_generated_cjk_uni_prop_80.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/cld2_generated_cjk_compatible.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/cld_generated_cjk_delta_bi_32.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/generated_distinct_bi_0.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/cld2_generated_quad0122.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/cld2_generated_deltaocta0122.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/cld2_generated_deltaoctachrome.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/cld2_generated_distinctocta0122.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/cld2_generated_distinctoctachrome.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/cld2_generated_quadchrome_16.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/cld2_generated_quadchrome_2.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/cld_generated_score_quad_octa_0122.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld-c/deps/cld/internal/cld_generated_score_quad_octa_2.o
  LIBTOOL-STATIC Release/cld-c.a
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld/src/constants.o
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/cld/src/cld.o
../src/cld.cc:9:12: error: no member named 'unexpected_handler' in namespace 'std'
using std::unexpected_handler;
      ~~~~~^
1 error generated.
make: *** [Release/obj.target/cld/src/cld.o] Error 1
gyp ERR! build error 
gyp ERR! stack Error: `make` failed with exit code: 2
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.onExit (/opt/homebrew/Cellar/node/17.0.1/libexec/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/lib/build.js:194:23)
gyp ERR! stack     at ChildProcess.emit (node:events:390:28)
gyp ERR! stack     at Process.ChildProcess._handle.onexit (node:internal/child_process:290:12)
gyp ERR! System Darwin 21.1.0
gyp ERR! command "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/node/17.0.1/bin/node" "/opt/homebrew/Cellar/node/17.0.1/libexec/lib/node_modules/npm/node_modules/node-gyp/bin/node-gyp.js" "rebuild"
gyp ERR! cwd /Users/friedrichstoltzfus/Code/marktext/node_modules/cld

[wrenger]

The std::unexpected_handler was deprecated and removed in newer C++ version. This is probably a problem of the cld dependency. They either have to explicitly use an older C++ version or remove that line.

PS: Just reported this: dachev/node-cld#66

[freepicheep]

Thanks, that is really helpful, @wrenger. I tried several things, including removing using std::unexpected_handler; from "cld/src/cld.cc" in my local marktext repository, but I still get errors. I'll just have to wait until someone else can fix it.

[freepicheep]

After dachev/node-cld was updated to remove using std::unexpected_handler;, I was able to build marktext on my 2021 M1 Pro. First I had to update

marktext/yarn.lock

Line 1250 in 473b79a

cld "^2.7.0"

to cld "^2.7.1" and

marktext/yarn.lock

Line 3369 in 473b79a

version "2.7.0"

to cld "^2.7.1". That fixed the unexpected_handler problem. I next got an error saying name 'openssl_fips' is not defined while evaluating condition 'openssl_fips != ""' in binding.gyp while trying to load binding.gyp. After looking at nodejs/node-gyp#652 and nodejs/node-gyp#2543 I figured out that I had to downgrade node to 16.13.0 and that fixed the problem.

[francesco-plt]

After dachev/node-cld was updated to remove using std::unexpected_handler;, I was able to build marktext on my 2021 M1 Pro. First I had to update

marktext/yarn.lock

Line 1250 in 473b79a

cld "^2.7.0"

to cld "^2.7.1" and

marktext/yarn.lock

Line 3369 in 473b79a

version "2.7.0"

to cld "^2.7.1". That fixed the unexpected_handler problem. I next got an error saying name 'openssl_fips' is not defined while evaluating condition 'openssl_fips != ""' in binding.gyp while trying to load binding.gyp. After looking at nodejs/node-gyp#652 and nodejs/node-gyp#2543 I figured out that I had to downgrade node to 16.13.0 and that fixed the problem.

I'm in your exact situation, but I'm a bit of a newbie with node. Can you explain more precisely how should I downgrade node? I have already node version 16.13.0 installed and available, but I have no clue on how to use it, since the building process is done via yarn which uses the default (higher) node version installed on my system.

[ecnelises]

I'm in your exact situation, but I'm a bit of a newbie with node. Can you explain more precisely how should I downgrade node? I have already node version 16.13.0 installed and available, but I have no clue on how to use it, since the building process is done via yarn which uses the default (higher) node version installed on my system.

You can type node -v in your terminal to see current node version. If that's v16, yarn should also be using that version. Otherwise try to add path of node v16 in your PATH variable, or brew link --overwrite node@16 if you're using homebrew to install node, or use global to switch node version if you're using nodeenv/nodenv/ndenv.

[ecnelises]

Hi, I built an arm64 package, and I modified the icon to adopt Big Sur's preferred icon style. You can download here.

[fxha]

We decided to not release an Apple M1 (arm64) package for version 0.17.0 because the package is block by macOS without code signing. We'll consider this issues in future releases but we don't want to confuse users with "broken binaries". You can still install the x64 binary or build MarkText for arm64 on macOS and install it yourself bypassing security mechanism. You may want to subscribe #2983 for further updates.