Unable to install on Debian Bullseye due to libappindicator3 dependency

Describe the bug

I’m unable to use the provided .deb package to install Insomnia on Debian Bullseye (which is currently the testing release).

The error from dpkg is clearly indicating the issue is due to the dependency of libappindicator3:

$ sudo dpkg -i Insomnia.Core-2021.3.0.deb 
Selecting previously unselected package insomnia.
(Reading database ... 454024 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack Insomnia.Core-2021.3.0.deb ...
Unpacking insomnia (2021.3.0) ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of insomnia:
 insomnia depends on libappindicator3-1; however:
  Package libappindicator3-1 is not installed.

dpkg: error processing package insomnia (--install):
 dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Processing triggers for hicolor-icon-theme (0.17-2) ...
Processing triggers for mailcap (3.69) ...
Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.26-1) ...
Processing triggers for gnome-menus (3.36.0-1) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 insomnia

As announced in the Debian Bug Tracker, libappindicator3 will be indeed removed from Debian: #895037.

From this bug report, it seems there’s a maintained alternative named libayatana-appindicator, but it requires patching insomnia to be usable.

Fortunately libayatana-appindicator is also available on Ubuntu, but I don’t know if it’s currently used by default on Ubuntu, as I don’t use Ubuntu myself.

Expected behavior

I expected to be able to install Insomnia on Debian Bullseye even if libappindicator3 is not available.

Desktop (please complete the following information):

• OS: Debian Bullseye
• Installation Method: debian package
• App Version: 2021.3.0

Additional context

As libappindicator3 should not be a core dependency, I suggest to update the debian package to recommend libappindicator3 instead to depend on it.

For your information, I’ve tried to directly hack the application .deb package by doing libappindicator3 only a recommendation:

diff --git a/control b/control
index 5b67e56..2a6311e 100644
--- a/control
+++ b/control
@@ -5,7 +5,8 @@ Vendor: Kong <[e-mail]>
 Architecture: amd64
 Maintainer: Kong <[e-mail]>
 Installed-Size: 369838
-Depends: libgtk-3-0, libnotify4, libnss3, libxss1, libxtst6, xdg-utils, libatspi2.0-0, libuuid1, libappindicator3-1, libsecret-1-0
+Depends: libgtk-3-0, libnotify4, libnss3, libxss1, libxtst6, xdg-utils, libatspi2.0-0, libuuid1, libsecret-1-0
+Recommends: libappindicator3-1
 Section: default
 Priority: extra
 Homepage: https://konghq.com

(to hack the debian package, I’ve followed this article)

With such modification I was able to install and run Insomnia on Debian Bullseye.

[carxwol]

2021.7.2 is still non-installable on Debian bullseye due to libappindicator3-1 instead of libayatana-appindicator3-1.

I had the same problem with slack, but i was able to unpack, fix debian/control and repack like this https://stackoverflow.com/a/69087954

It’s not possible with your Debian package.

Please consider this issue.

[flixofon]

I ran into the same issue and ended by downloading the two packages libindicator3-7 and libappindicator3-1 from the debian buster repository and install it with apt. After that you can install the .deb-Package version 21.7.2.

This solution worked for me.