Is there a Linux client for Powerchurch online?

[CarmeloLabadie]

Is there a Linux client for Powerchurch online?

Thanks

[Zorak]

The available clients can be found at https://mypowerchurch.com

Below is an excerpt from that site regarding the available Linux clients:

There is not a PowerChurch-branded Linux client available, and the clients that do exist work on only a very limited number of Linux versions. These are the supported versions, and this is taken directly from our vendor's website:

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 and 6
CentOS 5 and 6
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS

All the above versions are 32bit or 64bit.

Any version not explicitly listed above will probably not work. For instance, the Ubuntu version of the client will not install on Ubuntu 13.04, the Red Hat version will not install on Fedora, etc. So if you have a version other than these, you can try to download and install, but we were not successful in getting them to run in our testing.

[Zorak]

I just took a look back at the vendor's website and they are actually now advertising newer Linux distro version compatibility than we had before. It looks like we didn't see those updates before. We will test the updated clients and if everything works as expected, we will get the download links and the documentation updated!

[Zaphod]

You can give this a shot. It's a newer Linux client directly from Graphon, the company that makes the software we use to publish PowerChurch Online

https://www.mypowerchurch.com/Clients/g ... .linux.deb (Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, etc)
https://www.mypowerchurch.com/Clients/g ... .linux.rpm (Red Hat-based systems)

The .deb package seems to work on Ubuntu Desktop 18.04 and 20.04. I have not tested the .rpm package.

You'll need to specify the server when you run it, and that's online.mypowerchurch.com. You'll also have to run PowerChurch from the program window that comes up. You'll see two links - one is "PowerChurch Plus" and the other is "PowerChurchPlus" - either will work.

[Triffid]

This old thread is the most helpful thing I can find on the forums regarding the IDS client for Linux, so I'm hoping it can be revived and perhaps lead to progress toward an updated Linux version.

On Ubuntu 20.04 I have tested the gg-client.linux.deb client (v 6.0-29306) linked by Zaphod in this forum. Ubuntu 20.04 is currently (Nov 2025) in extended long-term support -- *if* an Ubuntu Pro account is created.

RESULT: dependencies are satisfied and the client launches, but attempts to connect to online.mypowerchurch.com fail

FACTORS: there is an installation message as follows: /usr/bin/chcon: invalid context: ‘system_u:object_r:texrel_shlib_t’: No such file or directory
> That message seems to relate to SELinux for security.

1) So my first question is: does anyone know how to address that installation problem? And are there any more specific instructions available from Graphon somewhere on installing this on Linux (there is nothing in the release notes)?

2) My second question is about development: Graphon seems to have continued developing this for Linux, with the latest version from just now in October 2025. It now seems to be called AppController and is available here: https://releases.graphon.com/6.x/6.4/6.4.0.34940/

I did a test of this on Ubuntu 20.04 -- it also launches successfully to point of log in, but then fails to connect to the PowerChurch Online server.

The problem is signaled by the fact that it still only lists support for Ubuntu 19 and 20, which are as noted super old. I suspect the client is still being built with reference to an old SSL library: on Ubuntu 20.04 that is libssl 1.1.1 but all current versions of Linux are beyond that, so when the client calls the libcrypt.so.1 package (which is in libssl version 1), it fails to launch on any current linux.

I have spoken briefly with PowerChurch Online tech support about this -- I understand that your market for Linux support is tiny, but perhaps Graphon is super close to having a working connector since it still seems to be on their radar? It would be great to see PowerChurch be able to update the Linux entry on the IDS connector page to beyond now-obsolete versions of Linux!

Any help you can offer for making progress with either the connector from Ubuntu 20.04, or a potential new and updated version from Graphon would be most welcome!

[Triffid]

As follow-up to my previous post, I have successfully installed the Graphon App Controller for connection to PowerChurch Online via Linux. I installed this on the current Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat) but also tested it as working in the current Debian 13 (Trixie).

(Note: it would be best if Graphon would update this to x86_64 architecture and update the dependencies for the current mainstream libxcrypt package, but in the meantime it is excellent that Ubuntu's longterm support team continues to maintain libxcrypt for i386 architecture -- otherwise this would not be possible.)

Here are the steps for installing this:

Ubuntu 24.04 LTS (Noble Numbat)

STEP 1:
Download the Graphon App Controller deb
The main folder tree for the current release series is:
https://releases.graphon.com/6.x/
The latest release is from October 2025: 6.4.0.34940:
URL: https://releases.graphon.com/6.x/6.4/6.4.0.34940/

STEP 2, in Ubuntu 24.04 system:
from Terminal, enable i386 architecture support:
$ sudo dpkg --add-architecture i386
$ sudo apt update

STEP 3:
Install app gdebi-core:
$ sudo apt install gdebi-core

STEP 4:
Install the Graphon App Controller using gdebi:
$ sudo gdebi /path/to/folder/AppController.deb

Dependencies installed listed:
gcc-14-base:i386 libbsd0:i386 libc6:i386 libgcc-s1:i386 libice6:i386 libidn2-0:i386 libmd0:i386 libsm6:i386 libstdc++6:i386 libunistring5:i386 libuuid1:i386 libx11-6:i386 libxau6:i386 libxcb1:i386 libxdmcp6:i386 libxext6:i386 libxinerama1:i386 libxmu6:i386 libxt6t64:i386 zlib1g:i386

STEP 5: Note: the main page for this project is: launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/libxcrypt/
Install libxcrypt library for 24.04 Noble Numbat downloaded from https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/li ... d/28038219

NAME OF DEB PKG = libcrypt1_4.4.36-4build1_i386.deb

$ sudo gdebi /path/to/folder/libcrypt1_4.4.36-4build1_i386.deb

STEP 5: in Ubuntu, ufw firewall is installed by default, but inactive.

5.1 Enable the ufw firewall:
$ sudo ufw enable [it will note that it will now autostart on boot]

5.2 Open Port 491 as per PowerChurch Online requirements:
$ sudo ufw allow 491

5.3 Check the status:
$ sudo ufw status [this should show that Port 491 allowed]

STEP 6: Launch App Controller [Note: on Linux the icon is NOT PowerChurch branded]
6.1 connect to: online.mypowerchurch.com
... this should show that it is connected to PC-APPS-19 (PC-APPS is the current nomenclature for PowerChurch Online as of October 2025)
6.2 select the icon for PowerChurchPlus
6.3 log in as per your PowerChurch Online account

To sign out: close the main window, then in the launch window: File > Sign Out.