fix(desktop): strip over-bundled libraries from the AppImage - #309
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Addresses #285, and corrects my own diagnosis of it. I had blamed the AppImage wrapper forcing GDK_BACKEND=x11. That forcing is real, but it is not the cause — and it is deliberate, working around a Wayland-backend crash (tauri#8541), so it should stay. The actual mechanism is documented upstream in tauri#15665: linuxdeploy's dependency follower sweeps libwayland-client and the glib/gstreamer family into usr/lib, and its excludelist does not cover them (the pkg2appimage community excludelist does, noting that bundling libwayland breaks newer Mesa). On a host whose Mesa is newer than the build machine's, the system EGL driver is loaded against the BUNDLED libwayland-client, eglGetDisplay() returns EGL_BAD_PARAMETER, and WebKitWebProcess aborts — no window, nothing useful on the terminal. The reporter's own workaround is the same mechanism seen from the other side: LD_PRELOAD of the host libwayland-client displaced the bundled one. That detail was in the first message and I read past it. Verified against our actual artifact in a Fedora 44 container, not inferred: every library tauri#15665 names is present in our AppImage — libwayland-client, libwayland-egl, the glib family, 10 libgst*, libmount/libblkid/libselinux/libpcre2-8, libzstd/libelf/libffi. 29 files in total. (Mechanism 2 from that issue, a stale GST_PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PATH, does NOT apply to us — we export no such variable.) Upstream has no configuration surface for this: `appimage.files` can only add files, not remove or symlink them, so post-processing is the only avenue until an excludeLibraries-style option exists. The issue author reached the same conclusion. Tested end to end on Fedora 44: - strip + repack succeeds; 134 -> 105 libraries in usr/lib - the repacked AppImage extracts and its sidecar serves HTTP 302 - ldd reports 0 missing libraries for rustfava-desktop AND for the bundled libwebkit2gtk-4.1 — the system versions are drop-in, which is what makes removal safe - running the script twice emits its ::warning:: on the second pass, so a future upstream fix (or an AppDir layout change) surfaces as a visible no-op rather than a silent one What I could NOT test is the EGL initialisation itself: that needs a real GPU and compositor, which a headless container has not got. So the mechanism is proven and the removal is proven safe, but the fix awaits confirmation from the reporter's hardware. actionlint: 6 findings before and after, none in the new step.
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Addresses #285 — and corrects my own diagnosis of it.
I had blamed the AppImage wrapper forcing
GDK_BACKEND=x11. That forcing is real, but it isn't the cause — and it's deliberate, working around a Wayland-backend crash (tauri#8541), so it stays.The actual mechanism
Documented upstream in tauri#15665 (open,
platform: Linux): linuxdeploy's dependency follower sweepslibwayland-clientand the glib/gstreamer family intousr/lib, and its excludelist doesn't cover them — the pkg2appimage community excludelist does, noting that bundling libwayland breaks newer Mesa.On a host whose Mesa is newer than the build machine's, the system EGL driver is loaded against the bundled
libwayland-client,eglGetDisplay()returnsEGL_BAD_PARAMETER, and WebKitWebProcess aborts. No window, nothing useful on the terminal.The reporter's own workaround is that mechanism seen from the other side:
LD_PRELOADof the hostlibwayland-clientdisplaced the bundled one. That detail was in their first message and I read past it.Verified against our artifact, not inferred
In a Fedora 44 container, every library tauri#15665 names is present in our AppImage:
libwayland-client,libwayland-egl,libglib-2.0,libgio-2.0,libgobject-2.0,libgmodule-2.0, 10 ×libgst*,libmount,libblkid,libselinux,libpcre2-8,libzstd,libelf,libffi— 29 files.Mechanism 2 from that issue (a stale
GST_PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PATHwhenbundleMediaFramework: false) does not apply to us — we export no such variable. I checked rather than assuming both applied.Why post-processing
Upstream has no config surface:
bundle.linux.appimage.filescan only add files, not remove or symlink. The issue author reached the same conclusion — "we're stuck post-processing the AppImage in CI".Tested end to end on Fedora 44
usr/lib134 → 105ldd rustfava-desktopldd libwebkit2gtk-4.1.so.0::warning::, strips 0The two
lddresults are the ones that make removal safe: the system versions are drop-in, exactly as upstream reported. The warning path means a future upstream fix — or an AppDir layout change — surfaces as a visible no-op rather than a silent one.What I could not test
The EGL initialisation itself needs a real GPU and compositor, which a headless container hasn't got. So the mechanism is proven and the removal is proven safe, but the end-to-end fix awaits confirmation on the reporter's hardware.
actionlint: 6 findings before and after, none in the new step.