[Bug] Crash due to dynamically linked libraries in Appimage

[evd0kim]

While using appimage-run on NixOs, the app crashes with

Uncompress Buzz_0.4.23_amd64.AppImage of type 02 @ offset 944632
[===========================================================================================================================================|] 3465/3465 100%
Buzz_0.4.23_amd64.AppImage is now installed in /home/i/.cache/appimage-run/679f0bfb1eb5287c15abc0da386d7b877a6f8302f020a80f239598e102564327
buzz-desktop: error while loading shared libraries: libzstd.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Run on NixOs or in Nix shell
2. Launch appimage-run Buzz_0.4.23_amd64.AppImage
3. App crashes

Expected behavior:

Running as other binaries.

Environment (please complete the following information):

• OS: Linux NixOs
• 26.05

[tw-360vier]

I also tried the appimage on NixOS.
I can get beyond these errors by adding some extra libs for appimage-run:

  programs.appimage.enable = true;
  programs.appimage.binfmt = true;
  programs.appimage.package = pkgs.appimage-run.override {
    extraPkgs = pkgs: [
      pkgs.zstd
      # libelf.so.1 (needed transitively via appimage-run's Mesa/LLVM GL stack).
      # NB: pkgs.libelf ships only a static libelf.a — the shared lib comes from
      # elfutils, whose `out` output buildFHSEnv pulls in automatically.
      pkgs.elfutils
    ];
  };

but then webkit still crashes and i only see a transparent window.

what works for me is re-packaging the debian package:

# Buzz desktop (https://github.com/block/buzz) — a Tauri/WebKitGTK app.
#
{
  lib,
  pkgs,
  ...
}:
let
  inherit (pkgs.stdenv.hostPlatform) isLinux isAarch64;

  version = "0.4.24";

  # Prebuilt binaries + desktop entry + icons, straight out of the .deb.
  buzz-unwrapped = pkgs.stdenvNoCC.mkDerivation {
    pname = "buzz-unwrapped";
    inherit version;
    src = pkgs.fetchurl {
      url = "https://github.com/block/buzz/releases/download/v${version}/Buzz_${version}_amd64.deb";
      hash = "sha256-7p5Yz5JweZPyTy7tGHIezmAp4LhpxxdwrUpdbgX4INI=";
    };
    nativeBuildInputs = [ pkgs.dpkg ];
    unpackPhase = "dpkg-deb -x $src .";
    dontConfigure = true;
    dontBuild = true;
    # These are upstream prebuilt binaries run via the FHS env below — do not
    # strip or rewrite their interpreter/rpath.
    dontStrip = true;
    dontPatchELF = true;
    installPhase = ''
      runHook preInstall
      mkdir -p $out
      cp -r usr/. $out/
      runHook postInstall
    '';
  };

  # FHS env supplying the system libraries buzz-desktop needs (notably the
  # working nixpkgs WebKitGTK) plus GStreamer plugins for the voice pipeline.
  buzz = pkgs.buildFHSEnv {
    name = "buzz";
    runScript = "${buzz-unwrapped}/bin/buzz-desktop";
    profile = ''
      # nixpkgs installs GStreamer plugins here; point discovery at them so the
      # WebKit media pipeline (mic capture / TTS playback) can be built.
      export GST_PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PATH_1_0=/usr/lib/gstreamer-1.0
      # WebKitGTK's DMABUF renderer is flaky under nested/portal setups; disable
      # it for a reliable first paint. Safe to drop if hardware accel is wanted.
      export WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1
    '';
    targetPkgs =
      pkgs:
      with pkgs;
      [
        # WebKit / Tauri core
        webkitgtk_4_1
        gtk3
        glib
        glib-networking
        libsoup_3
        # rendering / text stack
        cairo
        pango
        gdk-pixbuf
        harfbuzz
        librsvg
        atk
        at-spi2-atk
        at-spi2-core
        # settings / schemas
        gsettings-desktop-schemas
        dconf
        # crypto / net
        openssl
        zlib
        curl
        nss
        nspr
        # GStreamer + plugins (Buzz is a voice/transcription app)
        gst_all_1.gstreamer
        gst_all_1.gst-plugins-base
        gst_all_1.gst-plugins-good
        gst_all_1.gst-plugins-bad
        gst_all_1.gst-libav
        gst_all_1.gst-plugins-ugly
        # graphics
        libGL
        libglvnd
        mesa
        libdrm
        # X / Wayland
        xorg.libX11
        xorg.libXext
        xorg.libXrender
        xorg.libXi
        xorg.libXcursor
        xorg.libXdamage
        xorg.libXfixes
        xorg.libXcomposite
        xorg.libXrandr
        xorg.libXtst
        xorg.libxcb
        wayland
        libxkbcommon
        # fonts
        fontconfig
        freetype
        # audio backends
        alsa-lib
        libpulseaudio
        pipewire
        # misc runtime
        dbus
        libnotify
        expat
        libffi
        pcre2
      ];
    # Install the desktop entry + icons and point Exec at the FHS wrapper so
    # Buzz shows up in the app launcher.
    extraInstallCommands = ''
      mkdir -p $out/share
      cp -r ${buzz-unwrapped}/share/applications $out/share/ 2>/dev/null || true
      cp -r ${buzz-unwrapped}/share/icons $out/share/ 2>/dev/null || true
      for d in $out/share/applications/*.desktop; do
        [ -e "$d" ] || continue
        substituteInPlace "$d" \
          --replace-quiet "Exec=buzz-desktop" "Exec=buzz" \
          --replace-quiet "Exec=/usr/bin/buzz-desktop" "Exec=buzz"
      done
    '';
  };
in
{
  environment.systemPackages = [buzz];
}

[evd0kim]

@tw-360vier thanks for sharing this.

I've tried to build Appimage myself and ended up with only working option when using Docker image for build. This allowed me to launch app but i did see same transparent window. I will try to re-use your script, ty.

[Chessing234]

Fixed in #2713 — AppImage keeps bundled libzstd.

[stevenroose]

Same issue with libelf:

➜ appimage-run ./Buzz_0.5.2_amd64.AppImage
Uncompress Buzz_0.5.2_amd64.AppImage of type 02 @ offset 944632
[===========================================================================================================|] 3406/3406 100%
Buzz_0.5.2_amd64.AppImage is now installed in /home/steven/.cache/appimage-run/68c1048346720d7d3c398ccb701e9df1eebdcd1acd7ea0b25a5d42e956428b87
buzz-desktop: error while loading shared libraries: libelf.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

[evd0kim]

There are bunch of libraries which are getting removed for packaging Appimage.
For Nixos "installing" DEB works.

I briefly looked into what agent did to fix this and i think it didn't.

[pepitoria]

I manage to make it work with this in my nix config (sorry for the formatting)

programs.appimage.enable = true;
programs.appimage.binfmt = true;
programs.appimage.package = pkgs.appimage-run.override {
extraPkgs = pkgs: with pkgs; [
elfutils
zstd
gst_all_1.gstreamer
gst_all_1.gst-plugins-base
gst_all_1.gst-plugins-good
gst_all_1.gst-plugins-bad
gst_all_1.gst-plugins-ugly
];
# Some AppImages (e.g. linuxdeploy-based ones bundling WebKitGTK) clear
# GST_PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PATH_1_0 at startup to avoid loading a possibly
# ABI-incompatible host GStreamer. GST_PLUGIN_PATH_1_0 is a separate,
# untouched variable that GStreamer scans just the same.
buildFHSEnv =
args:
pkgs.buildFHSEnv (
args
// {
profile = (args.profile or "") + ''
export GST_PLUGIN_PATH_1_0="/usr/lib/gstreamer-1.0:/usr/lib32/gstreamer-1.0''${GST_PLUGIN_PATH_1_0:+:$GST_PLUGIN_PATH_1_0}"
'';
}
);
};

[mwikala]

One more Arch/Hyprland datapoint for the 0.5.3 AppImage: it opened an empty window while WebKitWebProcess repeatedly aborted. Running it from a terminal showed:

GStreamer element autoaudiosink not found. Please install it

Installing gst-plugins-good fixed the crash and the UI loaded. The next run reported a missing MPEG-4 AAC decoder; installing gst-libav fixed that too. I also cleared ~/.cache/gstreamer-1.0/registry.x86_64.bin before the successful launch.

--safe-rendering did not change the original failure. This may be worth noting in the AppImage runtime requirements if those plugins are intentionally supplied by the host.