Appimage crashes on startup - EGL_BAD_PARAMETER

[KroniK907]

Version

0.18.5

Operating System

Linux

Distribution Method

AppImage (Linux)

Describe the issue

When launching gitbutler from the appimage I am getting the following error in the console:

2026-01-21T17:53:58.801722Z  INFO crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/main.rs:155: starting app version=0.18.5 name=GitButler
Could not create default EGL display: EGL_BAD_PARAMETER. Aborting...

A window opens but the screen is black and I cant get dev tools to launch or get any of the menus to function.

I hadn't used gitbutler since the end of November 2025, and that version launched without issue today. I clicked the update button and completed the update, then clicked the restart button in the little update popup after the update was completed. Since then I have been getting the above error.

I tried setting the following environment variables but it did not help:

WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1
WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1

[KroniK907]

I just installed the flatpak version and got a similar error when I tried to launch the flatpak version:

$ flatpak run com.gitbutler.gitbutler
libEGL warning: failed to get driver name for fd -1

libEGL warning: MESA-LOADER: failed to retrieve device information

libEGL warning: failed to get driver name for fd -1

libEGL warning: egl: failed to create dri2 screen
libEGL warning: failed to get driver name for fd -1

libEGL warning: MESA-LOADER: failed to retrieve device information

libEGL warning: failed to get driver name for fd -1

libEGL warning: egl: failed to create dri2 screen
libEGL warning: failed to get driver name for fd -1

libEGL warning: MESA-LOADER: failed to retrieve device information

libEGL warning: failed to get driver name for fd -1

libEGL warning: egl: failed to create dri2 screen
libEGL warning: failed to get driver name for fd -1

libEGL warning: MESA-LOADER: failed to retrieve device information

libEGL warning: failed to get driver name for fd -1

libEGL warning: egl: failed to create dri2 screen

** (gitbutler-tauri:2): WARNING **: 09:41:12.649: Disabled hardware acceleration because GTK failed to initialize GL: No GL implementation is available.
2026-01-21T18:41:12.681721Z  INFO crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/main.rs:463: TERM is set - assuming the app is run from a terminal with suitable environment variables
2026-01-21T18:41:12.681814Z  INFO crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/main.rs:121: system git executable for fetch/push: "git"
2026-01-21T18:41:12.681844Z  INFO crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/main.rs:128: SHELL env: Some("/bin/sh")
2026-01-21T18:41:12.682023Z  INFO crates/gitbutler-tauri/src/main.rs:155: starting app version=0.18.5 name=GitButler
libEGL warning: egl: failed to create dri2 screen
libEGL warning: DRI2: failed to create screen
libEGL warning: egl: failed to create dri2 screen
libEGL warning: DRI2: failed to create screen
libEGL warning: egl: failed to create dri2 screen
libEGL warning: DRI2: failed to create screen
Could not create surfaceless EGL display: EGL_NOT_INITIALIZED. Aborting...

[slarse]

Hello,

So sorry you're having issues. We recently switched the build from Ubuntu 24.04 to Ubuntu 22.04 to widen compatibility across older distros, but the unfortunate side effect is that the AppImage build in particular breaks on some newer distros (but starts working for older ones). The PR that introduced this change along with a ton of context and decisions made is over here: #11412

@Byron It seems #11412 (comment) came to pass :)

The underlying issue is that the stock Tauri AppImage bundles some libs, but not all of them, making its portability poor. There are more portable ways to produce the AppImage and I'm hoping we can get one of those rolling in the near future, I just haven't had the time to commit to it yet.

Are you running Wayland? If so, the issue is almost certainly a linking problem between your system's MESA driver and the libwayland-client.so lib bundled in the AppImage. I've describe the issue here from when I battled with it: #5282 (comment)

If that's the issue, you might be able to get the application running by preloading your system's libwayland-client.so lib.

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libwayland-client.so ./GitButler.AppImage

Note that /usr/lib/libwayland-client.so needs to be substituted with wherever your libwayland-client.so lib is located (it's usually there).

This may or may not work, and may also severely impact rendering performance.

I strongly recommend using the deb or rpm packages for the time being, if possible. They are much more likely to work across distros as they do not bundle anything but the application itself, leading to significantly fewer avenues for strange linker issues.

Flatpak

The Flatpak is a community effort and maintained over at https://github.com/flathub/com.gitbutler.gitbutler.

[slarse]

Also as an FYI, there is work in Tauri to fix this: tauri-apps/tauri#12491

That PR has been in limbo for a long time, though.