Flatpak does not start on debian

[andrewgdotcom]

• Operating System (Linux/Mac/Windows/iOS/Android): Debian bookworm with XFCE
• Delta Chat Version: 1.52.1 flatpak
• Expected behavior: On clicking the menu icon, DeltaChat should open
• Actual behavior: DeltaChat process starts but immediately hangs and doesn't open a window. Running it on the command line hangs in the terminal and is unresponsive to ctrl-c and ctrl-z. Only recourse is kill -9
• Steps to reproduce the problem: Install deltachat flatpak on debian xfce and try to use it
• Logs:

In syslog:

2025-02-18T11:22:01.162305+00:00 fred systemd[3036]: Started app-flatpak-chat.delta.desktop-11696.scope.

This worked (in the terminal) immediately after I installed the deltachat flatpak but before I rebooted the machine. Now it does not work at all.

[nicodh]

Did that happen after an update or a fresh install?

Any other logs available?

There is a new release (1.54.x) rolling out since yesterday with some changes in the flatpak install maybe that works?

flatpak install --user https://dl.flathub.org/build-repo/164669/chat.delta.desktop.flatpakref

[andrewgdotcom]

It was a fresh install. I installed the upgrade as suggested but no change.

[nicodh]

Hard to say without log. So far we had no bug reports like that, while many use flatpak...

[ralphtheninja]

• Steps to reproduce the problem: Install deltachat flatpak on debian xfce and try to use it

How did you install it? From command line? What was the command? I'm trying to follow in your footsteps.

[ralphtheninja]

@andrewgdotcom Nvm. I can reproduce in a VM.

[andrewgdotcom]

I just followed the instructions on the website, invoking flatpak on the command line.

[ralphtheninja]

I just followed the instructions on the website, invoking flatpak on the command line.

It's odd though. I clicked on the menu, i.e. Applications -> Internet -> Delta Chat (assuming this is how you started it) and then no window showed up. I could see the process running via ps aux. But when I clicked the menu item again then a window showed up but it was completely blank. Restarted the computer and then it worked first time and I don't seem to be able to reproduce it.

[andrewgdotcom]

I tried running it both from the command line via flatpak, and via the menu, and it locked up consistently every time. I had multiple processes all hanging at once. Haven't rebooted that machine since, and I uninstalled flatpak and used the deb instead (which works perfectly)

[ralphtheninja]

What I've gathered this far. Only trying to run Delta Chat from the command line for now:

Install:

flatpak install flathub chat.delta.desktop

Run:

flatpak run chat.delta.desktop

Sometimes when running the first time it fails when using flatpak run chat.delta.desktop and when I abort using ctrl+c on the command line and try it again then it works. Also, if it has worked then sub sequent runs seems to always work.

Sometimes delta chat starts up on the first try and then sub sequent runs seems to work.

I can't get to a state where it continually fails. I suspect this also depends on the circumstances, e.g. hardware etc. So I suspect there's some kind of timing issue.

Using flatpak run chat.delta.desktop --devmode below (doesn't open up the developer tools):

When it fails the initial log looks like:

So it looks like the application is waiting for something to finish.

Process list when in a failed state:

NOTE There's one process saying <defunct>

Process list when it's a good state:

NOTE Looks like it's the process with --type=gpu-process that has the <defunct> status in the first screenshot?

[ralphtheninja]

Using --disable-gpu seems to solve the issue for me. I've successfully started deltachat desktop at least 10 times in a row now:

I have a kvm snapshot so I can run it for the first time how many times I want.

Also see @link2xt 's post here flathub/chat.delta.desktop#136 (comment)

[ralphtheninja]

@andrewgdotcom Maybe you don't want to try this again but if you're up for it, when running DeltaChat from the command line you can add the --disable-gpu flag. It would be nice to get some confirmation that it works for you then.

$ flatpak run chat.delta.desktop --disable-gpu

[ralphtheninja]

An additional bonus is that you can then do

$ flatpak run chat.delta.desktop --disable-gpu --devmode

Which also didn't work before, which makes it easier to debug things in the future.

[categulario]

I'm experiencing this on OpenSUSE Tumbleweed with the flatpak install. Passing --disable-gpu changes the error on the command line to:

[54:0406/215247.183378:ERROR:vaapi_wrapper.cc(1243)] Empty codec maximum resolution
[54:0406/215247.183552:ERROR:vaapi_wrapper.cc(1153)] FillProfileInfo_Locked failed for va_profile VAProfileJPEGBaseline and entrypoint VAEntrypointVLD
init: 371.743ms
[2:0406/215247.428838:ERROR:browser_main_loop.cc(278)] Gtk: gtk_widget_get_scale_factor: assertion 'GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed
[2:0406/215247.756730:ERROR:browser_main_loop.cc(278)] Gtk: gtk_widget_get_scale_factor: assertion 'GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed

No window shows, process doesn't exit. I also had to enable system bus using flatseal. Version is 1.56.0.