:packageDeb or :packageReleaseDeb fails at jpackage task

[diareuse]

Describe the bug Packaging deb (or AppImage for that matter) fails on jpackage while using temurin-17 or openjdk-17 due to jpackage input error. Error says non-descriptively "Input length = 1", which I figured out means "Input directory does not exist". To further elaborate…

File build/compose/tmp/packageReleaseDeb.args.txt contains input line which points to build/compose/tmp/packageReleaseDeb/libs, where packageReleaseDeb directory DOES NOT get created for whatever reason and therefore there are literally no input files for jpackage to process.

Affected platforms

• Desktop Linux

Versions

• Kotlin version*: 1.9.23
• Compose Multiplatform version*: 1.6.1
• OS version(s)* (required for Desktop and iOS issues): ubuntu-latest (22.04)
• OS architecture (x86 or arm64): x86_64
• Device (model or simulator for iOS issues): n/a
• JDK (for desktop issues): temurin-17 / openjdk-17

To Reproduce Steps and/or the code snippet to reproduce the behavior:

1. Add TargetFormat.Deb to targetFormats block
2. Run ./gradlew app:packageReleaseDistributionForCurrentOS

Expected behavior Task outputs .deb file to build/compose/binaries/**/*.deb

Screenshots n/a

Additional context n/a

[diareuse]

⚠️ There seems to be a lot of things involved in getting just the Linux to build, I'm afraid none of those things are in docs and nobody ever tried to build it. So if any member reads this, I'd love to ask you to at least include this in the docs - if not straight up changing the plugin internals and adding better error messages and failsaves.

---

It seems that apt package fakeroot is required together with binutils to build linux images. Therefore for anybody reading this:

sudo apt install -y binutils fakeroot

---

If you're also building .Dmg, .Msi and .AppImage, update the targetFormats to the following:

if (System.getProperty("os.name").toLowerCase().contains("linux"))
    targetFormats(TargetFormat.AppImage)
else
    targetFormats(TargetFormat.Dmg, TargetFormat.Msi)

Otherwise builds will fail on macOS in the current state (#3814)

---

Update toolchain to at-least JDK21, as JDK17 seems to have broken jpackage for whatever reason.

kotlin {
    jvmToolchain {
        languageVersion.set(JavaLanguageVersion.of(21))
    }
}

---

If you're also building with proguard, JDK18 is the latest with support by default, so you need to update the proguard as well:

buildTypes.release.proguard {
    version.set("7.4.0") // at least 7.4 is required, check https://www.guardsquare.com/manual/releasenotes for newer versions
}

[Kpotko]

Reproduced this issue with ubuntu 20.04 + openJdk 17 (also with coretto jdk 17)

With arch 6.2 + openJdk 17 "packageReleaseDistributionForCurrentOS" works as expected

[okushnikov]

Please check the following ticket on YouTrack for follow-ups to this issue. GitHub issues will be closed in the coming weeks.