GitButler does not start on Bookworm

[dkoenigroer]

Version

0.13.16

Operating System

Linux

Distribution Method

deb (Linux)

Describe the issue

Just installed GitButler_0.13.16_amd64.deb on Debian Bookworm Linux daghp 6.1.0-27-rt-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_RT Debian 6.1.115-1 (2024-11-01) x86_64 GNU/Linux via

sudo apt install ./GitButler_0.13.16_amd64.deb

and tried to start with

~$ gitbutler-tauri
gitbutler-tauri: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.38' not found (required by gitbutler-tauri)
gitbutler-tauri: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.39' not found (required by gitbutler-tauri)

Same when using sudo dpkg -i GitButler_0.13.16_amd64.deb.

How to reproduce

Install

sudo apt install ./GitButler_0.13.16_amd64.deb

or

sudo dpkg -i GitButler_0.13.16_amd64.deb

Run

~$ gitbutler-tauri

Expected behavior

Opening GitButler GUI

Relevant log output

gitbutler-tauri: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.38' not found (required by gitbutler-tauri)
gitbutler-tauri: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.39' not found (required by gitbutler-tauri)

[Byron]

Thanks a lot for reporting. Let me CC our resident linux specialist: @ndom91.

[ndom91]

Hey thanks for the tag, unfortunately since we're building with Ubuntu 24 atm, Debian bookworm (12) is also not supported. You'll need Debian 13+

Alternatively you could try the experimental flatpak. Check out the artifact here: https://github.com/gitbutlerapp/gitbutler/actions/runs/11931215799

Note with the flatpak, that if using the git cli auth method for fetch and push, that entering additional credentials via GitButler currently isn't supported.

That basically means that HTTPS remote URLs that ask for username/password as well as SSH keys with passphrases won't work. That's all still WIP and we definitely plan to get that working before officially announcing the flatpak.

[Byron]

To my mind it seems understandable that not every possible Linux distribution is supported while libc is a dependency. Somehow I wonder if it's possible to either…

• …link to an older version of glibc even on a more recent system, as these are generally backwards compatible.
• …have a way to gracefully fail on unsupported linux systems.

The graceful failure could possibly be accomplished by having a build-script check important aspects of the system before attempting an installation.

Something I find strange though is that the glibc incompatibility wasn't caught by the package manager, which I thought was one point of having it. Maybe that is something we can improve when creating the .deb file?