Description
When starting Mailspring 1.17.x, the application does not render its GUI when launched under KDE Plasma 6 (Wayland). The app icon appears in the task manager, and logs show that the app loads and runs internally, but no visible window is rendered. Two workarounds include downgrading to Mailspring 1.16.0 and that resolves the issue or using X11 instead of Wayland. This appears to be related to Wayland + NVIDIA GBM behavior in newer Electron versions used by Mailspring 17.x.
To Reproduce…
Steps to reproduce the behavior:
-
Log into KDE Plasma 6 using Wayland.
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Launch Mailspring 1.17 via terminal or menu; No GUI is rendered, but icon appears in taskbar.
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Right click on the icon in the taskbar click “Quit Mailspring”, then int he terminal run “mailspring --disable-gpu --enable-logging”.
Expected Behavior
Mailspring should open a usable window with its full GUI. Instead, only the icon appears, and the GUI is invisible or never mapped.
Terminal Output (partial):
src/nv_gbm.c:288: GBM-DRV error (nv_gbm_create_device_native): nv_common_gbm_create_device failed (ret=-1)
[WARNING] Binding to wl_seat version 8 but version 9 is available
[WARNING] Server doesn’t support zcr_alpha_compositing_v1
Gtk-Message: Failed to load module “appmenu-gtk-module”: undefined symbol: gtk_module_display_init
[INFO] Window load time: 286ms
[ERROR] crypto/nss_util.cc:346 After loading Root Certs, loaded==false: NSS error code: -8018
Screenshots
Setup
-OS: Debian 13 “Trixie”
-Kernel: 6.18.8-1-liquorix-amd64
-Desktop: KDE Plasma 6.3.6 (Wayland)
-GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3050 Ti Mobile (w/ Intel UHD hybrid graphics)
-Display Server: Wayland (KWin)
-Mailspring Version: 1.17.3
- OS and Version:
- Installation Method: Installed via .deb package “mailspring-1.17.3-amd64.deb”
- Mailspring Version: 1.17.3
Additional Context
Mailspring 1.16.0 works correctly on this same system and under Wayland. The issue began in 1.17.0 and persists through 1.17.3. but with KDE pushing Wayland more it might become a bigger issue later.