Unable to start mailspring (Wayland)

system · February 18, 2021, 12:14am

Installed the latest version from Snap store on Linux Pop!_OS 19.04. I am using Gnome on Wayland.

When invoking the mailspring command from the command line getting:

alex@florianopolis:~$ ELECTRON_ENABLE_LOGGING=true mailspring
/snap/mailspring/346/bin/desktop-launch: line 282: [: /home/alex/../../../.drive/Google: binary operator expected
[12426:0616/151828.452869:WARNING:browser_main_loop.cc(269)] Gtk: cannot open display: :0
alex@florianopolis:~$

I have a directory called .drive in my home that I created.

After waiting for about 5 seconds the command simply exists and the client doesn’t appear.

(Originally posted by pavkam on GitHub.)

system · February 18, 2021, 12:15am

I am using Gnome on Wayland.

Mailspring is an electron app. Electron does no support Wayland yet.

cannot open display: :0

Mailspring tries to connect to Xorg, but you’re not running Xorg.

See #2013 and electron/electron#10915.

Running Mailspring on a modern Linux installation isn’t really feasable. You can use Xwayland, but the application will be very blurry if you have a hidpi display.

(Originally posted by WhyNotHugo on GitHub.)

nani8ot · March 3, 2021, 6:29pm

Are there plans to upgrade to Electron 12? I saw your post about the Electron 11 migration, but 12 is out now and will solve this issue.

I’m just anxious that the next upgrade to a newer eletron version will also take a while and I won’t be able to use it native in wayland.

CodeMouse92 · March 4, 2021, 1:09am

@bengotow would be the best one to answer that question. (Please be patient, though. He has a lot of demands on his plate.)

yala · March 13, 2021, 10:37pm

Yes, native Wayland support is available from Electron 12 on only. Please see this PR for details:

github.com/electron/electron

fix: add Wayland support

master ← vially:wayland

opened 10:52AM - 18 Oct 20 UTC

vially

+271 -158

#### Description of Change Add initial support for running Electron on Waylan…d (#10915). Since version 87, Wayland support is enabled in the default Chromium *build* and can be enabled at *runtime* with a feature flag: `--enable-features=UseOzonePlatform --ozone-platform=wayland` ([chromium#1085700](https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1085700)). This pull-request attempts to do the same for Electron. This means that the non-Ozone X11 is still the default but Ozone/Wayland and Ozone/X11 can now be chosen *at runtime* using this feature flag: ``` electron --enable-features=UseOzonePlatform --ozone-platform=wayland ``` ``` electron --enable-features=UseOzonePlatform --ozone-platform=x11 ``` **The Wayland support is very experimental and various features which were working in X11 may either be broken or not implemented for Wayland.** Therefore, this pull-request should be seen more like *the minimal amount of changes required to show an Electron window in Wayland* rather than the complete set of changes required to bring full Wayland support to Electron. ##### Build configuration I'm not familiar with Electron's CI build system but there's a chance it might require some changes to accommodate Wayland support on Linux. If it turns out that's the case I might need some help from someone familiar with these systems. FWIW, this is the [build tools](https://github.com/electron/build-tools) config that I've used locally to build and test this: <details> <summary>GN gen args</summary> ```json { "goma": "cache-only", "root": "/home/vially/projects/electron", "gen": { "args": [ "import(\"//electron/build/args/testing.gn\")", "import(\"/home/vially/.electron_build_tools/third_party/goma.gn\")", "blink_symbol_level=0", "icu_use_data_file=false", "is_component_ffmpeg=false", "link_pulseaudio=true", "treat_warnings_as_errors=false", "use_gnome_keyring=false", "use_sysroot=false", "use_ozone=true", "ozone_auto_platforms=false", "ozone_platform_wayland=true", "ozone_platform_x11=true", "use_system_libwayland=true", "use_glib=true", "rtc_use_pipewire=true" ], "out": "Testing" }, "env": { "CHROMIUM_BUILDTOOLS_PATH": "/home/vially/projects/electron/src/buildtools", "GIT_CACHE_PATH": "/home/vially/.git_cache" }, "remotes": { "electron": { "origin": "git@github.com:electron/electron.git", "hedgepigdaniel": "git@github.com:hedgepigdaniel/electron.git", "fork": "git@github.com:vially/electron.git" }, "node": { "origin": "git@github.com:electron/node.git" } } } ``` </details> #### Acknowledgements Thank you @hedgepigdaniel for providing the [set of patches](https://github.com/hedgepigdaniel/electron/commits/arch-10) that this pull-request was based on. Also a big thank you to @msisov, @nickdiego, @tonikitoo and many others from the @Igalia team for adding Wayland support to Chromium. #### Checklist - [x] PR description included and stakeholders cc'd (@ckerr @zcbenz) - [x] `npm test` passes - [x] PR title follows semantic [commit guidelines](https://github.com/electron/electron/blob/master/docs/development/pull-requests.md#commit-message-guidelines) #### Release Notes Notes: none

Including this will help Mailspring remain one of the only glossy Email clients on the Linux platform, which with Wayland, HiDPI and fractional scaling is visually polished and up to par with commercial operating systems.

flindeberg · July 13, 2021, 1:17pm

Wayland support would be really nice. I don’t think I’m the only one trying to get away from X…

gmagic · October 25, 2021, 12:15pm

While here came the Mailspring flatpak version i use X11 socket (XWayland) to start the app on Wayland (i use Flatseal instead of command line). But really wait for the native Wayland support.

nicocossiom · November 14, 2021, 2:05pm

How did u get it working under XWayland?? I have installed the Flatpak version and it doesn´t work for some reason. Have even tried to use flatpak run --socket=wayland com.getmailspring.Mailspring and still no luck, I get this error:
[2 preload-host-spawn-strategy] Running: /app/bin/zypak-helper child - /app/share/mailspring/mailspring --type=zygote
The futex facility returned an unexpected error code.
Failed to generate minidump.⏎
So yeah if u can direct me maybe. Thanks in advanced. Also using Fedora 35

ninetailedtori · February 14, 2025, 12:35am

I’ve got the XWayland version working, through mailspring --OzonePlatformHint=x11, using the AUR package. Flatpak theoretically should work too. However, it’s a bandaid fix, and it doesn’t work well, given the broken scaling, the broken blurs, the broken launch behaviour. Given that development is moving much faster in Wayland, and X11 has grown stale, it might be worth considering putting actual effort into a Wayland supported app.