AppImage Error: Could not create default EGL display: EGL_BAD_PARAMETER. Aborting...

[akelling]

Getting the following error while launching the appimage:

sharp@hyrule ~/Downloads $ ./Pocket.Sync_5.7.5_amd64.AppImage
[2025-06-18][06:20:19][pocket_sync::install_zip][INFO] Zip Task Started
[2025-06-18][06:20:20][pocket_sync::install_zip][INFO] Zip Task listening for file drop
[2025-06-18][06:20:20][pocket_sync::install_zip][INFO] Zip Task listening for install-core
Could not create default EGL display: EGL_BAD_PARAMETER. Aborting...

Get the same trying to run as root:

sharp@hyrule ~/Downloads $ su -c ./Pocket.Sync_5.7.5_amd64.AppImage
Password: 
[2025-06-18][06:23:15][pocket_sync::install_zip][INFO] Zip Task Started
XDG_RUNTIME_DIR (/run/user/1000) is not owned by us (uid 0), but by uid 1000! (This could e.g. happen if you try to connect to a non-root PulseAudio as a root user, over the native protocol. Don't do that.)
[2025-06-18][06:23:15][pocket_sync::install_zip][INFO] Zip Task listening for file drop
[2025-06-18][06:23:15][pocket_sync::install_zip][INFO] Zip Task listening for install-core
Could not create default EGL display: EGL_BAD_PARAMETER. Aborting...

System Info:

sharp@hyrule ~/Downloads $ cat /etc/os-release 
NAME="openSUSE Tumbleweed"
# VERSION="20250611"
ID="opensuse-tumbleweed"
ID_LIKE="opensuse suse"
VERSION_ID="20250611"
PRETTY_NAME="openSUSE Tumbleweed"
ANSI_COLOR="0;32"
# CPE 2.3 format, boo#1217921
CPE_NAME="cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:tumbleweed:20250611:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"
#CPE 2.2 format
#CPE_NAME="cpe:/o:opensuse:tumbleweed:20250611"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugzilla.opensuse.org"
SUPPORT_URL="https://bugs.opensuse.org"
HOME_URL="https://www.opensuse.org"
DOCUMENTATION_URL="https://en.opensuse.org/Portal:Tumbleweed"
LOGO="distributor-logo-Tumbleweed"

[darylf]

Hey, so I hadn't run Pocket Sync in a while. I was still on version 2.0.1, and when I launched it today, it let me know there was a newer version (5.7.5). I figured I’d upgrade and enjoy the new features, but ran into the same EGL_BAD_PARAMETER error mentioned above. That kicked off a round of version testing on my end.

Turns out the EGL crash starts with version 5.0.0. Earlier versions like 2.0.1 and 4.12.1 worked fine and launched the GUI without any issues. I tested every release from 5.0.0 through 5.7.5, and all of them crash with the same EGL_BAD_PARAMETER error.

Looking at the changelog, 5.0.0 is also when Pocket Sync switched to Tauri 2, which seems like the likely trigger. The Tauri 2 update likely introduced GPU/WebGL rendering that relies on EGL, and without a fallback, the app crashes on systems where that fails. Is it posisble allow software rendering, or even a CLI flag like --disable-gpu or setting LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1.

Here’s my system info:

$ echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE
wayland

$ uname -a
Linux fedora.localdomain 6.15.7-200.fc42.x86_64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Jul 17 17:57:16 UTC 2025 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Happy to help test any fixes; I really appreciate the hard work on Pocket Sync! Keep up the great work!

[darylf]

After digging a bit more, I tried the Flatpak version of Pocket Sync from Flathub, currently at version 5.5.0.

Interestingly, the Flatpak version runs just fine: the GUI loads and works without triggering the EGL_BAD_PARAMETER crash. The issue might be specific to the AppImage builds starting with version 5.0.0.

I’d be happy to test environment overrides (e.g., LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1) or help validate changes to the AppImage build process.

Thanks again! Great work on Pocket Sync, and happy to keep testing future updates.

[neil-morrison44]

I'm hoping that an upcoming Tauri release that allows for using the Chromium Embedded Framework will resolve a lot of the issues which appear on some Linux distributions.

Flatpak is generally recommended, though it's fallen a bit out of sync since there's a dependency with an issue. That should be resolved sometime soon & the Flatpak distribution will be brought back up to date

[xxblx]

If searching brings someone to this issue, the following is a workaround for the EGL_BAD_PARAMETER error that I use on Fedora 43 with GNOME and Wayland to launch PocketSync

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib64/libwayland-client.so ./Pocket.Sync_6.3.1_amd64.AppImage

Path to libwayland-client.so will be different in other GNU/Linux distributions.