Signal desktop flatpak not showing GUI

I have problems having the GUI for the flatpak version of Signal on the Librem 5 running. I tap on the icon but the GUI does not load. If I check the Usage app it shows that Signal is running.

When I run the flatpak one error I notice is LaunchProcess: failed to execvp: xdg-settings

Here is the entire output when running in the terminal:

flatpak run org.signal.Signal
Debug: Will run signal with the following arguments: --ozone-platform-hint=auto
Debug: Additionally, user gave:
[2 zypak-helper] Wait found events, but sd-event found none
Set Windows Application User Model ID (AUMID) { AUMID: ‘org.whispersystems.signal-desktop’ }
NODE_ENV production
NODE_CONFIG_DIR /app/Signal/resources/app.asar/config
NODE_CONFIG {}
ALLOW_CONFIG_MUTATIONS undefined
HOSTNAME libjuan
NODE_APP_INSTANCE undefined
SUPPRESS_NO_CONFIG_WARNING undefined
SIGNAL_ENABLE_HTTP undefined
userData: /home/purism/.var/app/org.signal.Signal/config/Signal
config/get: Successfully read user config file
config/get: Successfully read ephemeral config file
making app single instance
LaunchProcess: failed to execvp:
xdg-settings
LaunchProcess: failed to execvp:
xdg-settings
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:15.602Z”,“msg”:“got fast localeOverride setting null”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:15.607Z”,“msg”:“app.ready: hour cycle preference: UnknownPreference”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:15.609Z”,“msg”:“app.ready: preferred system locales: en-US, en”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:15.615Z”,“msg”:“locale: Supported locales: af-ZA, ar, az-AZ, bg-BG, bn-BD, bs-BA, ca, cs, da, de, el, en, es, et-EE, eu, fa-IR, fi, fr, ga-IE, gl-ES, gu-IN, he, hi-IN, hr-HR, hu, id, it, ja, ka-GE, kk-KZ, km-KH, kn-IN, ko, ky-KG, lt-LT, lv-LV, mk-MK, ml-IN, mr-IN, ms, my, nb, nl, pa-IN, pl, pt-BR, pt-PT, ro-RO, ru, sk-SK, sl-SI, sq-AL, sr, sv, sw, ta-IN, te-IN, th, tl-PH, tr, ug, uk-UA, ur, vi, yue, zh-CN, zh-HK, zh-Hant”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:15.617Z”,“msg”:“locale: Preferred locales: en-US, en”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:15.618Z”,“msg”:“locale: Locale Override: null”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:15.648Z”,“msg”:“locale: Matched locale: en”}
{“level”:40,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.058Z”,“msg”:“intl.onWarn [@formatjs/intl] "defaultRichTextElements" was specified but "message" was not pre-compiled. \nPlease consider using "@formatjs/cli" to pre-compile your messages for performance.\nFor more details see Format.JS | Format.JS”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.061Z”,“msg”:“locale: Text info direction for en: ltr”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.064Z”,“msg”:“getSQLKey: using legacy key”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.069Z”,“msg”:“getSystemTraySetting got value DoNotUseSystemTray”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.076Z”,“msg”:“getSystemTraySetting returning DoNotUseSystemTray”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.083Z”,“msg”:“app ready”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.088Z”,“msg”:“starting version 7.33.0”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.088Z”,“msg”:“media access status [object Undefined] [object Undefined]”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.107Z”,“msg”:“got fast theme-setting value system”}
{“level”:40,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.171Z”,“msg”:“MainSQL: Database log code=283: recovered 543 frames from WAL file [REDACTED]/sql/db.sqlite-wal”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.187Z”,“msg”:“got fast theme-setting value system”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.188Z”,“msg”:“got fast spellcheck setting true”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.191Z”,“msg”:“visibleOnAnyScreen(window): x=0, y=0, width=480, height=495”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.192Z”,“msg”:“visibleOnAnyScreen(display #40): x=0, y=0, width=480, height=960”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.193Z”,“msg”:“Initializing BrowserWindow config: {"show":false,"width":480,"height":495,"minWidth":300,"minHeight":200,"autoHideMenuBar":false,"titleBarStyle":"default","backgroundColor":"#3a76f0","webPreferences":{"devTools":false,"spellcheck":true,"enableBlinkFeatures":"CSSPseudoDir,CSSLogical","enablePreferredSizeMode":true,"nodeIntegration":false,"nodeIntegrationInWorker":false,"sandbox":false,"contextIsolation":true,"preload":"[REDACTED]/preload.wrapper.js","backgroundThrottling":true,"disableBlinkFeatures":"Accelerated2dCanvas,AcceleratedSmallCanvases"},"icon":"[REDACTED]/images/signal-logo-desktop-linux.png","x":0,"y":0}”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.399Z”,“msg”:“spellcheck: user locales: ["en-US","en"]”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.399Z”,“msg”:“spellcheck: available spellchecker languages: ["af","bg","ca","cs","cy","da","de","de-DE","el","en","en-AU","en-CA","en-GB","en-GB-oxendict","en-US","es","es-419","es-AR","es-ES","es-MX","es-US","et","fa","fo","fr","fr-FR","he","hi","hr","hu","hy","id","it","it-IT","ko","lt","lv","nb","nl","pl","pt","pt-BR","pt-PT","ro","ru","sh","sk","sl","sq","sr","sv","ta","tg","tr","uk","vi"]”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.400Z”,“msg”:“spellcheck: setting languages to: ["en-US","en"]”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:16.402Z”,“msg”:“MainSQL: updateSchema:\n Current user_version: 1250;\n Most recent db schema: 1250;\n SQLite version: 3.46.1;\n SQLCipher version: 4.6.1 community;\n (deprecated) schema_version: 513;\n”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:19.788Z”,“msg”:“got fast theme-setting value system”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:23.792Z”,“msg”:“got fast spellcheck setting true”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:23.824Z”,“msg”:“System tray service: created”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:23.825Z”,“msg”:“System tray service: updating main window. Previously, there was not a window, and now there is”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:23.826Z”,“msg”:“System tray service: rendering no tray”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:23.829Z”,“msg”:“Begin ensuring permissions”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:23.838Z”,“msg”:“Ensuring file permissions for 4 files”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:23.845Z”,“msg”:“Finish ensuring permissions in 16ms”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:24.422Z”,“msg”:“MainSQL: slow query getAllStickers duration=47ms”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:24.619Z”,“msg”:“MainSQL: slow query getAllKyberPreKeys duration=284ms”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:24.708Z”,“msg”:“MainSQL: slow query cleanupCallHistoryMessages duration=100ms”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:25.383Z”,“msg”:“Prevent display sleep service: allowing display sleep”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:25.383Z”,“msg”:“Background throttling enabled because no call is active”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:25.583Z”,“msg”:“updater/start: Updates disabled - not starting new version checks”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:25.665Z”,“msg”:“System tray service: setting unread count to 1”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:25.665Z”,“msg”:“System tray service: rendering no tray”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:25.667Z”,“msg”:“App loaded - time: 9591”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:25.668Z”,“msg”:“SQL init - time: 413”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:25.668Z”,“msg”:“Preload - time: 4099”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:25.668Z”,“msg”:“WebSocket connect - time: 1884”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:25.669Z”,“msg”:“Processed count: 0”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:25.669Z”,“msg”:“Messages per second: 0”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:24:25.671Z”,“msg”:“Top 10 queries by cumulative duration (ms) over last 9195ms during ‘App Load’: getAllKyberPreKeys: cumulative 284.3 | average: 284.3 | max: 284.3 | count: 1 ||| cleanupCallHistoryMessages: cumulative 99.65 | average: 99.65 | max: 99.65 | count: 1 ||| getAllStickers: cumulative 47.2 | average: 47.2 | max: 47.2 | count: 1 ||| getAllConversations: cumulative 29.92 | average: 29.92 | max: 29.92 | count: 1 ||| getAllPreKeys: cumulative 28.64 | average: 28.64 | max: 28.64 | count: 1 ||| createOrUpdateItem: cumulative 27.92 | average: 6.98 | max: 10.38 | count: 4 ||| getAllSyncTasks: cumulative 24.33 | average: 24.33 | max: 24.33 | count: 1 ||| getRecentStickers: cumulative 16.94 | average: 16.94 | max: 16.94 | count: 1 ||| getAllSenderKeys: cumulative 13.98 | average: 13.98 | max: 13.98 | count: 1 ||| getMessagesBySentAt: cumulative 13.18 | average: 1.2 | max: 3.82 | count: 11; Total cumulative duration of all SQL queries during this epoch: 711.83ms”}
{“level”:30,“time”:“2024-11-18T15:29:24.125Z”,“msg”:“MainSQL: slow query deleteSentProtosOlderThan duration=159ms”}

1 Like

This particular error is something I see also, but the GUI is working for me.

Looks like your version in 7.33.0 but the most recent version now is 7.34.0 – maybe update and see if that helps? The command “flatpak update” should do it. Version 7.34.0 works for me.

1 Like

I randomly gave it another try, and notifications started to pop up. I tapped on the notification and it loaded up the GUI.

I suspect maybe it had opened minimized to system tray, but of course there is none so that’s why it wasn’t showing up on the screen or on the Librem 5 app switcher view.

I will look in settings to disable and mark this as solved, but any tips on recovering from this in the
future?

1 Like

You can bookmark your solution for future reference.