BSV Desktop doesn't display on Wayland - requires X11 workaround

[cammyjee]

BSV Desktop doesn't display on Wayland - requires X11 workaround

Description

BSV Desktop AppImage fails to display properly when running in a Wayland environment. The application starts successfully (processes are running, HTTP server is listening), but the GUI window is not visible.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Run BSV Desktop on a Linux system with Wayland:

   ./BSV-Desktop-0.8.13.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run

2. Application processes start and HTTP server listens
3. GUI window does not appear despite processes running

Expected Behavior

BSV Desktop should detect and work with the available display server (Wayland or X11) without requiring manual configuration.

Actual Behavior

• Application processes start successfully
• HTTP server initializes correctly
• GUI window is not visible/displayed
• Logs show Wayland-related errors: drmGetDevices2() has not found any devices

Workaround

Force X11 display mode by setting environment variables and using the --ozone-platform=x11 flag:

export DISPLAY=:0
unset WAYLAND_DISPLAY
export GDK_BACKEND=x11
./BSV-Desktop-0.8.13.AppImage --appimage-extract-and-run --ozone-platform=x11

Environment

• OS: Linux (kernel 6.6.88)
• Display Server: Wayland with X11 compatibility layer
• BSV Desktop Version: 0.8.13
• Application Format: AppImage

Additional Information

• X11 displays are available (X0, X1 in /tmp/.X11-unix/)
• Electron renderer process shows --ozone-platform=wayland when launched normally
• No errors preventing startup, but GUI simply doesn't appear
• Workaround successfully displays the application when forcing X11

Proposed Solution

1. Improve display server detection/fallback logic
2. Add better error messaging when display initialization fails
3. Consider adding a command-line flag or environment variable to explicitly choose display backend
4. Test and fix Wayland support, or provide clear documentation on X11 requirement

Logs

When running normally, logs show:

[ERROR:ui/ozone/platform/wayland/common/drm_render_node_path_finder.cc:45] drmGetDevices2() has not found any devices: No such file or directory (2)
[ERROR:components/viz/service/main/viz_main_impl.cc:189] Exiting GPU process due to errors during initialization

The application continues running but GUI is not displayed.