Theia IDE not starting in Fedora 44

[claus-chr]

Discussion

The latest version of Theia IDE (1.73.100) as an AppImage won't start on Fedora 44 run as a KVM virtual machine. I used to be able to run Theia IDE this way, but not the most recent versions.

If I click the AppImage file the Theia icon appears in the task bar, but nothing else seems to happen. If I start the app from the terminal it does display the "splash screen", but no actual window opens. Here is the output:

Built-in plugins were already copied.
Electron main: loading modules... [0.389 s since electron main start]
Electron main: container created [0.566 s since electron main start]
Electron main: modules loaded [0.584 s since electron main start]
Electron main: resolving application [0.584 s since electron main start]
Electron main: application resolved [0.587 s since electron main start]
(node:6734) [DEP0180] DeprecationWarning: fs.Stats constructor is deprecated.
(Use `theia-ide-electron-app.bin --trace-deprecation ...` to show where the warning was created)
libva error: /usr/lib64/dri/virtio_gpu_drv_video.so init failed
[6811:0705/111516.921235:ERROR:media/gpu/vaapi/vaapi_wrapper.cc:1631] vaInitialize failed: resource allocation failed
[6811:0705/111516.935014:ERROR:components/viz/service/main/viz_main_impl.cc:189] Exiting GPU process due to errors during initialization
Showing splash screen
SplashScreen options { content: 'resources/TheiaIDESplash.svg', height: 276, width: 446 }
Backend main: entry point loaded [0.377 s since backend process start]
Backend server: loading modules... [0.379 s since backend process start]
libva error: /usr/lib64/dri/virtio_gpu_drv_video.so init failed
[6864:0705/111517.101264:ERROR:media/gpu/vaapi/vaapi_wrapper.cc:1631] vaInitialize failed: resource allocation failed
[6864:0705/111517.102921:ERROR:components/viz/service/main/viz_main_impl.cc:189] Exiting GPU process due to errors during initialization
Backend server: container created [0.525 s since backend process start]
(node:6792) [DEP0180] DeprecationWarning: fs.Stats constructor is deprecated.
(Use `theia-ide-electron-app.bin --trace-deprecation ...` to show where the warning was created)
libva error: /usr/lib64/dri/virtio_gpu_drv_video.so init failed
[6902:0705/111517.198596:ERROR:media/gpu/vaapi/vaapi_wrapper.cc:1631] vaInitialize failed: resource allocation failed
[6856:0705/111517.233551:ERROR:cc/raster/one_copy_raster_buffer_provider.cc:299] Creation of StagingBuffer's SharedImage failed.
Backend server: modules loaded [0.839 s since backend process start]
Backend server: resolving application [0.852 s since backend process start]
Configuring to accept webviews on '^.+\.webview\..+$' hostname.
2026-07-05T09:15:17.588Z root WARN Backend G5.initialize took longer than the expected maximum 50 milliseconds: 71.3 ms [0.931 s since backend process start]
2026-07-05T09:15:17.589Z root WARN Backend Object.initialize took longer than the expected maximum 50 milliseconds: 70.2 ms [0.931 s since backend process start]
2026-07-05T09:15:17.589Z root WARN Backend Idt.initialize took longer than the expected maximum 50 milliseconds: 71.1 ms [0.933 s since backend process start]
2026-07-05T09:15:17.599Z core:BackendApplication INFO configured all backend app contributions
(node:6792) [DEP0040] DeprecationWarning: The `punycode` module is deprecated. Please use a userland alternative instead.
2026-07-05T09:15:17.610Z root INFO Configuration directory URI: 'file:///home/cl/.theia-ide'
2026-07-05T09:15:17.612Z core:BackendApplication INFO Theia app listening on http://127.0.0.1:33623.
2026-07-05T09:15:17.612Z root INFO Settings file not found at '/home/cl/.theia-ide/backend-settings.json'. Falling back to defaults.
2026-07-05T09:15:17.613Z root WARN The local plugin referenced by local-dir:/home/cl/.theia-ide/plugins does not exist.
2026-07-05T09:15:17.613Z root WARN The local plugin referenced by local-dir:/home/cl/.theia-ide/deployedPlugins does not exist.
2026-07-05T09:15:17.615Z plugin-ext:PluginDeployerImpl WARN Only user plugins will be handled by file handlers, please unpack the plugin '.builtInPlugins-metadata' manually.
2026-07-05T09:15:17.618Z root INFO Backend application startup sequence completed (async work may still be pending): 22.9 ms [0.963 s since backend process start]
2026-07-05T09:15:17.618Z root INFO All backend contributions settled: 110.5 ms [0.963 s since backend process start]
Starting backend: 999.5 ms [1.594 s since electron main start]
Attaching security token: 2.2 ms [1.596 s since electron main start]
Yp.onStart: 8.5 ms [1.606 s since electron main start]
uC.onStart: 7.6 ms [1.606 s since electron main start]
xN.onStart: 6.6 ms [1.606 s since electron main start]
DN.onStart: 6.5 ms [1.606 s since electron main start]
lH.onStart: 0.1 ms [1.606 s since electron main start]
Starting contributions: 9.8 ms [1.606 s since electron main start]
Startup sequence completed: 1012.1 ms [1.606 s since electron main start]
2026-07-05T09:15:17.670Z root INFO Resolve plugins list: 57.1 ms [1.014 s since backend process start]
2026-07-05T09:15:17.763Z root INFO Deploy plugins list: 150.5 ms [1.108 s since backend process start]
2026-07-05T09:15:17.853Z root ERROR [parcel-watcher: 6931] (node:6931) [DEP0180] DeprecationWarning: fs.Stats constructor is deprecated.
2026-07-05T09:15:17.853Z root ERROR [parcel-watcher: 6931] (Use `theia-ide-electron-app.bin --trace-deprecation ...` to show where the warning was created)
2026-07-05T09:15:18.242Z root INFO creating connection for 1
Opening channel for service path '/services/electron-window'.
Opening channel for service path '/services/theia-updater'.
2026-07-05T09:15:19.150Z root INFO [05b9ff16-b986-4346-a0de-ae27e7258ec5] Waiting for backend deployment: 7.6 ms [1.516 s since frontend page start]
2026-07-05T09:15:19.252Z root INFO Start frontend contributions: 279.6 ms [1.518 s since frontend page start]
2026-07-05T09:15:19.252Z root INFO Changed application state from 'init' to 'started_contributions'.
2026-07-05T09:15:19.325Z root INFO [05b9ff16-b986-4346-a0de-ae27e7258ec5] Sync of 97 plugins: 176.2 ms [1.692 s since frontend page start]
2026-07-05T09:15:19.420Z root INFO [hosted-plugin: 6983] PLUGIN_HOST(6983) starting instance
2026-07-05T09:15:19.512Z vercel-ai INFO Vercel AI: Creating or updating model vercel/openai/gpt-4.1
2026-07-05T09:15:19.512Z vercel-ai INFO Vercel AI: Creating or updating model vercel/openai/gpt-4.1-nano
2026-07-05T09:15:19.512Z vercel-ai INFO Vercel AI: Creating or updating model vercel/openai/gpt-4.1-mini
2026-07-05T09:15:19.512Z vercel-ai INFO Vercel AI: Creating or updating model vercel/openai/gpt-4-turbo
2026-07-05T09:15:19.512Z vercel-ai INFO Vercel AI: Creating or updating model vercel/openai/gpt-4o
2026-07-05T09:15:19.512Z vercel-ai INFO Vercel AI: Creating or updating model vercel/openai/gpt-4o-mini
2026-07-05T09:15:19.512Z vercel-ai INFO Vercel AI: Creating or updating model vercel/anthropic/claude-3-7-sonnet-20250219
2026-07-05T09:15:19.513Z vercel-ai INFO Vercel AI: Creating or updating model vercel/anthropic/claude-3-5-haiku-20241022
2026-07-05T09:15:19.513Z vercel-ai INFO Vercel AI: Creating or updating model vercel/anthropic/claude-3-opus-20240229
2026-07-05T09:15:19.514Z root WARN Linked preference "workbench.colorCustomizations" not found.
2026-07-05T09:15:19.514Z root WARN Linked preference "editor.experimental.preferTreeSitter" not found.
Closing channel on service path '/services/electron-window'.
Closing channel on service path '/services/theia-updater'.
2026-07-05T09:15:56.032Z root INFO >>> Stopping backend contributions...
2026-07-05T09:15:56.032Z root INFO <<< All backend contributions have been stopped.

[github-actions[bot]]

Hi @claus-chr, thanks for starting this discussion! 👋

The Theia community will take a look soon. In the meantime, you might find helpful information in:

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• ❓ FAQ
• 💬 Previous Discussions

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[msujew]

Hey @claus-chr,

I used to be able to run Theia IDE this way, but not the most recent versions.

What was the last version you were able to run successfully?

Based on this part of the log:

libva error: /usr/lib64/dri/virtio_gpu_drv_video.so init failed
[6902:0705/111517.198596:ERROR:media/gpu/vaapi/vaapi_wrapper.cc:1631] vaInitialize failed: resource allocation failed
[6856:0705/111517.233551:ERROR:cc/raster/one_copy_raster_buffer_provider.cc:299] Creation of StagingBuffer's SharedImage failed.

I would assume something inside of the version of Electron/Chromium we're using broke on your system. We're in the process of updating to a newer version of Electron (#17586), so that might fix that. Unfortunately, it's not usual for Electron to break on non-Ubuntu/Debian Linux distributions. We've had issues with different distributions due to that in the past.

[claus-chr]

Hi @msujew

If memory serves, the last version that worked for me was 1.70 - I'll investigate further and get back.

[claus-chr]

Turns out I misremembered. I have a copy of the 1.70.200 AppImage lying around, and it does not run on Fedora. (It also does not run on KDE Linux.) I also have a copy on 1.65.100, which runs just fine on Fedora. I coudn't find anywhere to download old versions of Theia IDE; if you can give me a link I'll gladly try other versions to pin down the exact point of breakage.

Curiously, 1.70 and the recent 1.72 won't run on Kubuntu either, but for an unrelated reason. It seems that Theias appimage-files require libfuse2, whereas recent Kubuntu versions only provide libfuse3 out of the box.