Document which system libraries are required on Linux

[GChuf]

Preflight Checklist

• I have read the Contributing Guidelines for this project.
• I agree to follow the Code of Conduct that this project adheres to.
• I have searched the issue tracker for an issue that matches the one I want to file, without success.

Issue Details

• Electron Version:
  11.0.3
• Operating System:
  Minimal Raspberry OS - August 20th 2020

Expected Behavior

Electron starts

Actual Behavior

Electron gives an error message:
/usr/local/lib/node_modules/electron/dist/electron: error while loading shared libraries: libatk-1.0.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory.

The folder electron under dist does not exist.

To Reproduce

It does this every time I run "electron" or "node cli.js"

Additional Information

The solution:

In order to run startx on minimal OS, I've installed the following:
sudo apt-get install xserver-xorg-video-all xserver-xorg-input-all xserver-xorg-core xinit x11-xserver-utils
This was not enough to run electron, though.

To solve all the problems with shared libraries, I've run the following:
sudo apt install libnss3-dev libatk1.0-0 libatk-bridge2.0-0 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 libgtk-3-0

[nornagon]

It seems like you've solved the problem by installing the missing libraries. Electron requires those libraries to function and will not start on an OS that lacks them.

[GChuf]

Yes, I've figured that much ...
I'm reporting this for anyone who might encounter similar problems. It would save me some time if this was mentioned somewhere, but since it was not, I opened this issue.

[nornagon]

Ah, thanks, that wasn't clear from the description! I'll update the issue title to reflect that.

[max-programming]

I got this error when I ran electron .. But I am installing whatever @GChuf mentioned. SO let's see what happens now.

I am using WSL Ubuntu.

[andredezzy]

@max-programming do you found a solution?

[max-programming]

@max-programming do you found a solution?

Sadly no. Now I don't use WSL

[andredezzy]

@max-programming do you found a solution?

Sadly no. Now I don't use WSL

Ah, thanks. I found a relative solution that is: Install the libraries with de Windows bash/CMD, and later can use the WSL run the Yarn or NPM commands, but never run yarn install or npm install on WSL.

[max-programming]

@max-programming do you found a solution?

Sadly no. Now I don't use WSL

Ah, thanks. I found a relative solution that is: Install the libraries with de Windows bash/CMD, and later can use the WSL run the Yarn or NPM commands, but never run yarn install or npm install on WSL.

yep! That's the only solution possible! Forgot it completely.
I didn't like switching so now I am completely on Powershell 😅

[yeasin72]

I am getting this problem after that

[U-DI-Page]

@max-programming do you found a solution?

Sadly no. Now I don't use WSL

Ah, thanks. I found a relative solution that is: Install the libraries with de Windows bash/CMD, and later can use the WSL run the Yarn or NPM commands, but never run yarn install or npm install on WSL.

yep! That's the only solution possible! Forgot it completely. I didn't like switching so now I am completely on Powershell 😅

How do you install the libraries with de Windows bash/CMD, I try to install it on powershell, but got failed,"UNC path is not support"

[popuguytheparrot]

any updates?

[aliasadidev]

any updates?

[github-actions]

This issue has been automatically marked as stale. If this issue is still affecting you, please leave any comment (for example, "bump"), and we'll keep it open. If you have any new additional information—in particular, if this is still reproducible in the latest version of Electron or in the beta—please include it with your comment!

[github-actions]

This issue has been closed due to inactivity, and will not be monitored. If this is a bug and you can reproduce this issue on a supported version of Electron please open a new issue and include instructions for reproducing the issue.

[marcospgp]

Looking for this info as well, trying to run electron in a node docker container

Version in package.json: "electron": "^22.0.3"

The list of dependencies that fixed it for me is:

# Electron runtime (non-build) dependencies.
# Discovered by trial & error.
# See more: https://github.com/electron/electron/issues/26673
# Build dependencies: https://www.electronjs.org/docs/latest/development/build-instructions-linux
RUN apt-get update \
    && apt-get install -y \
    libnss3 \
    libatk1.0-0 \
    libatk-bridge2.0-0 \
    libcups2 \
    libdrm2 \
    libgtk-3-0 \
    libgbm1 \
    libasound2

I went through the process of installing one by one and looking for the next error related to a missing dependency.

It would really help to include this in documentation, similarly to how build dependencies are listed here: https://www.electronjs.org/docs/latest/development/build-instructions-linux

Edit: No more dependency issues but other issues sprung up. The list above seems to not be exhaustive. Will try to go with electron build time dependencies.