Renderer process abnormal-exit – Blue Screen after Startup

[ttrubep1]

• I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates (Blue screen after update - stuck #3281 is similar but not exactly the same)

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Bug Description

Since a few days, Signal Desktop 5.15.0 is stuck with a blue screen after startup. Sometimes, there is a short glimpse at the contact list before the blue screen appears. After that, Signal Desktop cannot be closed normally, but has to be killed.

The symptoms are similar to those described in #3281. I tried all the command line options mentioned there like --disable-gpu, --no-sandbox, --disable-software-rasterizer, etc., but this didn't help.

Using --enable-logging, the following line appeared in the terminal:

Renderer process abnormal-exit - see https://www.electronjs.org/docs/tutorial/application-debugging for potential debugging information.

I would suppose that this is the main problem as a crashed renderer should explain the behavior. But so far I could not find out why the renderer process crashes.

Other electron apps do work properly on my system. Starting electron directly does work and shows the usual version information, other electron-based apps do work as well.

What I haven't tried yet is emptying .config/Signal, re-linking to my phone and starting over. As a mean of last resort, this is of course possible, but I would prefer to keep the chat histories on my computer.

Steps to Reproduce

• Start Signal Desktop

Actual Result:

Signal get's stuck with an all-blue screen as shown in the screenshots in #3281

Expected Result:

Signal should start properly and be usable.

Screenshots

See #3281, looks the same here.

Platform Info

Signal Version: 5.15.0

Operating System: openSUSE Leap 15.2, Kernel 5.13.13

Linked Device Version: 5.21.6

Link to Debug Log

app.log
console_output.log
main.log
strace.log.gz

[EvanHahn-Signal]

Sorry you're running into this. Unfortunately, we only provide official support for Debian and Ubuntu. Please file an issue with the maintainer of the package for your OS.

You could try to make a backup of ~/.config/Signal, start the app without that folder, and then restoring that folder.

[Krumgizel]

Same problem here with:
openSUSE Leap 15.2
kernel 5.3.18-lp152.87-default
x86_64

except: not necessary to kill process after quitting. It will terminate after 2 minute timeout:
{"level":30,"time":"2021-08-30T13:06:45.242Z","pid":9380,"hostname":"desdemona","msg":"requestShutdown: Requesting close of mainWindow..."} {"level":30,"time":"2021-08-30T13:08:45.245Z","pid":9380,"hostname":"desdemona","msg":"requestShutdown: Response never received; forcing shutdown."} {"level":30,"time":"2021-08-30T13:08:45.292Z","pid":9380,"hostname":"desdemona","msg":"before-quit event {\"readyForShutdown\":true,\"shouldQuit\":true}"} {"level":30,"time":"2021-08-30T13:08:45.292Z","pid":9380,"hostname":"desdemona","msg":"close event {\"readyForShutdown\":true,\"shouldQuit\":true}"} {"level":30,"time":"2021-08-30T13:08:45.296Z","pid":9380,"hostname":"desdemona","msg":"System tray service: updating main window. Previously, there was a window, and now there is not"} {"level":30,"time":"2021-08-30T13:08:45.296Z","pid":9380,"hostname":"desdemona","msg":"System tray service: rendering no tray"}

Starting with "ELECTRON_ENABLE_LOGGING=1 signal-desktop":
... {"level":30,"time":"2021-08-30T13:06:13.568Z","pid":9380,"hostname":"desdemona","msg":"Finish ensuring permissions in 30ms"} [9380:0830/150614.076953:INFO:CONSOLE(13)] "(electron) The remote module is deprecated. Use https://github.com/electron/remote instead.", source: electron/js2c/renderer_init.js (13) [9380:0830/150614.243001:INFO:CONSOLE(33)] "The vm module of Node.js is deprecated in the renderer process and will be removed.", source: electron/js2c/renderer_init.js (33) [9380:0830/150614.260630:INFO:CONSOLE(6)] "SharedArrayBuffer will require cross-origin isolation as of M92, around July 2021. See https://developer.chrome.com/blog/enabling-shared-array-buffer/ for more details.", source: /usr/lib64/signal-desktop/resources/app.asar/node_modules/atomic-sleep/index.js (6) [9380:0830/150620.152371:INFO:CONSOLE(33)] "The vm module of Node.js is deprecated in the renderer process and will be removed.", source: electron/js2c/renderer_init.js (33) [9380:0830/150620.165854:INFO:CONSOLE(33)] "The vm module of Node.js is deprecated in the renderer process and will be removed.", source: electron/js2c/renderer_init.js (33) {"level":30,"time":"2021-08-30T13:06:26.380Z","pid":9380,"hostname":"desdemona","msg":"sending database-ready"} ...

[ttrubep1]

@Krumgizel, I found a workaround using the Debian package of Signal Desktop 5.15.0:

1. Download the package from https://updates.signal.org/desktop/apt/pool/main/s/signal-desktop/signal-desktop_5.15.0_amd64.deb
2. Extract the content of data.tar.xz in the signal-desktop_5.15.0_amd64.deb file (e. g. KDE's archive manager Ark can open the file).
3. Empty the directory /usr/lib64/signal-desktop on your machine.
4. Copy the content from the /opt/Signal directory in data.tar.xz into /usr/lib64/signal-desktop.

On my system, Signal Desktop 5.15.0 is now up and running. I'll write a bug report for the maintainer of the signal-desktop package for openSUSE.

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And regarding killing the application: Waiting worked on my system too (before applying the workaround), I just did not have the patience before you mentioned it... 😉

[ttrubep1]

Just for the record, the bug report for the openSUSE package is here:
https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/network:im:signal/signal-desktop-bin#comment-1509717