Version

0.18.3

Operating System

Linux

Distribution Method

deb (Linux)

Describe the issue

I ran into this issue trying to use GitButler on my Debian machine. I figured out a workaround with Warp's help. Below is Warp's AI summary of what we found--apologies for the AI-generated issue, but it did a far better job of describing the problem than I would have done.

GitButler launches but displays only a blank window with a non-functional toolbar when using NVIDIA proprietary drivers on Linux. The UI completely fails to load due to NVIDIA GBM (Generic Buffer Management) driver errors.

Environment

• OS: Debian GNU/Linux
• GitButler version: 0.18.3
• GPU: NVIDIA with proprietary drivers
• Display server: X11/Wayland

Error Messages

src/nv_gbm.c:288: GBM-DRV error (nv_gbm_create_device_native): nv_common_gbm_create_device failed (ret=-1)
KMS: DRM_IOCTL_MODE_CREATE_DUMB failed: Permission denied
Failed to create GBM buffer of size 1340x1008: Permission denied

Logs

• Backend (Tauri/Rust) starts successfully and logs normally
• ui-logs.log is completely empty - frontend never initializes
• WebKitGTK webview fails to create rendering context

Workaround

Force Mesa EGL rendering instead of NVIDIA GBM:

LD_PRELOAD= \
GBM_BACKENDS_PATH=/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/gbm \
__EGL_VENDOR_LIBRARY_FILENAMES=/usr/share/glvnd/egl_vendor.d/50_mesa.json \
gitbutler-tauri

Root Cause

The NVIDIA GBM implementation in libnvidia-egl-gbm is incompatible with WebKitGTK's rendering requirements, preventing the webview from initializing.

Suggested Fix

Add environment variable detection for NVIDIA systems and automatically fall back to Mesa rendering, or provide a configuration option to select the rendering backend.