Bug 2404930 - Thunderbird flatpak aborts on startup after latest updates
Summary: Thunderbird flatpak aborts on startup after latest updates
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: None
Product: Fedora
Classification: Fedora
Component: thunderbird
Version: 43
Hardware: Unspecified
OS: Linux
unspecified
urgent
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Gecko Maintainer
QA Contact: Fedora Extras Quality Assurance
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2025-10-18 19:09 UTC by John Mellor
Modified: 2025-10-23 10:34 UTC (History)
14 users (show)

Fixed In Version:
Clone Of:
Environment:
Last Closed:
Type: ---
Embargoed:


Attachments (Terms of Use)

Description John Mellor 2025-10-18 19:09:42 UTC
Thunderbird flatpak fails to start after updating system to 2025/10/18

uninstalling the flatpak and installing the rpm version works properly.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1.Update system
2.Reboot
3.Click on Thunderbird
Actual Results:
After about 10sec a popup notification of app failure occurs, before first display.

Expected Results:
Normal Thunderbird startup

Additional Information:
Xeon gen4, 28GB ram, 92% free disk.

Comment 1 hexmasteen 2025-10-19 11:01:31 UTC
Same behavior for me on Fedora Workstation 42. This is about the Fedora-Flatpak. According to a report on the forum (https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/thunderbird-dumps-after-today-flatpack-fc42sb-upgrade/169260/), the version from flathub is not affected.

$ flatpak run net.thunderbird.Thunderbird
[2] Sandbox: CanCreateUserNamespace() clone() failure: EPERM
[Parent 2, Main Thread] WARNING: Could not load a pixbuf from icon theme.
This may indicate that pixbuf loaders or the mime database could not be found.: 'glib warning', file /builddir/build/BUILD/thunderbird-140.3.0-build/thunderbird-140.3.0/toolkit/xre/nsSigHandlers.cpp:201

(net.thunderbird.Thunderbird:2): Gtk-WARNING **: 12:57:01.845: Could not load a pixbuf from icon theme.
This may indicate that pixbuf loaders or the mime database could not be found.
**
Gtk:ERROR:../gtk/gtkiconhelper.c:495:ensure_surface_for_gicon: assertion failed (error == NULL): Failed to load /usr/share/icons/Adwaita/scalable/status/image-missing.svg: Failed to create file “~/.var/app/net.thunderbird.Thunderbird/cache/tmp/gdk-pixbuf-glycin-tmp.TCMSE3”: No such file or directory (g-file-error-quark, 4)
Bail out! Gtk:ERROR:../gtk/gtkiconhelper.c:495:ensure_surface_for_gicon: assertion failed (error == NULL): Failed to load /usr/share/icons/Adwaita/scalable/status/image-missing.svg: Failed to create file “~/.var/app/net.thunderbird.Thunderbird/cache/tmp/gdk-pixbuf-glycin-tmp.TCMSE3”: No such file or directory (g-file-error-quark, 4)
Redirecting call to abort() to mozalloc_abort

Comment 2 mail 2025-10-19 18:09:25 UTC
Same here...

Comment 3 Jason Smith 2025-10-19 18:20:13 UTC
same for fedora flatpak

$ flatpak run net.thunderbird.Thunderbird
[2] Sandbox: CanCreateUserNamespace() clone() failure: EPERM
[Parent 2, Main Thread] WARNING: Could not load a pixbuf from icon theme.
This may indicate that pixbuf loaders or the mime database could not be found.: 'glib warning', file /builddir/build/BUILD/thunderbird-140.3.0-build/thunderbird-140.3.0/toolkit/xre/nsSigHandlers.cpp:201

(net.thunderbird.Thunderbird:2): Gtk-WARNING **: 13:16:16.589: Could not load a pixbuf from icon theme.
This may indicate that pixbuf loaders or the mime database could not be found.
**
Gtk:ERROR:../gtk/gtkiconhelper.c:495:ensure_surface_for_gicon: assertion failed (error == NULL): Failed to load /usr/share/icons/Adwaita/scalable/status/image-missing.svg: Failed to create file “~/.var/app/net.thunderbird.Thunderbird/cache/tmp/gdk-pixbuf-glycin-tmp.ZEO0E3”: No such file or directory (g-file-error-quark, 4)
Bail out! Gtk:ERROR:../gtk/gtkiconhelper.c:495:ensure_surface_for_gicon: assertion failed (error == NULL): Failed to load /usr/share/icons/Adwaita/scalable/status/image-missing.svg: Failed to create file “~/.var/app/net.thunderbird.Thunderbird/cache/tmp/gdk-pixbuf-glycin-tmp.ZEO0E3”: No such file or directory (g-file-error-quark, 4)
Redirecting call to abort() to mozalloc_abort

Comment 4 Attura 2025-10-20 08:42:53 UTC
I had a similar error.

not to sure if I had this path "/builddir/build/BUILD/thunderbird-140.3.0-build/thunderbird-140.3.0/toolkit/xre/nsSigHandlers.cpp" in mine, but I did remove the following environment variable via Flatseal
TMPDIR=~/.var/app/net.thunderbird.Thunderbird/cache/tmp

This seems to made it work again.

So I am asking myself if this change of the tmpdir is important as flatpak already isolates the normal /tmp/ access in some manner.

Comment 5 David Williams 2025-10-20 14:28:09 UTC
(In reply to Attura from comment #4)
> I had a similar error.
> 
> not to sure if I had this path
> "/builddir/build/BUILD/thunderbird-140.3.0-build/thunderbird-140.3.0/toolkit/
> xre/nsSigHandlers.cpp" in mine, but I did remove the following environment
> variable via Flatseal
> TMPDIR=~/.var/app/net.thunderbird.Thunderbird/cache/tmp
> 
> This seems to made it work again.
> 
> So I am asking myself if this change of the tmpdir is important as flatpak
> already isolates the normal /tmp/ access in some manner.

Same fix (use flatseal to remove TMPDIR from Environment) worked for me on Fedora 42.  Thank you Attura for the pointer.

Comment 6 redhat_bugzilla.4hvqv 2025-10-20 14:37:39 UTC
I have the same issue:

flatpak run net.thunderbird.Thunderbird 
[2] Sandbox: CanCreateUserNamespace() clone() failure: EPERM
[Parent 2, Main Thread] WARNING: Could not load a pixbuf from icon theme.
This may indicate that pixbuf loaders or the mime database could not be found.: 'glib warning', file /builddir/build/BUILD/thunderbird-140.3.0-build/thunderbird-140.3.0/toolkit/xre/nsSigHandlers.cpp:201

(net.thunderbird.Thunderbird:2): Gtk-WARNING **: 16:35:37.883: Could not load a pixbuf from icon theme.
This may indicate that pixbuf loaders or the mime database could not be found.
**
Gtk:ERROR:../gtk/gtkiconhelper.c:495:ensure_surface_for_gicon: assertion failed (error == NULL): Failed to load /usr/share/icons/Adwaita/scalable/status/image-missing.svg: Failed to create file “~/.var/app/net.thunderbird.Thunderbird/cache/tmp/gdk-pixbuf-glycin-tmp.T2WWE3”: No such file or directory (g-file-error-quark, 4)
Bail out! Gtk:ERROR:../gtk/gtkiconhelper.c:495:ensure_surface_for_gicon: assertion failed (error == NULL): Failed to load /usr/share/icons/Adwaita/scalable/status/image-missing.svg: Failed to create file “~/.var/app/net.thunderbird.Thunderbird/cache/tmp/gdk-pixbuf-glycin-tmp.T2WWE3”: No such file or directory (g-file-error-quark, 4)
Redirecting call to abort() to mozalloc_abort

Comment 7 Rick Greene 2025-10-20 15:45:34 UTC
(In reply to David Williams from comment #5)
> (In reply to Attura from comment #4)
> > I had a similar error.
> > 
> > not to sure if I had this path
> > "/builddir/build/BUILD/thunderbird-140.3.0-build/thunderbird-140.3.0/toolkit/
> > xre/nsSigHandlers.cpp" in mine, but I did remove the following environment
> > variable via Flatseal
> > TMPDIR=~/.var/app/net.thunderbird.Thunderbird/cache/tmp
> > 
> > This seems to made it work again.
> > 
> > So I am asking myself if this change of the tmpdir is important as flatpak
> > already isolates the normal /tmp/ access in some manner.
> 
> Same fix (use flatseal to remove TMPDIR from Environment) worked for me on
> Fedora 42.  Thank you Attura for the pointer.

Same issue here, installed flatseal and (through the gui) deleted the TMPDIR setting, Thunderbird now loads.

I'll note that I never got an application error pop-up, it just failed silently.  I had to do "flatpak run net.thunderbird.Thunderbird" to see error messages.

Comment 8 Fëdor 2025-10-22 10:39:33 UTC
In addition to previous comments: another workaround (without using flatseal) would be to run `flatpak override --user --unset-env=TMPDIR net.thunderbird.Thunderbir`.

Comment 9 Jan Horak 2025-10-23 10:34:43 UTC
Moved TMPDIR env from the flatpak run parameters:
https://src.fedoraproject.org/flatpaks/thunderbird/pull-request/1
to the launch script (to still be able to open attachments in third party apps):
https://src.fedoraproject.org/rpms/thunderbird/c/3b4cf8bcd79c0f38b7d7b218b56af67051589d3b?branch=rawhide


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