Add package to AppImage-run without write a new derivation

brogos · March 10, 2021, 3:21pm

I want to run Netron. It’s distributed as AppImage. So I tried to use appimage-run to run it:

❯ appimage-run Netron-4.8.1.AppImage                                                                                            
Netron-4.8.1.AppImage installed in /home/thiago/.cache/appimage-run/57c7da4d85636014e68318f0f00c401350a2c50d4cedbb9f4a03b3605206b17f
/home/thiago/.cache/appimage-run/57c7da4d85636014e68318f0f00c401350a2c50d4cedbb9f4a03b3605206b17f/netron: error while loading shared libraries: libxshmfence.so.1: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

It seems to that xorg.libxshmfence is not included in appimage-run environment. Is it possible to add xorg.libxshmfence or other package inside of appimage-run environment without write a new derivation?

griff · March 17, 2021, 12:52am

The short answer is: No it is no possible without making a new derivation

The longer answer is that since making new derivations that slightly alter or fix existing derivations is so common derivations usually have extension points that make doing this slightly less painful.

As an example if you are using NixOS you can add your missing library to the system installed appimage-run with this snippet:

  environment.systemPackages = with pkgs; [
    (appimage-run.override {
      extraPkgs = pkgs: [ pkgs.xorg.libxshmfence ];
    })
  ];

brogos · March 17, 2021, 2:36am

It would be cool if NixOS had some thing like nix-shell but to FHS envs, something like:

nix-fsh-shell -p default_fhs python3 latex xorg.libxshmfence

So a new FHS would be created with the default packages (like appimageTools.defaultFhsEnvArgs.multiPkgs), python3, latex and xorg.libxshmfence

Akito · June 26, 2022, 10:31pm

This is the only answer I have come across on the entire internet, so forgive me for reviving this thread, as I have no other leads.

I used that code snippet in my configuration, yet it did not help, at all. The AppImage still won’t find that library. Rebuilding and upgrading all configuration several times, did not help.

Is there any documentation on this? All I find are posts saying “just use appimage-run”, like yeah, no kidding. I am already using it. The library is still not found, though.

There are probably tons of libraries being contacted by AppImages, causing such issues, so I assume I am by far not the only one with this issue.

github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit

AppImage(s) on NixOS (doesn't work)

opened 02:00AM - 08 Sep 17 UTC

closed 03:46PM - 08 Sep 17 UTC

olejorgenb

I was curious of whether appimages would run out-of-the box on NixOS since it is… set up in a rather special way. Downloaded the poster image from appimage.org: $ wget https://subsurface-divelog.org/downloads/Subsurface-4.6.2-x86_64.AppImage $ chmod +x Subsurface-4.6.2-x86_64.AppImage $ ./Subsurface-4.6.2-x86_64.AppImage zsh: no such file or directory: ./Subsurface-4.6.2-x86_64.AppImage Some info: $ readelf -a Subsurface-4.6.2-x86_64.AppImage | wgetpaste https://paste.pound-python.org/show/c2Id8UAY6irakarzPFI6/ $ uname -a Linux lapole 4.9.45 #1-NixOS SMP Fri Aug 25 00:12:55 UTC 2017 x86_64 GNU/Linux $ nixos-version 17.03.1775.56da88a298 (Gorilla) Weirdly(?) `ldd` says "not a dynamic executable" ### LD\_LIBRARY\_PATH The weird "no such file ..." message is expected on nixos since `/lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2` doesn't exist. We can get hold of the linker (and the few dependencies appimage seems to need) using `nix-shell`: $ nix-shell -p zlib.out glibc gcc fuse glib pth 'callPackage ./ld_library_path.nix { }' # The callPackage is just convenvice to set up NIX_LD_LIBRARY_PATH $ echo $NIX_LD_LIBRARY_PATH | nix-shorten /nix/store/hdh*-pth-2.0.7/lib:/nix/store/5v0*-glib-2.50.3/lib:/nix/store/qfj*-libffi-3.2.1/lib:/nix/store/0pw*-libffi-3.2.1-dev/lib:/nix/store/kpa*-zlib-1.2.11-dev/lib:/nix/store/3iv*-glib-2.50.3-dev/lib:/nix/store/acj*-fuse-2.9.7/lib:/nix/store/kjw*-glibc-2.25/lib:/nix/store/sg6*-zlib-1.2.11/lib $ cat $NIX_CC/nix-support/dynamic-linker /nix/store/kjwbqnh13dxh6w4pk2gb3ddmhpiaihqg-glibc-2.25/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 $ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$LD_LIBRARY_PATH:$NIX_LD_LIBRARY_PATH $ $(cat $NIX_CC/nix-support/dynamic-linker) ./Subsurface-4.6.2-x86_64.AppImage ./Subsurface-4.6.2-x86_64.AppImage: error while loading shared libraries: ./Subsurface-4.6.2-x86_64.AppImage: ELF file ABI version invalid No dice, but after a while I realized that the exported `LD_LIBRARY_PATH` might sneak into the appimage and cause trouble. So I tried an other approach frequently used to package binaries in nix: (first exit and re-enter nix-shell to make sure the environment is fresh) ### `patchelf` $ cp Subsurface-4.6.2-x86_64.AppImage{,.orig} $ patchelf \ --set-interpreter /nix/store/kjwbqnh13dxh6w4pk2gb3ddmhpiaihqg-glibc-2.25/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 \ --set-rpath $NIX_LD_LIBRARY_PATH \ Subsurface-4.6.2-x86_64.AppImage $ ./Subsurface-4.6.2-x86_64.AppImage Cannot open /tmp/.mount_tebpjc/.DirIcon Some progress.. (note: my user *can* mount other fuse filesystems) $ exit # exit nix-shell since it alters the environment in other subtle ways $ ./Subsurface-4.6.2-x86_64.AppImage Cannot open /tmp/.mount_HeYqBC/.DirIcon $ gdb ./Subsurface-4.6.2-x86_64.AppImage (gdb) start (gdb) break fopen Breakpoint 2 at 0x7ffff711b910: file iofopen.c, line 97. (gdb) c Continuing. Breakpoint 2, _IO_new_fopen (filename=0x7fffffffb620 "/tmp/.mount_Oa06L2/.DirIcon", mode=0x40562d "rb") at iofopen.c:97 97 iofopen.c: No such file or directory. # new terminal $ mount | grep AppImage Subsurface-4.6.2-x86_64.AppImage on /tmp/.mount_Oa06L2 type fuse.Subsurface-4.6.2-x86_64.AppImage (ro,nosuid,nodev,relatime,user_id=1000,group_id=100) $ ls /tmp/.mount_Oa06L2 ls: reading directory '/tmp/.mount_Oa06L2': Input/output error # Guess that could be due to the program being paused in gdb too `while true; do sleep 0.01; ls /tmp/.mount_*; done`'ing for fun I sometimes get something like: /tmp/.mount_YTKFHc total 136 drwx------ 2 ole users 4096 sep. 8 03:06 . drwxrwxrwt 550 root root 131072 sep. 8 03:06 .. I can paste `LD_DEBUG=all` etc, if it might be helpful. Finally I also tried the Atom appimage with same results. ### chroot Having some OCD tendencies I tried a third approach setting up a chroot environment, but then fuse complained about SUID not being set (which doesn't happen outside the chroot) ### Manual mount Then I found https://github.com/AppImage/AppImageKit/wiki/FUSE and mounted the (unpatched) image manually and ran `AppRun` manually using the linker: /nix/store/kj*ihqg-glibc-2.25/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 ./AppRun Started in /home/ole/src/nix/tools/foo ... Moving to /nix/store/kjwbqnh13dxh6w4pk2gb3ddmhpiaihqg-glibc-2.25/lib ... Error: No .desktop files found Maybe something with `XDG_DATA_DIRS`? XDG_DATA_DIRS+=:$(realpath usr/share/) .. same error `strace /nix/store/kj*ihqg-glibc-2.25/lib/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 ./AppRun 2>&1 | wgetpaste`: https://paste.pound-python.org/show/rIzXiKZTGBnncIO6lAnR/ And now I should really sleep :) (after trying to mount in /mnt/ just in case that was important)

This issue did not help much, either. It’s also marked as solved, which it obviously isn’t.

transistxr · November 4, 2025, 11:31pm

Sorry to bring this old thread up again but did you figure out a solution to this? I’m having the exact same problem and can’t seem to find a fix for it. I’m quite new to NixOS so I might be missing something.

I’m trying to run this software: Release 0.2.0 · joaomgcd/Tasker-Permissions · GitHub

Yeshey · January 3, 2026, 11:51am

I was having the same problem trying to launch ganache from Ganache - Truffle Suite

but the solution from @griff fixed it from me. This seems like a widespread enough package that it should be available by default in appimage-run in NixOS no?

Yeshey · January 3, 2026, 4:28pm

There was this merge request a long time ago that would fix this, but seems like it never got applied: appimage-run: add missing dependency libxshmfence by trepetti · Pull Request #118846 · NixOS/nixpkgs · GitHub

The fix should be simple so I created an issue requesting the addition of this package to the FHS environment of appimage-run: appimage-run: add missing dependency libxshmfence · Issue #476643 · NixOS/nixpkgs · GitHub

waffle8946 · January 3, 2026, 5:32pm

This will lead to two appimage-runs, at least use lib.hiPrio on ‌this one or such.

Still, the actual solution is to use https://nixos.org/manual/nixpkgs/stable/#sec-pkgs-appimageTools, not rely on appimage-run.