Emacs --with-xwidgets not detecting webkitgtk

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1 
{ config, pkgs, ... }:

let
  RELOAD = "export PATH=${pkgs.emacs}/bin:$PATH && export PATH=${pkgs.git}/bin:$PATH && /home/safri/.nix/home/emacs/doom.sh";
in

{

  home.packages = with pkgs; [
    # DOOM Emacs dependencies
    binutils
    (ripgrep.override { withPCRE2 = true; })
    gnutls
    fd
    imagemagick
    zstd
    nodePackages.javascript-typescript-langserver
    sqlite
    editorconfig-core-c
    emacs-all-the-icons-fonts
  ];

  home.file = {

    "${config.xdg.configHome}/doom" = {
      source = ./doom;
      recursive = true;
      onChange = ''${RELOAD}'';
    };

  };

  services.emacs = {
    enable = true;
    client.enable = true;
    defaultEditor = true;
  };

  programs.emacs = {
    enable = true;
    # https://www.reddit.com/r/NixOS/comments/14sdrw6/help_with_setting_up_with_emacs_build/
    package = pkgs.emacs.overrideAttrs (oldAttrs: {
      nativeBuildInputs = (oldAttrs.nativeBuildInputs or []) ++ [ pkgs.pkg-config ];
      buildInputs = with pkgs; (oldAttrs.buildInputs or []) ++ [ gtk3 webkitgtk_4_1 ];
      configureFlags = oldAttrs.configureFlags ++ [
        "--without-x"
        "--without-ns"
        "--with-pgtk"
        "--with-xwidgets"
        "--with-png"
        "--with-jpeg"
        "--with-sound"
        "--with-file-notifications=yes"
      ];
    });
  };

}

error:

error: 1 dependencies of derivation '/nix/store/b5sd6yjylb4rnvp5j5nzxkmlirkafhy1-emacs-with-packages-30.1.drv' failed to build
error: 1 dependencies of derivation '/nix/store/53lsmkgw4c9jydr38qidf8qlq9ic9bm5-emacs.service.drv' failed to build
error: 1 dependencies of derivation '/nix/store/wvazwsx4x8i8iyxqkipnklh849ql3g34-home-manager-path.drv' failed to build
error: 1 dependencies of derivation '/nix/store/ijhlfsbcb979msf1dhjfjy3wm1sxy92z-home-manager-generation.drv' failed to build
┏━ 1 Errors: 
┃ error: builder for '/nix/store/absyd2xhcm6n76hkbi2c9v4n5q028lbx-emacs-30.1.drv' failed with exit code 1;
┃        last 25 log lines:
┃        >        closing open displays.  This is no problem if you just use
┃        >        one display, but if you use more than one and close one of them
┃        >        Emacs may crash.
┃        >        See https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gtk/issues/221
┃        > checking for malloc_trim... yes
┃        > checking for dbus-1 >= 1.0... yes
┃        > checking for dbus_watch_get_unix_fd... yes
┃        > checking for dbus_type_is_valid... yes
┃        > checking for dbus_validate_bus_name... yes
┃        > checking for dbus_validate_path... yes
┃        > checking for dbus_validate_interface... yes
┃        > checking for dbus_validate_member... yes
┃        > checking for gio-2.0 >= 2.26... yes
┃        > checking whether GSettings is in gio... yes
┃        > checking for gobject-2.0 >= 2.0... yes
┃        > checking for lgetfilecon in -lselinux... yes
┃        > checking for gnutls >= 2.12.2... yes
┃        > checking for libsystemd >= 222... yes
┃        > checking for tree-sitter >= 0.20.2... yes
┃        > checking for sys/inotify.h... yes
┃        > checking for inotify_init... yes
┃        > checking for inotify_init1... yes
┃        > checking for webkit2gtk-4.1 >= 2.12 webkit2gtk-4.1 < 2.41.92... no
┃        > checking for webkit2gtk-4.0 >= 2.12 webkit2gtk-4.0 < 2.41.92... no
┃        > configure: error: xwidgets requested but WebKitGTK+ or WebKit framework not found.
┃        For full logs, run:
┃          nix log /nix/store/absyd2xhcm6n76hkbi2c9v4n5q028lbx-emacs-30.1.drv

I believe the issue is that emacs isn’t detecting webkit during the build process but I have no idea how to fix that.

Any help would be appreciated.

2

The upstream derivation has a flag for that: nixpkgs/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/make-emacs.nix at 4792576cb003c994bd7cc1edada3129def20b27d · NixOS/nixpkgs · GitHub

You should be able to just do this to force it:

programs.emacs.package = pkgs.emacs.override { withXwidgets = true; };

That said, the defaults look to be set correctly to work around bugs. I’d suggest simply using emacs-pgtk, it’s built with xwidget support according to the default values.

3 
  programs.emacs = {
    package = pkgs.emacs-pgtk.override { withXwidgets = true; withGTK3 = true; };
    enable = true;
  };

It didn’t build without gtk

┃        > checking for webkit2gtk-4.1 >= 2.12 webkit2gtk-4.1 < 2.41.92... no
┃        > checking for webkit2gtk-4.0 >= 2.12 webkit2gtk-4.0 < 2.41.92... no
┃        > configure: error: xwidgets requested but WebKitGTK+ or WebKit framework not found.

Same error

4

Are you on MacOS? If so, you cannot do this. At least I assume you are, since emacs-pgtk does not need those overrides for xwidget support.

5

No, I’m on NixOS

safri@nixos:~/ > nixos-version
25.05.20250531.a59eb78 (Warbler)
6

Huh, that’s very surprising, it shouldn’t even be rebuilding. Have you tried just emacs-pgtk without the override?

7

Yes, that builds but not with xwidget support.

8

Ah, sorry, I misread the condition. Emacs v>30 cannot be built with xwidgets: nixpkgs/pkgs/applications/editors/emacs/make-emacs.nix at b4656359c085638a10f66be6f86b978be17dcded · NixOS/nixpkgs · GitHub

This leaves you with only vulnerable versions of either webkit or emacs until that is fixed upstream, and neither is packaged in NixOS, for obvious reasons.

9

unfortunate, thank you for the help though!