Botspot
Github-Desktop doesn't function correctly on Pi2 Rev 1.1 (armv7)
Confirmations
- [x] I searched for similar bug reports in https://github.com/Botspot/pi-apps/issues and found none were relevant.
- [x] I tried updating Pi-Apps and the issue is still not fixed. How to update Pi-Apps?
- [x] IMPORTANT: I promise to respond to comments on this issue and write a good bug report https://www.softwaretestinghelp.com/how-to-write-good-bug-report/
What happened?
'Github Desktop' displays a blank screen or doesnt open
Description
- Install pi-apps;
- Open pi-apps;
- Install github desktop;
- Open github-desktop through the start menu or terminal;
- Be greeted with no window or a blank screen.
Blank screen:
Terminal error displayed below
What are your system specs (run the following command in your terminal)?
OS: Raspbian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
OS architecture: 32-bit
Last updated Pi-Apps on: 06/23/2025
Latest Pi-Apps version: 06/23/2025
Kernel: armv7l 6.1.21-v7+
Device model: Raspberry Pi 2 Model B Rev 1.1
SOC identifier: bcm2836
Machine-id (hashed): 534e202c4699c33b5196b16f3a2fdfe5ab8b7e7f
Serial-number (hashed): 8d532c1ef0e4cc454e2443acde2494f8235f6e51
Cpu name: Cortex-A7
Ram size: .92 GB
Raspberry Pi OS image version: 2022-09-22
Language: en_US.UTF-8
(Recommended) Error log? Terminal output? Debug messages?
Using the terminal u get the error:
[4506:0623/171304.201774:ERROR:viz_main_impl.cc(166)] Exiting GPU process due to errors during initialization
Github desktop install log
OS: Raspbian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye)
OS architecture: 32-bit
Last updated Pi-Apps on: 06/23/2025
Latest Pi-Apps version: 06/23/2025
Kernel: armv7l 6.1.21-v7+
Device model: Raspberry Pi 2 Model B Rev 1.1
SOC identifier: bcm2836
Machine-id (hashed): 534e202c4699c33b5196b16f3a2fdfe5ab8b7e7f
Serial-number (hashed): 8d532c1ef0e4cc454e2443acde2494f8235f6e51
Cpu name: Cortex-A7
Ram size: .92 GB
Raspberry Pi OS image version: 2022-09-22
Language: en_US.UTF-8
BEGINNING OF LOG FILE:
-----------------------
Will install these packages: https://github.com/shiftkey/desktop/releases/download/release-3.4.13-linux1/GitHubDesktop-linux-armhf-3.4.13-linux1.deb
Downloading GitHubDesktop-linux-armhf-3.4.13-linux1.deb to /tmp/GitHubDesktop-linux-armhf-3.4.13-linux1.deb...
--2025-06-23 15:53:00-- https://github.com/shiftkey/desktop/releases/download/release-3.4.13-linux1/GitHubDesktop-linux-armhf-3.4.13-linux1.deb
Resolving github.com (github.com)... 140.82.121.3
Connecting to github.com (github.com)|140.82.121.3|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 302 Found
Location: https://objects.githubusercontent.com/github-production-release-asset-2e65be/93324270/86e6ca9f-0926-4006-99a2-dc171a417351?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=releaseassetproduction%2F20250623%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20250623T135301Z&X-Amz-Expires=1800&X-Amz-Signature=c29d75848c2efb0669dd432f5a78268bc4ef6ab220b19bc37057bb4373e4a5cc&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=attachment%3B%20filename%3DGitHubDesktop-linux-armhf-3.4.13-linux1.deb&response-content-type=application%2Foctet-stream [following]
--2025-06-23 15:53:01-- https://objects.githubusercontent.com/github-production-release-asset-2e65be/93324270/86e6ca9f-0926-4006-99a2-dc171a417351?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Credential=releaseassetproduction%2F20250623%2Fus-east-1%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20250623T135301Z&X-Amz-Expires=1800&X-Amz-Signature=c29d75848c2efb0669dd432f5a78268bc4ef6ab220b19bc37057bb4373e4a5cc&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=attachment%3B%20filename%3DGitHubDesktop-linux-armhf-3.4.13-linux1.deb&response-content-type=application%2Foctet-stream
Resolving objects.githubusercontent.com (objects.githubusercontent.com)... 185.199.111.133, 185.199.110.133, 185.199.108.133, ...
Connecting to objects.githubusercontent.com (objects.githubusercontent.com)|185.199.111.133|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 90898376 (87M) [application/octet-stream]
Saving to: ‘/tmp/GitHubDesktop-linux-armhf-3.4.13-linux1.deb’
/tmp/GitHubDesktop- 0%[ ] 0 --.-KB/s
/tmp/GitHubDesktop- 0%[ ] 599.79K 2.90MB/s
/tmp/GitHubDesktop- 1%[ ] 1.52M 3.74MB/s
/tmp/GitHubDesktop- 2%[ ] 2.49M 4.10MB/s
/tmp/GitHubDesktop- 3%[ ] 3.46M 4.28MB/s
/tmp/GitHubDesktop- 5%[> ] 4.37M 4.32MB/s
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/tmp/GitHubDesktop- 81%[===============> ] 70.25M 1.82MB/s eta 6s
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/tmp/GitHubDesktop- 83%[===============> ] 72.46M 2.28MB/s eta 4s
/tmp/GitHubDesktop- 84%[===============> ] 73.58M 5.61MB/s eta 4s
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/tmp/GitHubDesktop- 95%[==================> ] 82.66M 5.58MB/s eta 2s
/tmp/GitHubDesktop- 96%[==================> ] 83.81M 5.59MB/s eta 1s
/tmp/GitHubDesktop- 97%[==================> ] 84.91M 5.58MB/s eta 1s
/tmp/GitHubDesktop- 99%[==================> ] 86.02M 5.58MB/s eta 1s
/tmp/GitHubDesktop- 100%[===================>] 86.69M 5.61MB/s in 24s
2025-06-23 15:53:25 (3.64 MB/s) - ‘/tmp/GitHubDesktop-linux-armhf-3.4.13-linux1.deb’ saved [90898376/90898376]
Done
Creating an empty apt-package to install the necessary apt packages...
It will be named: pi-apps-de4729b3
Depends: github-desktop (>= 3.4.13-linux1)
Running sudo apt update...
Get:1 file:/tmp/pi-apps-local-packages ./ InRelease
Ign:1 file:/tmp/pi-apps-local-packages ./ InRelease
Get:2 file:/tmp/pi-apps-local-packages ./ Release [847 B]
Hit:3 http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian bullseye InRelease
Hit:4 http://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian bullseye InRelease
Get:2 file:/tmp/pi-apps-local-packages ./ Release [847 B]
Get:5 file:/tmp/pi-apps-local-packages ./ Release.gpg
Ign:5 file:/tmp/pi-apps-local-packages ./ Release.gpg
Get:6 file:/tmp/pi-apps-local-packages ./ Packages [1,052 B]
Get:7 https://cli.github.com/packages stable InRelease [3,917 B]
Err:8 https://apt.packages.shiftkey.dev/ubuntu any InRelease
Certificate verification failed: The certificate is NOT trusted. The name in the certificate does not match the expected. Could not handshake: Error in the certificate verification. [IP: 13.107.253.67 443]
Get:9 https://deb.nodesource.com/node_18.x bullseye InRelease [4,586 B]
Get:10 https://ngrok-agent.s3.amazonaws.com buster InRelease [20.3 kB]
Err:10 https://ngrok-agent.s3.amazonaws.com buster InRelease
The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 0E61D3BBAAEE37FE
Fetched 28.8 kB in 5s (5,310 B/s)
46 packages can be upgraded. Run 'apt list --upgradable' to see them.
W: An error occurred during the signature verification. The repository is not updated and the previous index files will be used. GPG error: https://ngrok-agent.s3.amazonaws.com buster InRelease: The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 0E61D3BBAAEE37FE
W: Failed to fetch https://ngrok-agent.s3.amazonaws.com/dists/buster/InRelease The following signatures couldn't be verified because the public key is not available: NO_PUBKEY 0E61D3BBAAEE37FE
W: Failed to fetch https://apt.packages.shiftkey.dev/ubuntu/dists/any/InRelease Certificate verification failed: The certificate is NOT trusted. The name in the certificate does not match the expected. Could not handshake: Error in the certificate verification. [IP: 13.107.253.67 443]
W: Some index files failed to download. They have been ignored, or old ones used instead.
apt update complete.
Some packages can be upgraded. Please consider running sudo apt full-upgrade.
Installing the pi-apps-de4729b3 package...
Waiting until APT locks are released... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
gyp libfuse2 libjs-highlight.js libjs-inherits libjs-is-typedarray libjs-psl
libjs-typedarray-to-buffer libssl-dev libuv1-dev node-chownr node-color-name
node-err-code node-extsprintf node-fast-deep-equal node-indent-string
node-ini node-is-typedarray node-json-parse-better-errors node-json-schema
node-json-schema-traverse node-qs node-resolve-from node-through
node-typedarray-to-buffer node-universalify node-uuid raspinfo
Use 'sudo apt autoremove' to remove them.
The following additional packages will be installed:
github-desktop
Suggested packages:
gir1.2-gnomekeyring-1.0 libgnome-keyring0
The following NEW packages will be installed:
github-desktop pi-apps-de4729b3
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 46 not upgraded.
After this operation, 290 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 file:/tmp/pi-apps-local-packages ./ github-desktop 3.4.13-linux1 [90.9 MB]
Get:2 /tmp/pi-apps-de4729b3.deb pi-apps-de4729b3 all 1.0 [764 B]
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(Reading database ... 116271 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking github-desktop (3.4.13-linux1) ...
Unpacking pi-apps-de4729b3 (1.0) ...
Apt finished.
Waiting until APT locks are released... Done
Package installation complete.
Hello there 👋 Thanks for submitting your first issue to the Pi-Apps project! We'll try to get back to you as soon as possible. In the meantime, we encourage you join our Discord server, where you can ask any questions you might have.
Please respond as soon as possible if a Pi-Apps maintainer requests more information from you. Stale issues will be closed after a lengthy period of time with no response.
![github-actions[bot] avatar](https://avatars.githubusercontent.com/in/15368?v=4 "Published by a pub.dev verified publisher"){kind=small}
Your GPU drivers/your hardware in general appear to be unsupported for HW acceleration, noted by the error [4506:0623/171304.201774:ERROR:viz_main_impl.cc(166)] Exiting GPU process due to errors during initialization , my first try would be to update Pi OS to the latest version as you still have Bullseye which is going EOL in the next year since issues can cause from old GPU drivers, if you can't update Pi OS to the latest version/didn't fix the issue then disable GPU acceleration using the flag --disable-gpu on the command line flags as it's based on Electron. Be aware that this will use software rendering and will be slower/might be unusable then HW acceleration.
You have a Pi 2 Model B? (Read in device-model section on specs).
And 0.92GB of RAM may not be enough for fast bootups of GitHub Desktop. However, I think this is a software bug, because I've ran GitHub desktop on my--yes, more powerful--Pi 5, but my Pi can have 6-7GBs of my RAM used on ther processes, and still open GitHub desktop. So I think... As #matu6768 said, it is GPU HW.
Seems like it's a gpu hw issue, which makes this unusable for me, so it is what it is.
Thanks @EthanDevTeam @matu6968
This is a hardware issue, but not GPU-related. Your Pi 2 model has a 32-bit CPU that is armv6. Github Desktop was compiled for armhf, which is more common. Back in the day, for the original Pi models to even run Linux, the Raspbian project's big breakthrough was converting all of debian's armhf binaries to armv6 in an automated way. Most likely Github Desktop would work if you took the time to instruct Electron to recompile it explicitly for armv6, but there is no guarantee it would work, and the end result would be slow most likely.
The Pi 2B v1.2 switched to using the same processor as the Pi3, which natively supports armhf instructions as well as full 64-bit, and no longer required any such conversion.
Other users have encountered this same issue on the original Pi Zero for a few apps in pi-apps. (see previous issues)
I have clarified the README to say the only Pi2 version we support is v1.2.
This is a hardware issue, but not GPU-related. Your Pi 2 model has a 32-bit CPU that is armv6.
Incorrect. The original pi2 uses a BCM2836 which has a quad core armv7 CPU (cortex a7). You can see that in the system specs.
The Pi 2B v1.2 switched to using the same processor as the Pi3, which natively supports armhf instructions as well as full 64-bit, and no longer required any such conversion.
That's correct. The BCM2837 is an armv8 processor.
I would expect GitHub Desktop to work on armv7 hardware like the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B Rev 1.1. reopening and marking as upstream bug. I don't think any of us have that unique pi2 revision to test but hopefully someone comes along that does. As some other users noted, the low system ram available could be a cause, as could outdated GPU drivers on your unsupported bullseye OS.
This is a hardware issue, but not GPU-related. Your Pi 2 model has a 32-bit CPU that is armv6.
Incorrect. The original pi2 uses a BCM2836 which has a quad core armv7 CPU (cortex a7). You can see that in the system specs.
The Pi 2B v1.2 switched to using the same processor as the Pi3, which natively supports armhf instructions as well as full 64-bit, and no longer required any such conversion.
That's correct. The BCM2837 is an armv8 processor.
I would expect GitHub Desktop to work on armv7 hardware like the Raspberry Pi 2 Model B Rev 1.1. reopening and marking as upstream bug. I don't think any of us have that unique pi2 revision to test but hopefully someone comes along that does. As some other users noted, the low system ram available could be a cause, as could outdated GPU drivers on your unsupported bullseye OS.
If there's anything i can do like testing lmk.
If there's anything i can do like testing lmk.
@DarkVillager First thing would be to install the latest piOS Bookworm release and try it there. That will have the latest available GPU drivers and supported software/libraries.
The second thing would be to install the "More RAM" application from Pi-Apps which will enable ZRAM (compressed swap stored on RAM) and could allow the application to run if it would normally be killed due to running out of ram.
If there's anything i can do like testing lmk.
@DarkVillager First thing would be to install the latest piOS Bookworm release and try it there. That will have the latest available GPU drivers and supported software/libraries.
The second thing would be to install the "More RAM" application from Pi-Apps which will enable ZRAM (compressed swap stored on RAM) and could allow the application to run if it would normally be killed due to running out of ram.
My pi died before i could try this due to water leak...