Fixing "FATAL:udev_loader.cc(38) Check failed: false." errors on NixOS

Wed, Oct 9, 2019

This is a problem that I ran into while figuring out how to get Pixelator running–the issue is that electron apps expect to be linked against the old libudev.so.0, not the new libudev.so.1.

The error itself looks like

Start init.
[1654:1009/144147.908343:FATAL:udev_loader.cc(38)] Check failed: false.
#0 0x00000378afa7 <unknown>
#1 0x0000037cb27b <unknown>
#2 0x000001109cd3 <unknown>
#3 0x000001109626 <unknown>
#4 0x000001109d50 <unknown>
#5 0x000003b68084 <unknown>
#6 0x0000037a2370 <unknown>
#7 0x00000376facd <unknown>
#8 0x00000376fde8 <unknown>
#9 0x000003770486 <unknown>
#10 0x000003725fd9 <unknown>
#11 0x00000376f7f7 <unknown>
#12 0x000003777dde <unknown>
#13 0x000000d3a5a5 <unknown>
#14 0x000000d3a753 <unknown>
#15 0x00000377bd47 <unknown>
#16 0x00000377a383 <unknown>
#17 0x7fc748e13ef7 start_thread
#18 0x7fc74720622f __GI___clone

fish: “./pixelator” terminated by signal SIGABRT (Abort)

Luckily, there is a stub package we can use as a work around–

* nixpkgs.libudev0-shim (libudev0-shim)
    Shim to preserve libudev.so.0 compatibility

How to use libudev0-shim

The trick is to modify your built binary so that its LD_LIBRARY_PATH includes libudev0-shim. This is done via makeWrapper, which wraps the binary with the customized path.

Here’s an example:

with import <nixpkgs> {};

let
  autopatchelf = import ../default.nix;
in
stdenv.mkDerivation {
  name = "pixelator";
  src = ~/downloads/pixelator-1.0.5-linux-x64.zip;
  nativeBuildInputs = [
    libudev0-shim
    udev
    dpkg
    autopatchelf
    unzip
    zlib
    harfbuzz
    freetype
    makeWrapper
];
  libs = stdenv.lib.makeLibraryPath [
    glibc
    libgcc
    gcc-unwrapped
    gtk2-x11
    zlib
    gnome2.pango
    atk
    cairo
    gdk_pixbuf
    glib
    fontconfig
    freetype
    dbus_daemon.lib
    dbus.lib
    xlibs.libX11
    xlibs.libxcb
    xlibs.libXi
    xlibs.libXcursor
    xlibs.libXdamage
    xlibs.libXrandr
    xlibs.libXcomposite
    xlibs.libXext
    nix
    xlibs.libXfixes
    xlibs.libXrender
    xlibs.libXtst
    xlibs.libXScrnSaver
    gnome2.GConf.out
    nss.out
    alsaLib.out
    nspr.out
    cups.lib
    xorg_sys_opengl.out
    expat.out
    harfbuzz.out
    libudev0-shim
];
  installPhase = ''
    chmod +xX pixelator
    chmod +xX _pixelator_cmd.exe
    mkdir -p $out/bin
    mv * $out
    autopatchelf $out

    ln -s $out/pixelator $out/bin/pixelator
    ln -s $out/_pixelator_cmd.exe $out/bin/_pixelator_cmd.exe
  '';
  preFixup = let
    runtimeLibs = lib.makeLibraryPath [ libudev0-shim ];
  in ''
  wrapProgram "$out/pixelator" --prefix LD_LIBRARY_PATH : ${runtimeLibs}
  '';
  dontStrip = true;
}

The highlighted bits are what you need. Notice the wrapping is done during the preFixup phase build phase, so after the binary has been built etc.

Fixing "FATAL:udev_loader.cc(38) Check failed: false." errors on NixOS

How to use libudev0-shim

Further Reading

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