CachyOS / CachyOS/CachyOS-Welcome
cachyos-hello won't start due to missing SVG support in gdk-pixbuf2-noglycin needed for unity fix
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Description
Hey everyone, I'm pretty new to Linux and CachyOS, so please forgive me if this issue is based on lack of experience. (For disclosure, i tried to analyse and fix the problem with claue ai)
The Problem: I need both Unity and cachyos-hello to work, but they have conflicting requirements for my case:
- Unity needs: gdk-pixbuf2-noglycin (to fix slow right-click context menus - see this Unity discussion:
https://discussions.unity.com/t/in-120713-context-menus-open-very-slowly/1690076/32
- cachyos-hello needs: SVG support in gdk-pixbuf, which gdk-pixbuf2-noglycin doesn't have
For the unity fix i removed the default glycin version:
```
yay gdk-pixbuf2-noglycin
sudo pacman -Rs glycin
```
The Error: When I try to run cachyos-hello, it crashes immediately:
```
thread 'main' panicked at src/window.rs:54:53: called \Result::unwrap()` on an `Err`
value: Error { domain: gdk-pixbuf-error-quark, code: 3, message:
"Couldn't recognize the image file format for file
"/usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps//org.cachyos.hello.svg"" }`
```
This issue does not come up with any other program yet.
## Path Issue:
- Wrong path (what cachyos-hello is looking for):
`/usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps//org.cachyos.hello.svg (note the double slash)`
- Correct path (where the file actually exists):
`/usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/org.cachyos.hello.svg`
## What I've discovered:
- The official gdk-pixbuf2 package includes SVG support (via librsvg)
- gdk-pixbuf2-noglycin only has 3 loaders: wmf, openraw, and webp - no SVG
- When I check gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders | grep svg, it returns nothing
- The SVG icon file exists at /usr/share/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/org.cachyos.hello.svg
## What I've tried:
- Reinstalling cachyos-hello - didn't help
- Clearing icon caches - didn't help
- Installing/reinstalling librsvg - didn't help (loader still not registered)
## Possible underlying issue and possible feature request
(Disclosure: Developed with claude ai)
**Current Issue:** cachyos-hello uses `gdk_pixbuf::Pixbuf::from_file()` to directly load SVG icons, which requires an SVG loader in gdk-pixbuf. This fails when using `gdk-pixbuf2-noglycin` (which lacks SVG support).
**How Other Programs Handle SVG Icons Successfully:**
1. **Icon Theme API (Recommended):**
- Use GTK's icon theme system: `gtk::IconTheme::load_icon()`
- Request icon by name (e.g., "org.cachyos.hello") instead of hardcoded path
- GTK handles rendering internally, doesn't depend on gdk-pixbuf loaders
- Works across different gdk-pixbuf variants
2. **Alternative Renderers:**
- Use `librsvg` directly via `rsvg::Loader`
- Use Cairo for SVG rendering
- Qt apps use their own libqsvg (doesn't depend on gdk-pixbuf)
**Feature Request:** Replace the direct file loading at `src/window.rs:54:53` with GTK's icon theme API to improve compatibility with different gdk-pixbuf configurations.
## Additional System Info
Linux ***** 6.17.9-2-cachyos #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Mon, 24 Nov 2025 17:57:32 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux
cachyos-hello 0.19.1-1
KDE Plasma
reeze-darkm Breeze
gdk-pixbuf2-noglycin 2.44.4-2
Contributor guide
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Research direction
Read src/window.rs at line 54 and reproduce the crash with gdk-pixbuf2-noglycin installed. Check the direct SVG loading described in the issue and evaluate the GTK icon theme API approach; done means cachyos-hello starts and its icon loads under that configuration.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- linux, rust
- Domain
- desktop
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 2/5
- Estimated time
- 1-3 hours
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Clearly specified
- Newbie friendliness
- 49/100