[Bug]: t3 CLI fails to exec on Oracle UEK8 kernels (ENOEXEC) — Node SEA PT_NOTE blob exceeds 4 MB kernel limit

Before submitting

• I searched existing issues and did not find a duplicate.
• I included enough detail to reproduce or investigate the problem.

Area

apps/server

Environment

• Oracle Linux 9 (aarch64), kernel 6.12.0-204.92.4.4.3.el9uek.aarch64 (UEK8)
• node v24.20.0, npm 12.0.2
• npx t3@0.0.43-nightly.20260919.1978

Steps to reproduce

1. On any Oracle Linux host running a UEK8 kernel (6.12.x el9uek/el10uek, any arch):
2. npx t3@0.0.43-nightly.20260919.1978
3. Install completes, then fails:

/home/agent/.npm/_npx/.../node_modules/@t3code/t3-linux-arm64/t3: cannot execute binary file: Exec format error

strace confirms the failure is at execve():

execve(".../@t3code/t3-linux-arm64/t3", ...) = -1 ENOEXEC (Exec format error)

Expected behavior

The CLI starts.

Actual behavior

Kernel refuses to exec the binary (ENOEXEC). This is not an arch mismatch — the binary is a valid aarch64 ELF for this aarch64 host and runs correctly once the triggering condition is neutralized.

Root cause (verified)

UEK8's load_elf_binary() parses every executable's PT_NOTE segment at exec time and returns -ENOEXEC if it exceeds 4 MB (MAX_FILE_NOTE_SIZE), as part of Oracle's preserved-memory/reserved-VA notes feature. Tracked upstream in https://github.com/oracle/linux-uek/issues/46 (closed by Oracle, not fixed as of 6.12.0-204.92.4.4.3).

The t3 CLI is a Node.js Single Executable Application: the JS bundle is embedded as a NODE_SEA_BLOB ELF note (via postject), so PT_NOTE p_filesz is large by design:

NOTE  off=0x08dde000 va=0x0010dde000 filesz=0xa9b0bc (~11.2 MB)  > 4 MB limit -> ENOEXEC
readelf -n: NODE_SEA_BLOB  0x00a9a986

Evidence from bisecting a copy of the ELF on the affected host:

• e_phnum truncated to ≤ 8 (dropping the NOTE phdr): execve succeeds
• NOTE phdr nulled, or its p_filesz capped at 4 MB: binary runs and prints t3 v0.0.43-nightly.20260919.1978
• Everything else (launcher, platform detection, interpreter, page-size alignment) verified fine

Note this affects all t3 platform packages (linux-x64 included) on UEK8, and any Node SEA > 4 MB (e.g. LM Studio's llmster, see the UEK issue).

Workarounds

1. Boot Oracle Linux's RHCK (or any mainline-based) kernel instead of UEK.
2. Patch the installed binary's NOTE p_filesz down to 4 MB (must be reapplied after every update) — verified to work.

Suggestions for t3code

• In bin/t3.js, detect spawnSync result.error.code === 'ENOEXEC' and print a targeted hint (UEK8 / large-PT_NOTE incompatibility + link to workarounds) instead of the bare "failed to start" message. This failure mode is otherwise very hard to diagnose.
• Consider documenting the UEK8 incompatibility in the README, or offering a non-SEA distribution path (plain JS entry with system node), which has no note-size ceiling.

Side observation

The npm-published binaries ship unstripped (160 MB with debug_info, not stripped) — stripping would cut the download substantially, though the ~11 MB SEA note itself is inherent to the SEA format.

Start with bin/t3.js and reproduce the failure using the provided npx command on an affected UEK8 host. Trace how spawnSync errors are reported, then make the ENOEXEC path explain the UEK8 large-PT_NOTE incompatibility and available workarounds. Done means the CLI gives a targeted diagnostic instead of the bare startup failure.