Handle Ubuntu 24+/26+ Chromium sandbox startup failures in Electron launcher

gui-js/apps/minsky-electron/src/app/app.sandbox.spec.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+import { requiresNoSandboxOnLinux } from './linux-sandbox';
+
+describe('requiresNoSandboxOnLinux', () => {
+  it('returns true for Ubuntu 24.04', () => {
+    expect(requiresNoSandboxOnLinux('linux', 'ID=ubuntu\nVERSION_ID="24.04"\n', false)).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it('returns true for Ubuntu 26.04', () => {
+    expect(requiresNoSandboxOnLinux('linux', 'ID=ubuntu\nVERSION_ID="26.04"\n', false)).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it('normalizes quoted/mixed-case Ubuntu distro IDs', () => {
+    expect(requiresNoSandboxOnLinux('linux', 'ID="Ubuntu"\nVERSION_ID="24.04"\n', false)).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it('returns false for Ubuntu 24.04 when setuid sandbox is available', () => {
+    expect(requiresNoSandboxOnLinux('linux', 'ID=ubuntu\nVERSION_ID="24.04"\n', true)).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it('returns false for Ubuntu 22.04', () => {
+    expect(requiresNoSandboxOnLinux('linux', 'ID=ubuntu\nVERSION_ID="22.04"\n', false)).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it('returns false for non-Ubuntu Linux', () => {
+    expect(requiresNoSandboxOnLinux('linux', 'ID=debian\nVERSION_ID="12"\n', false)).toBe(false);
+  });
+
+  it('returns true for Ubuntu-like distro IDs on Linux 24+', () => {
+    expect(requiresNoSandboxOnLinux('linux', 'ID=linuxmint\nID_LIKE="ubuntu debian"\nVERSION_ID="24.04"\n', false)).toBe(true);
+  });
+
+  it('returns false for non-Linux platforms', () => {
+    expect(requiresNoSandboxOnLinux('darwin', 'ID=ubuntu\nVERSION_ID="24.04"\n', false)).toBe(false);
+  });
+});

gui-js/apps/minsky-electron/src/app/app.ts

@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ import { ApplicationMenuManager } from './managers/ApplicationMenuManager';
 import { BookmarkManager } from './managers/BookmarkManager';
 import { CommandsManager } from './managers/CommandsManager';
 import { HelpFilesManager } from './managers/HelpFilesManager';
+import { requiresNoSandboxOnLinux } from './linux-sandbox';
 import { RecentFilesManager } from './managers/RecentFilesManager';
 import { StoreManager } from './managers/StoreManager';
 import { WindowManager } from './managers/WindowManager';
@@ -238,6 +239,11 @@ export default class App {
     // makes the code easier to write tests for
     App.BrowserWindow = browserWindow;
     App.application = app;
+
+    if (requiresNoSandboxOnLinux()) {
+      app.commandLine.appendSwitch('no-sandbox');
+      log.info('Enabled --no-sandbox for Ubuntu 24.04+ compatibility');
+    }
 
     // Rendering was not working on some window's machines without disabling gpu
     if (process.platform === 'win32') {

gui-js/apps/minsky-electron/src/app/linux-sandbox.ts

@@ -0,0 +1,54 @@
+import { existsSync, readFileSync, statSync } from 'fs';
+import { dirname, join } from 'path';
+
+function parseOsReleaseValue(osReleaseContent: string, key: string): string {
+  const match=osReleaseContent.match(new RegExp(`^${key}=(.*)$`, 'm'));
+  return match? match[1].trim().replace(/^['"]|['"]$/g, '').toLowerCase(): '';
+}
+
+export function requiresNoSandboxOnLinux(
+  platform=process.platform,
+  osReleaseContent?: string,
+  hasUsableSandbox?: boolean
+): boolean {
+  if (platform!=='linux') return false;
+  try {
+    if (!osReleaseContent) {
+      let osRelease='/etc/os-release';
+      if (existsSync(process.resourcesPath+'/os-release'))
+        osRelease=process.resourcesPath+'/os-release';
+      osReleaseContent=readFileSync(osRelease, 'utf8');
+    }
+    const distro=parseOsReleaseValue(osReleaseContent, 'ID');
+    const distroLike=parseOsReleaseValue(osReleaseContent, 'ID_LIKE');
+    const versionId=parseOsReleaseValue(osReleaseContent, 'VERSION_ID');
+    const versionMajor=Number(versionId.split('.')[0]);
+    const isUbuntuLike=distro==='ubuntu' || distroLike.split(/\s+/).includes('ubuntu');
+    if (hasUsableSandbox===undefined)
+      hasUsableSandbox=hasUsableChromeSandbox();
+    return isUbuntuLike && Number.isFinite(versionMajor) && versionMajor>=24 && !hasUsableSandbox;
+  } catch {
+    return false;
+  }
+}
+
+function isSetuidRoot(path: string): boolean {
+  try {
+    const stat=statSync(path);
+    return stat.uid===0 && (stat.mode & 0o4000)!==0;
+  } catch {
+    return false;
+  }
+}
+
+export function hasUsableChromeSandbox(
+  executablePath=process.execPath,
+  resourcesPath=process.resourcesPath
+): boolean {
+  const candidates=[
+    join(dirname(executablePath), 'chrome-sandbox'),
+    join(resourcesPath, 'chrome-sandbox'),
+  ];
+
+  return candidates.some(path => existsSync(path) && isSetuidRoot(path));
+}