fyne-io/fyne · critical

eglInitialize failed\n

Error message

eglInitialize failed\n

What it means

x11.c then calls eglInitialize on the EGL display. Failure means EGL was given a display but could not initialize it: driver mismatch (32/64-bit or vendor confusion), no usable GPU device for this user, or a broken Mesa install. The process prints 'eglInitialize failed' and exits(1).

Source

Thrown at internal/driver/mobile/app/x11.c:111

EGLContext e_ctx;
EGLSurface e_surf;
Window win;

void
createWindow(void) {
	x_dpy = XOpenDisplay(NULL);
	if (!x_dpy) {
		fprintf(stderr, "XOpenDisplay failed\n");
		exit(1);
	}
	e_dpy = eglGetDisplay(x_dpy);
	if (!e_dpy) {
		fprintf(stderr, "eglGetDisplay failed\n");
		exit(1);
	}
	EGLint e_major, e_minor;
	if (!eglInitialize(e_dpy, &e_major, &e_minor)) {
		fprintf(stderr, "eglInitialize failed\n");
		exit(1);
	}
	eglBindAPI(EGL_OPENGL_ES_API);
	win = new_window(x_dpy, e_dpy, 500, 1000, &e_ctx, &e_surf);

	wm_delete_window = XInternAtom(x_dpy, "WM_DELETE_WINDOW", True);
	if (wm_delete_window != None) {
		XSetWMProtocols(x_dpy, win, &wm_delete_window, 1);
	}

	XMapWindow(x_dpy, win);
	if (!eglMakeCurrent(e_dpy, e_surf, e_surf, e_ctx)) {
		fprintf(stderr, "eglMakeCurrent failed\n");
		exit(1);
	}

	// Window size and DPI should be initialized before starting app.
	XEvent ev;

View on GitHub (pinned to 8860ee95c3)

Solutions

1. Check GPU access: ls -l /dev/dri/ and add the user to the video and render groups, then re-login
2. Diagnose with EGL logging: EGL_LOG_LEVEL=debug LIBGL_DEBUG=verbose eglinfo
3. Fall back to software EGL: LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 ./yourapp
4. Reinstall/upgrade Mesa and vendor ICDs to clear the broken state

Example fix

# before: no permission on GPU nodes -> eglInitialize failed
./yourapp

# after: grant DRI access (re-login required) or use software EGL
sudo usermod -aG video,render "$USER"
LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 ./yourapp

func gpuAccessPreflight() error {
	entries, err := os.ReadDir("/dev/dri")
	if err != nil || len(entries) == 0 {
		return fmt.Errorf("no DRI devices; run with LIBGL_ALWAYS_SOFTWARE=1 or enable GPU access")
	}
	return nil
}

When it happens

Trigger: eglInitialize returning false: GPU device nodes (/dev/dri/*) unreadable for the running user, vendor ICD libraries in a bad state, or EGL picked up a display for a platform that has no backing device.

Common situations: Users not in the video/render groups (common in fresh Linux installs and WSL); containers without GPU device passthrough; systems after partial NVIDIA/Mesa upgrades; running as an unprivileged service user.

Related errors

• eglGetConfigAttrib failed\n
• eglCreateContext failed\n
• eglGetDisplay failed\n
• eglChooseConfig failed\n
• eglCreateWindowSurface failed\n

AI-assisted analysis of fyne-io/fyne@8860ee95c3 (2026-08-15). Data as JSON: /api/errors/34c82c2e0b8a7f9f. Report an issue: GitHub.