Support for Ubuntu 24.04; dependency management errors

[jkislin]

Describe the bug
When attempting to install on Ubuntu 24 with dpkg, one gets an error that dependency problems prevent configuration of batch-explorer. When attempting to manually install the dependencies with sudo apt install and sudo apt --fix-missing install, the dependencies still do not install.

To Reproduce
Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Download the latest .deb from the releases page.
2. sudo dpkg -i <path to .deb>
3. Observe error in screenshot 1.
4. sudo apt install gconf2
5. Observe error in screenshot 2.

Note that this does not happen on systems where gconf2 was installed when the system was at 22.04 and then upgraded to 24.04, putatively since the dependency was installed while the 22.04 repositories are active. Might one attempt to manually re-add the 22.04 repositories? This does not seem like best practice.

Expected behavior

I'd expect the .deb to have dependencies that are available on Ubuntu 24.04, or for there to be a workaround.

Screenshots

Version (please complete the following information):

• OS: Linux, Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS
• Version: 2.22.0-stable.1076_amd64

Thank you!

[jkislin]

When attempting to build from source, the lack of gconf2 availability also prevents building.

[jkislin]

Timothee Guerin (@timotheeguerin) Shiran Pasternak (@gingi) David Watrous (@dpwatrous) Rena (@cRui861)

Any thoughts on this one, or thoughts on a workaround? Know anyone who might be able to assist?

Thank you!

[vgallego]

Environment

• Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS (GNOME, X11)
• Batch Explorer 2.23.0-stable.1210

What I tested

The .deb package fails to install due to missing dependencies:

• gconf2
• gconf-service
• libappindicator1

These packages are no longer available in Ubuntu 24.04 LTS, so the .deb cannot be installed on a supported Ubuntu release.

The AppImage initially fails with:

• dlopen(): error loading libfuse.so.2

This can be resolved by installing the compatibility package:

sudo apt install libfuse2

After installing libfuse2, launching the AppImage from a terminal fails with:

• FATAL:setuid_sandbox_host.cc
• chrome-sandbox must be owned by root and have mode 4755

However, launching the same AppImage via double-click from GNOME Files works correctly.
This suggests a Chromium/Electron sandbox issue related to the launch context, not a runtime crash.

The AppImage can be made usable by explicitly disabling the Electron sandbox:

ELECTRON_DISABLE_SANDBOX=1 ./BatchExplorer-2.23.0-stable.1210.AppImage

or by creating a .desktop launcher with that environment variable.

Conclusion

Batch Explorer still runs on Ubuntu 24.04.3 LTS.

The main problems appear to be:

• outdated Linux packaging (obsolete gconf dependencies in the .deb)
• Electron sandbox assumptions incompatible with modern Ubuntu security defaults

Updating the Linux packaging (and/or Electron version) would likely resolve both the .deb installation failure and the AppImage sandbox issues.