Keybase (Electron App) won’t run on Fedora 33 / 34 / 35+

Well just like troubleshooting the problem with Chia Light Wallet not starting on Fedora 35 for me, it looks like Keybase suffers an almost identical problem and both are Electron-based applications.

Following the Linux Install Instructions on the Keybase site, you’ll:

1. Install the RPM
2. Execute the run_keybase command
3. OPTIONAL: Run the new Keybase desktop shortcut:

In all the cases you’ll see what looks like good messages logged to the console, then an ASCII Squirrel, then an empty window shell will popup… then close and nothing:

$ run_keybase 
Unmounting /run/user/1000/keybase/kbfs...
Unmounting and shutting down kbfsfuse...
Shutting down keybase service...
Starting via systemd...
run_keybase: Success!
<SNIP ASCII Squirrel>
$ (return to command prompt)

I did some digging in GitHub and found this comment that clarifies needing to add the --no-sandbox argument to the /opt/local/Keybase executable.

I figured “Oh, this is just like fixing the shortcut for Chia Light Wallet so I fired up MenuLibre and found the Keybase shortcut that the install had added and oddly enough, it didn’t reference that executable – it still referenced the run_keybase command we were suppose to run after RPM install:

When I hopped in the console to find the actual Keybase executable under /opt, I noticed that no such /opt/local directory existed – instead it was located at: /opt/keybase/Keybase, so I updated the menu shortcut accordingly:

I saved my changed and now when I run the shortcut, Keybase starts up just fine!