[Linux on Chromebook] Anki 25.07.5 crashes with Wayland error immediately after starting

Anki Help
1

I use Anki for Desktop on a Chromebook in the Chromebook Linux environment, using the normal Linux install file that can be downloaded on the Anki Website, untarring it and then running sudo ./install.sh. So far, this always worked for updating and until yesterday I was still using version 25.02.x. I tried the same in order to update to the current version 25.07.5. The install seemed to work fine, and then the launcher downloaded and installed the 40 or so packages without error.

When I then open Anki using my icon shortcut, the window opens for a very brief moment but then disappears. Running “anki” from the terminal results in the same behaviour but I can also see the following error message:

Starting Anki 25.07.5…
2025-08-23 20:34:27,666:INFO:aqt.mediasrv: Serving on [HTTP link to 127.0.0.1:42697]
Starting main loop…
Qt warning: Ignoring unexpected wl_surface.enter received for output with id: 7 screen name: “Screen5” screen model: “unknown” This is most likely a bug in the compositor.
Qt warning: The Wayland connection broke. Did the Wayland compositor die?

If I start Anki using anki –safemode I get almost the same:

Starting Anki 25.07.5…
2025-08-23 20:53:18,868:INFO:aqt.mediasrv: Serving on [HTTP link to 127.0.0.1:41787]
Qt warning: Failed to create popup. Ensure popup QWidgetWindow(0x16626bb0, name=“CustomLabelClassWindow”) has a transientParent set.
Starting main loop…
Qt warning: The Wayland connection broke. Did the Wayland compositor die?

Any ideas how I could troubleshoot further?

2

Is this a fresh install? Have you already enabled Wayland for Anki? Wayland - Anki Manual

3

Hi, thanks for the reply. This was installed over the previous version as I did with all previous updates (I think 25.02.5 was the last version I had installed). I don’t even know how to uninstall to be honest.

On the previous version I never had to enable Wayland as far as I am aware. I tried to enable Wayland but not sure this is the correct way: I just typed “ANKI_WAYLAND=1” on the command prompt and pressed enter before then typing “anki”. But I essentially get the same error. I tried “ANKI_WAYLAND=0” for good measure as well but it doesn’t change anything.

I am on a slower internet connection today and interestingly, I can now see the Anki window open for longer (maybe a second) while it synchronises.

I get a few more lines of error messages today but I assume only the last message is relevant:

Starting Anki 25.07.5…
2025-08-26 10:06:55,979:INFO:aqt.mediasrv: Serving on [link to 127.0.0.1:43237]
Starting main loop…
Qt warning: Ignoring unexpected wl_surface.enter received for output with id: 7 screen name: “Screen5” screen model: “unknown” This is most likely a bug in the compositor.
[1736:7:0826/100656.376416:ERROR:command_buffer_proxy_impl.cc(131)] ContextResult::kTransientFailure: Failed to send GpuControl.CreateCommandBuffer.
[1765:7:0826/100656.398085:ERROR:command_buffer_proxy_impl.cc(131)] ContextResult::kTransientFailure: Failed to send GpuControl.CreateCommandBuffer.
Qt warning: Ignoring unexpected wl_surface.enter received for output with id: 7 screen name: “Screen5” screen model: “unknown” This is most likely a bug in the compositor.
Qt warning: The Wayland connection broke. Did the Wayland compositor die?

Any ideas to investigate?

4

You should be able to run /usr/local/share/anki/uninstall.sh, provided your chromebook linux OS works like other linux OSes (e.g. like debian).

Anki disables wayland support by default. Here’s what I see on debian trixie when I run anki:

Starting Anki 25.07.5...
Wayland support is disabled by default due to bugs:
https://github.com/ankitects/anki/issues/1767
You can force it on with an env var: ANKI_WAYLAND=1
2025-08-30 19:25:23,356:INFO:aqt.mediasrv: Serving on http://127.0.0.1:35697
Starting main loop...
mpv not found, reverting to mplayer

The correct way to force wayland would thus be this command:

ANKI_WAYLAND=1 anki

Chromebook is using Wayland, though, according to Linux in Chrome OS using Wayland. [Reddit.com].

What is your session using? E.g. my debian trixie returns wayland if I run echo $XDG_SESSION_TYPE.

It might be best if you use the flatpak version, which will make sure all neccessary dependencies are installed (ChromeOS apparently lacks some dependencies). Using flatpak helped other users for similar issues (on other, non anki related, apps).

1 Like
First time using Linux (ChromeOS) - having problems installing!
5

Thanks! I tried that and get the same crash. I think that Wayland is active by default, and the echo command you also suggested gives me wayland as well.

I then uninstalled using the command you suggested, which seemed successful.

I then installed Flatpak (I had never heard of this actually until I searched for the issue of this thread) and then Anki within Flatpak.

When I then run Anki using the “flatpak run net.ankiweb.Anki” command, I get the Anki window where I select the language, and then it crashes again with the same error as previously (“Qt warning: The Wayland connection broke. Did the Wayland compositor die?”).

There are also some other error messages before that I am not sure are related:

user@penguin:~$ flatpak run net.ankiweb.Anki
Starting Anki 25.07.5…
  File “/app/bin/anki”, line 8, in <module>
    sys.exit(run())
  File “/app/lib/python3.12/site-packages/aqt/init.py”, line 565, in run
    _run()
  File “/app/lib/python3.12/site-packages/aqt/init.py”, line 637, in _run
    pmLoadResult = pm.setupMeta()
  File “/app/lib/python3.12/site-packages/aqt/profiles.py”, line 143, in setupMeta
    res = self._loadMeta()
  File “/app/lib/python3.12/site-packages/aqt/profiles.py”, line 432, in _loadMeta
  traceback.print_stack()
resetting corrupt _global
Qt warning: setHighDpiScaleFactorRoundingPolicy must be called before creating the QGuiApplication instance
Qt warning: Ignoring unexpected wl_surface.enter received for output with id: 7 screen name: “Screen5” screen model: “unknown” This is most likely a bug in the compositor.
Qt warning: The Wayland connection broke. Did the Wayland compositor die?

Any further ideas?

1 Like
6

I don’t have any more ideas unfortunately. Though I’ll add that another user has a similar issue: First time using Linux (ChromeOS) - having problems installing!.

Hopefully the devs see this and have an idea.

Edit: Well, actually… maybe I do have one last idea. ChromeOS with linux enabled seems to be using Debian as its base. Assuming it also packages debians version of anki (and ChromeOS uses an ancient version of debian, debian bullseye to be exact), you should be able to install it like this:

sudo apt install anki

But even if that worked (which it probably doesn’t), that Anki version from bullseye is really ancient.

7

Yes, I know about the very old versions but I won’t even try that (instead I would just try reinstalling the 25.02.7 version that was working before). The reason I use Anki in the Linux environment is that I have the same user interface as on my primary desktop PC and also that I can use add-ons. There is also Ankidroid from the Play Store that works perfectly fine as well on the Chromebook, which is an option.

1 Like
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