Linux support: native build works, config path and packaging need cleanup

[GenesisAN]

Hi, I tested IMM locally on Linux and it is already very close to working well.

I also noticed there is already a linux branch with several useful Linux-related changes, such as:

• native 7z/extraction support
• Linux hotreload/dependency checks
• cross-platform path normalization
• some Linux UI fixes

On my side, a native release binary works on Linux:

npm run build
cargo build --release --manifest-path src-tauri/Cargo.toml

The app can start, load EF/XXMI paths, scan EFMI mods, and display the mod list.

The main remaining issue I found is config file location.

There are still many places using relative config paths, for example:

readTextFile("config.json")
writeTextFile("config.json", ...)
readTextFile(`config${game}.json`)
writeTextFile(`config${game}.json`, ...)

Files involved include:

• src/utils/init.ts
• src/utils/filesys.ts
• src/utils/errorCatcher.tsx

On Linux, this can make configs appear next to the executable, depending on how the app is launched. For example, if installed under ~/.local/bin, it may create:

~/.local/bin/config.json
~/.local/bin/configEF.json

For official Linux support, I think configs should use a stable Tauri app data directory instead, such as appDataDir() or localDataDir().

I also hit two AppImage packaging issues on Arch/CachyOS:

1. linuxdeploy strip failed with .relr.dyn, fixed locally with NO_STRIP=1.
2. The generated AppImage crashed because the WebKitGTK helper process was missing:

WebKitNetworkProcess: No such file or directory

So for the first Linux target, a native binary or .deb package may be easier than AppImage.

I also attached two screenshots from my local Linux build. They show that the app was successfully compiled, launched, and is working well with my EFMI setup.

[jpbhatt21]

Hi @GenesisAN , thank you for your comprehensive feedback on the linux side of things! The thing is that the version of the app that Nick worked on to add support for linux was out of date by a few months (as i had not pushed any changes to main and continued to work on the temp branch), so im waiting to the sort out all the features from temp and merge it to main, after which ill look into the linux branch, resolve any conflicts and merge it with main).
So im keeping the issue open for now and will get back to it soon.
If youre not already in the discord server id like for u to join it, and tag me once, ill create a sep channel for linux dev there.