[Bug]: linphone-5.2.6-AppImage complaining about GLIBC dependencies

[sjarmitage]

Context

Evaluating Linphone desktop for a number of communications requirements.

General information

• Device: Desktop
• OS: Ubuntu 18.10 (back to 18.04 LTS)
• Version of the App: Desktop 5.2.6 (cannot run up so cannot provide any other information)
• Version of the SDK: <n/a>

Expected behaviour

It should run. Instead, it does this:

This is different from 5.1.2 which is able to resolve all its dependencies and start correctly.

To Reproduce

1. Download package from https://download.linphone.org/releases/linux/app/Linphone-5.2.6.AppImage
2. Open shell.
3. Change permissions on download file to 700.
4. Attempt to execute from shell.

Additional context

I have some questions:

1. What version of Ubuntu do you actually support?
    
   Context
    
   Ubuntu 18.04 LTS ships with glibc-2.27 and Ubuntu 18.10 ships with glibc-2.28. linphone-5.1.2 worked fine against 18.10, but you now require a minimum of glibc-2.29 which is a no-man's land as the next LTS after Ubuntu 18.04 LTS is Ubuntu 20.04 LTS which uses glibc-2.31 - Launchpad glibc Package).
    
   It would be understandable only supporting Ubuntu LTS versions, in which case which LTS do you support? Ubuntu 18.04 LTS remains fully supported by Canonical until 2028 (following 10-year support policy on all releases as provided for by Ubuntu Pro Subscription programmes). However, if you are going to take the effort of supporting versions of Ubuntu in between LTS versions, then you should be supporting back to the version of glibc in the Ubuntu LTS version prior to the minimum interim Ubuntu version you are targetting.

2. What is the point of using AppImage distribution when the contents of the AppImage have hard external dependencies on Your environment?
    
   Context
    
   Your choice of compiler has resulted in a dependence on a minimum of glib-2.29 which mandates a specific version of /libXX/ld-linux-XXXXXX.so.2 which, in turn, mandates a specific kernel version. It is not appropriate to be arbitrarily upgrading the version of compiler tools you use when it will break compatibility with the operating systems of a segment of your user base, however small that segment of the user base is perceived to be. The most recent versions of Firefox and Thunderbird, which also rely on glibc, manage to run on older systems than Linphone and they too can run directly from an unpacked image (a .tar file).
    
   If service X or library Y that Linphone depends on doesn't support an older system, consider using docker as demonstrated by this diligent group of engineers over at NeoVIM.

3. Do you intend to fix this issue?
    
   That is, to enable your AppImage to rely on a minimum of glibc 2.27 (the version of glibc shipped with Ubuntu 18.04 LTS)?

Thanks in advance.

SDK logs URL

No response