Installed app handy needs lost dependency, libSDL-1.2.so.0

Support Snap/Flatpak
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[ljohnson@KISE-007 ~]$ handy
/snap/handy/1/handy_sdl: error while loading shared libraries: libSDL-1.2.so.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or director

I read somewhere libSDL has been replaced by libSDL2 and libSDL3. but when I install libSDL2, this happens.

[ljohnson@KISE-007 ~]$ sudo pacman -S sdl2-compat
warning: sdl2-compat-2.32.60-1 is up to date -- reinstalling
resolving dependencies...
looking for conflicting packages...

Packages (1) sdl2-compat-2.32.60-1

Total Installed Size:  3.08 MiB
Net Upgrade Size:      0.00 MiB

:: Proceed with installation? [Y/n] 
(1/1) checking keys in keyring                                  [##################################] 100%
(1/1) checking package integrity                                [##################################] 100%
(1/1) loading package files                                     [##################################] 100%
(1/1) checking for file conflicts                               [##################################] 100%
(1/1) checking available disk space                             [##################################] 100%
:: Running pre-transaction hooks...
(1/1) Creating Timeshift snapshot before upgrade...
==> skipping timeshift-autosnap due skipRsyncAutosnap in /etc/timeshift-autosnap.conf set to TRUE.
:: Processing package changes...
(1/1) reinstalling sdl2-compat                                  [##################################] 100%
:: Running post-transaction hooks...
(1/1) Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
[ljohnson@KISE-007 ~]$ sudo pacman -Q -k sdl2-compat-2.32.60-1
error: package 'sdl2-compat-2.32.60-1' was not found

Since my handicap is getting more bothersome, I really need a sophisticated speech to text app
Mod edit: separated the above sentence from the terminal output code box

[ljohnson@KISE-007 ~]$ sudo pacman -Q -k sdl2-compat-2.32.60-1
error: package 'sdl2-compat-2.32.60-1' was not found

My reference has been:

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The package is called sdl2-compat, not sdl2-compat-2.32.60-1 — that’s its version.

sdl2-compat is actually an SDL 2 compatibility layer, which uses SDL 3 in the background.

I also don’t see why you’re trying to reinstall it, since it is already installed. But if you’re going to be using software packaged as a Snap, as per… :backhand_index_pointing_down:

… then it won’t matter, because Snaps are applications that come packaged together with all of their dependencies in an isolated container format, and they have no access to the rest of the filesystem.

Snaps are designed to rely only on what they come packaged with, and therefore, whether you’ve got sdl2-compat installed or not doesn’t make any difference, because the handy Snap won’t be looking for it. It does however appear to be looking for SDL 1.2, but given that the handy Snap has not been updated anymore since 2023, it’s no wonder.

What you could try — it’s a long shot, though — is create a couple of symlinks that point to the newer library, like so… :backhand_index_pointing_down:

sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libSDL2.so /usr/lib/libSDL1.so 
sudo ln -s /usr/lib/libSDL1.so /usr/lib/libSDL.so

There’s no guarantee this will work, but it’s an old trick for fooling old and/or misconfigured software into accessing a newer library than what it’s actually looking for.

3

Alternatively, there is also handy-bin from AUR.

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Hmm… Oddly enough, I considered that one not to be appropriate because of the link the OP included in his opening post, which is to a Snap package for an Atari Lynx emulator. :face_with_raised_eyebrow: :backhand_index_pointing_down:

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Since my handicap is getting more bothersome, I really need a sophisticated speech to text app

I think he means tts app and not emulator :grinning_face:

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7

Has Manjaro Team allowed Snapcraft to use the Manjaro logo for their packages?
Some users might get confused by this and think that Snap packages are supported officially

Site does mention Pamac GUI but does not mention the snap plugin
and latest ISOs have snapd preinstalled, probably has the service enabled too

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On Download Handy | Handy they provide an AppImage. Did you try this?

The handy-bin in the AUR seems to use a .deb package which i don’t understand how it should work out :thinking:

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In theory, it’s reassembles the .deb contents on-the-fly to suit Arch based distributions. The same with .rpm and .zip and various other foreign formats.

And GearLever is a handy app to manage appimage packages – to integrate them into system menu, for example.

sudo pacman -S gearlever
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To check if package is likely to work without changing system:

pamac build handy-bin --dry-run
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That’s a very good question. To the best of my knowledge, no such permission has explicitly been granted, but at the same time, Manjaro’s current project leader also doesn’t appear to be too concerned with whoever (or whatever instance) uses the Manjaro logo — and even the Manjaro name, apparently.

It’s a very sloppy situation, and undoubtedly, this will need to be addressed and discussed at some point in the future.

Well, I think that has always been the case to a certain degree.

The ISO I installed my system from back in 2009 — Manjaro 18.0.4 Illyria — still used the gtk3-based version of pamac, because there was no gtk4 version yet, and therefore also no separate plugin for Snaps. However, said ISO already did come with snapd installed and running by default.

Furthermore, back in those days, long before the Manjaro Summit branch was even conceived, the Manjaro project leader was already coining his idea for a Snap-based version of the distribution, geared towards his corporate plans, in which pacman itself would be absent and pamac would be the only and official package manager.

Due to loud protest from the community, the current project leader then adjusted his plan to say that the regular Manjaro with pacman would continue to exist as well, as the testbed for the Snap-based one.

Meanwhile, we have seen the (pre-)release of the Manjaro Summit branch, which does still feature pacman, albeit disabled due to the read-only nature of the (btrfs) root filesystem, with — I believe — FlatPak as the recommended way of adding more software to the system.

Still, from the organizational vantage and as far as the Manjaro community is concerned, Snaps and FlatPaks remain (a specific format of) third-party software, for which we host a separate forum category (Support > Snap/Flatpak) under the Support umbrella, and if it’s up to the community — which is the side I myself am on — Snap and FlatPak will always remain third-party software repositories.

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Manjaro 18.0.4 Illyria was released 2019

Gtk4 version of pamac-gtk was first released in 2023

I remember it was suggested pacman might not be needed in the future when pamac-qt was first released, but that didn’t work out. I don’t recall anything similar since

As far as I know the logo is not a registered trademark, but there was a re-spin of Manjaro (Tromjaro) that was requested to remove Manjaro branding

I am not against use of the logo, but it should at least have accurate and up to date information
I know snapd is installed for new users but I don’t know if creating a symlink is needed

If Phil is not interested, maybe the Manjaro Summit maintainer could discuss this with Snapcraft?

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Let’s drop him a ping then. :wink:

@dennis1248

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14

sdl 1 is on the AUR AUR (en) - sdl

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The package that provides SDL1.2 compatibility is called sdl12-compat.

$ pacman -F libSDL-1.2.so.0
extra/sdl12-compat 1.2.68-2 [installed]
    usr/lib/libSDL-1.2.so.0
multilib/lib32-sdl12-compat 1.2.68-2
    usr/lib32/libSDL-1.2.so.0

So you might be missing that, but given that this appears to be a snap application, it probably runs in a sandboxed container that should contain all its dependencies, so the error is odd.

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Just a reminder to anyone considering posting in this thread that the OP did include the following sentence in their post:

The handy snap application they referred to in that first post, and which requires the sdl1 library, is an Atari games emulator. As @teo pointed out in an earlier reply:

The handy-bin app in the AUR is more likely the speech-to-text application they require:

handy-bin does not require sdl1, and drew in no dependencies when I just installed it on my system via pamac’s GUI:

Output of handy-bin build process 
Preparing...
Checking handy-bin dependencies...
Resolving dependencies...
Checking inter-conflicts...
Cloning handy-bin build files...
Generating handy-bin information...

Building handy-bin...
==> Making package: handy-bin 0.6.9-1 (Fri 02 Jan 2026 09:02:04)
==> Checking runtime dependencies...
==> Checking buildtime dependencies...
==> Retrieving sources...
  -> Downloading handy-bin-0.6.9.deb...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed

  0     0   0     0   0     0     0     0  --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0
  0     0   0     0   0     0     0     0  --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0

  0     0   0     0   0     0     0     0  --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0
 29 19383k  29  5720k   0     0  3985k     0   0:00:04  0:00:01  0:00:03  5664k
 88 19383k  88 17102k   0     0  7192k     0   0:00:02  0:00:02 --:--:--  8756k
100 19383k 100 19383k   0     0  7523k     0   0:00:02  0:00:02 --:--:--  9011k
  -> Downloading LICENSE...
  % Total    % Received % Xferd  Average Speed   Time    Time     Time  Current
                                 Dload  Upload   Total   Spent    Left  Speed

  0     0   0     0   0     0     0     0  --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--     0
100  1064 100  1064   0     0  2482     0  --:--:-- --:--:-- --:--:--  2485
==> Validating source files with b2sums...
    handy-bin-0.6.9.deb ... Passed
    LICENSE ... Passed
==> Removing existing $srcdir/ directory...
==> Extracting sources...
  -> Extracting handy-bin-0.6.9.deb with bsdtar
==> Entering fakeroot environment...
==> Starting package()...
==> Tidying install...
  -> Removing libtool files...
  -> Removing static library files...
  -> Purging unwanted files...
  -> Stripping unneeded symbols from binaries and libraries...
  -> Compressing man and info pages...
==> Checking for packaging issues...
==> Creating package "handy-bin"...
  -> Generating .PKGINFO file...
  -> Generating .BUILDINFO file...
  -> Generating .MTREE file...
  -> Compressing package...
==> Leaving fakeroot environment.
==> Finished making: handy-bin 0.6.9-1 (Fri 02 Jan 2026 09:02:09)
==> Cleaning up...

Checking keyring...
Checking integrity...
Loading packages files...
Checking file conflicts...
Checking available disk space...
Installing handy-bin (0.6.9-1)...
Running post-transaction hooks...
Arming ConditionNeedsUpdate...
Updating icon theme caches...
Updating the desktop file MIME type cache...
Transaction successfully finished.

To install handy-bin via the command line, use the following command:

pamac build handy-bin

There were no problems encountered with launching the handy-bin speech-to-text application from the application launcher, or by running the command handy in a terminal on my system:

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