Environment:

• Device: Android (aarch64/arm64)
• Kali Version: 2026.1 (kali-rolling)
• Installation: NetHunter Rootless (proot)
• VNC: TigerVNC via kex
• Architecture: aarch64

Problem Summary:

XFCE desktop is completely unusable on Kali 2026.1 NetHunter Rootless. Multiple cascading issues prevent the desktop from loading.

Issue 1: bwrap sandbox conflict

glycin-loaders (GNOME's new image loader) tries to spawn a bwrap sandbox inside proot. proot already uses its own namespace emulation, so nested bwrap calls fail silently.

Error:

Loader process exited early with status '2'
Command: "bwrap" "--unshare-all" "--die-with-parent" ...
"/usr/libexec/glycin-loaders/2+/glycin-svg" "--dbus-fd" "22"
(gdk-pixbuf-error-quark, 0)

Issue 2: PNG loader completely missing

gdk-pixbuf only has SVG loader installed. PNG loader does not exist anywhere in the system:

ls /usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/2.10.0/loaders/
# Output: libpixbufloader_svg.so

gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders output:
# Only SVG loader listed, no PNG, no JPEG, nothing else

Packages checked:

• libgdk-pixbuf-2.0-0 [OK] installed (2.44.6)
• libgdk-pixbuf2.0-bin [OK] installed
• libgdk-pixbuf2.0-common [OK] installed
• libpixbufloader_png.so [MISSING] does not exist anywhere

find /usr/lib -name "libpixbufloader_png*"
# No output - file does not exist

Issue 3: Wnck crash due to missing PNG loader

Because PNG loader is missing, libwnck cannot load any icon and crashes immediately:

(xfdesktop): Gtk-WARNING: Could not load a pixbuf from icon theme.
This may indicate that pixbuf loaders or the mime database could not be found.

Wnck:ERROR:../libwnck/xutils.c:1510:default_icon_at_size: assertion failed: (base)
Bail out! Wnck:ERROR:../libwnck/xutils.c:1510:default_icon_at_size: assertion failed: (base)

Issue 4: xfce4-panel crash (garcon)

(wrapper-2.0): garcon-CRITICAL: garcon_menu_item_get_desktop_id: 
assertion 'GARCON_IS_MENU_ITEM (item)' failed
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::logic_error'
what(): basic_string: construction from null is not valid

What we tried:

1. Created default PNG icon manually:

   convert -size 48x48 xc:#666666 /usr/share/pixmaps/default-icon.png
   cp /usr/share/pixmaps/default-icon.png /usr/share/icons/hicolor/48x48/apps/application-default-icon.png
   gtk-update-icon-cache /usr/share/icons/hicolor/ -f

   Result: Did not fix Wnck crash

2. Set GTK icon theme to gnome (PNG-based):

   # ~/.config/gtk-3.0/settings.ini
   gtk-icon-theme-name=gnome

   Result: Did not fix PNG loader issue

3. Rebuilt loader cache:

   /usr/lib/aarch64-linux-gnu/gdk-pixbuf-2.0/gdk-pixbuf-query-loaders --update-cache

   Result: Cache only contains SVG loader

4. bwrap bypass script to allow glycin-svg to run outside sandbox:

   # /usr/bin/bwrap bypass script
   # Extracts and runs the actual executable from bwrap arguments

   Result: Partially works but PNG loader issue remains

5. Moved glycin-loaders:

   mv /usr/libexec/glycin-loaders /usr/libexec/glycin-loaders.bak

   Result: Did not fix PNG loader issue

Root Cause:

In Kali 2026.1, gdk-pixbuf appears to have PNG support built-in (not as a separate .so loader file). However, something in the proot environment prevents this built-in PNG support from functioning. Previous versions had libpixbufloader_png.so as a separate file - this no longer exists in 2026.1.

Expected behavior:

kex should start a functional XFCE desktop as it did in previous Kali versions (tested working on 2023.x, 2024.x).

Questions for maintainers:

1. Was PNG loader intentionally removed from gdk-pixbuf in 2026.1?
2. Is glycin/bwrap combination tested on proot environments?
3. Is there a workaround for NetHunter Rootless users on 2026.1?