Setup skips hashtable rebuild with "AppLoad works without it" — but on OS 3.27.3.0 AppLoad crash-loops xochitl without it

[vnnkl]

Environment

• remagic v0.2.0 (installed 2026-07-07 via get.sh)
• reMarkable Paper Pro (Ferrari), OS 3.27.3.0
• macOS host, USB connection

Summary

remagic setup completes "successfully", but AppLoad never appears on the tablet. The setup step that rebuilds the Qt resource hashtable fails non-interactively and prints:

==> rebuilding the Qt resource hashtable (best-effort)
  ! couldn't rebuild non-interactively — AppLoad works without it

On OS 3.27.3.0 that reassurance is wrong: without the hashtab, AppLoad's hooks panic inside xochitl on every xovi start. systemd restarts xochitl 3 times, gives up, and the device reboots — which wipes xovi's tmpfs unit overrides, so it comes back up on stock. The net effect is a silent crash-reboot loop: every triple-press (or xovi/start) just restarts the tablet and AppLoad never shows up, with no error visible to the user.

Evidence

journalctl -u xochitl from the boot where xovi was started:

xochitl[1072]: [qmldiff]: Set system version to 3.27.3.0
xochitl[1072]: [qmldiff]: Failed to load hashtab: No such file or directory (os error 2)
xochitl[1072]: thread '<unnamed>' (1072) panicked at src/util/common_util.rs:121:60:
xochitl[1072]: called `Result::unwrap()` on an `Err` value: Couldn't resolve the hashed identifier 17477757197668945522 required by AppLoad hooks in main UI
systemd[1]: xochitl.service: Main process exited, code=dumped, status=6/ABRT
systemd[1]: xochitl.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 1.
[... identical panic ×3 ...]
systemd[1]: xochitl.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
systemd[1]: Failed to start reMarkable main application.

followed by a device reboot. remagic doctor reports everything green (✓ xovi installed, ✓ AppLoad installed), which makes the failure hard to diagnose — installed ≠ loadable.

Workaround that fixed it

The rebuild is fully automatable — the only interactive part of xovi's rebuild_hashtable script is a read -rp "press enter" prompt. Running its core logic over SSH worked first try:

export XOVI_ROOT=/tmp/xovi-hashtab-build   # contains ONLY qt-resource-rebuilder.so
systemctl stop xochitl
mkdir -p "$XOVI_ROOT/extensions.d" /home/root/xovi/exthome/qt-resource-rebuilder
ln -s /home/root/xovi/extensions.d/qt-resource-rebuilder.so "$XOVI_ROOT/extensions.d/"

QMLDIFF_HASHTAB_CREATE=/home/root/xovi/exthome/qt-resource-rebuilder/hashtab \
QML_DISABLE_DISK_CACHE=1 \
LD_PRELOAD=/home/root/xovi/xovi.so \
/usr/bin/xochitl &
# poll output for "[qmldiff]: Hashtab saved to ...", then kill xochitl

After that, /home/root/xovi/start succeeds:

xochitl[1173]: [qmldiff]: Hashtab loaded! Cached 20066 entries
xochitl[1173]: [qmldiff]: Loaded external AppLoad hooks in main UI

and AppLoad appears in the sidebar as expected.

Suggestions

1. Run the hashtable rebuild non-interactively during setup (as above) instead of treating it as best-effort — no user interaction is actually required.
2. If the rebuild still fails, don't print "AppLoad works without it" — on 3.27.3.0 it hard-crashes the UI. Warn that AppLoad will not load and point to remagic doctor / a rebuild command.
3. Have remagic doctor check for the hashtab (and/or whether xovi.so is actually mapped into the running xochitl), so "installed but crash-looping" isn't reported as all-green.

[orontee]

Same symptom here: remagic setup completes "successfully", but AppLoad never appears on the tablet.

matthias@peitho:~ $
⏵ remagic doctor
==> device
  model:      reMarkable Ferrari
  os:         3.27.3.0
  battery:    16%
  free space: 44.3G
==> tinkering stack
  ✓ xovi installed
  ✓ AppLoad installed
  ✓ boot persistence (tripletap / always-on unit)
  ✓ SSH over Wi-Fi enabled
==> SSH health
  ✓ host-key store mounted (new connections will work)
  ✓ /etc overlay mounted
==> AppLoad apps
  shims
  store

The proposed workaround didn't helped.

matthias@peitho:~ $
⏵ uname -a
Linux peitho 6.12.94+deb13-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.12.94-1 (2026-06-20) x86_64 GNU/Linux
matthias@peitho:~ $
⏵ remagic | head -n 1
remagic v0.2.0 — the reMarkable companion

[frapeti]

same here... workaround does not work either, couldn't find a way to open AppLoad

OS: 3.28.0.162

EDIT:

• PR sent to fix AppLoad on OS 3.28+: Support OS 3.28 — update AppLoad sidebar QML hooks asivery/rm-appload#62

[rmitchellscott]

same here... workaround does not work either, couldn't find a way to open AppLoad

OS: 3.28.0.162

EDIT:

• PR sent to fix AppLoad on OS 3.28+: Support OS 3.28 — update AppLoad sidebar QML hooks asivery/rm-appload#62

Th EULA you agreed to when you joined the beta program includes this:

Due to the risky nature of Software development, You may not have any third party software installed on your reMarkable paper tablet while participating in this Program.