Library can't be used on musl

[whouishere]

On musl systems (tested on Void Linux running musl 1.1.24), cgo fails to compile the library because wgpu native calls gnu_get_libc_version, which musl does not support.

# command-line-arguments
/usr/lib/go/pkg/tool/linux_amd64/link: running gcc failed: exit status 1
/usr/bin/gcc -m64 -s -Wl,--build-id=0x8ba858fffac1a3d680897d8169103efa50f2e9a8 -o $WORK/b001/exe/simple -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=_cgo_panic -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=_cgo_topofstack -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=crosscall2 -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goCharCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goCharModsCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goCursorEnterCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goCursorPosCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goDropCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goErrorCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goFramebufferSizeCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goJoystickCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goKeyCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goMonitorCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goMouseButtonCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goScrollCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goWindowCloseCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goWindowContentScaleCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goWindowFocusCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goWindowIconifyCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goWindowMaximizeCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goWindowPosCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goWindowRefreshCB -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=goWindowSizeCB-Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=gowebgpu_buffer_map_callback_go -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=gowebgpu_device_lost_callback_go -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=gowebgpu_error_callback_go -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=gowebgpu_queue_work_done_callback_go -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=gowebgpu_request_adapter_callback_go -Wl,--export-dynamic-symbol=gowebgpu_request_device_callback_go -Wl,--compress-debug-sections=zlib /tmp/go-link-142790675/go.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000000.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000001.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000002.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000003.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000004.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000005.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000006.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000007.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000008.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000009.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000010.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000011.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000012.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000013.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000014.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000015.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000016.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000017.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000018.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000019.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000020.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000021.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000022.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000023.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000024.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000025.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000026.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000027.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000028.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000029.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000030.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000031.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000032.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000033.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000034.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000035.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000036.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000037.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000038.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000039.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000040.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000041.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000042.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000043.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000044.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000045.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000046.o /tmp/go-link-142790675/000047.o -O2 -g -L/home/willian/go/pkg/mod/github.com/cogentcore/webgpu@v0.0.0-20250407222942-151b7afd296c/wgpu/lib/linux/amd64 -lwgpu_native -lm -ldl -O2 -g -lGL -lX11 -lXrandr -lXxf86vm -lXi -lXcursor -lm -lXinerama -ldl -lrt -O2 -g -lpthread -no-pie
/usr/bin/ld: /home/willian/go/pkg/mod/github.com/cogentcore/webgpu@v0.0.0-20250407222942-151b7afd296c/wgpu/lib/linux/amd64/libwgpu_native.a(std-0fbbe72b9e0d57dc.std.dece285a2424a0b-cgu.0.rcgu.o): in function `std::sys::pal::unix::os::glibc_version':
/rustc/051478957371ee0084a7c0913941d2a8c4757bb9/library/std/src/sys/pal/unix/os.rs:777:(.text._ZN3std3sys3pal4unix2os13glibc_version17h6e1033873182f5dcE+0x17): undefined reference to `gnu_get_libc_version'
/usr/bin/ld: /home/willian/go/pkg/mod/github.com/cogentcore/webgpu@v0.0.0-20250407222942-151b7afd296c/wgpu/lib/linux/amd64/libwgpu_native.a(std-0fbbe72b9e0d57dc.std.dece285a2424a0b-cgu.0.rcgu.o): in function `std::sys::pal::unix::net::on_resolver_failure':
/rustc/051478957371ee0084a7c0913941d2a8c4757bb9/library/std/src/sys/pal/unix/net.rs:635:(.text._ZN104_$LT$std..sys_common..net..LookupHost$u20$as$u20$core..convert..TryFrom$LT$LP$RF$str$C$u16$RP$GT$GT$8try_from28_$u7b$u7b$closure$u7d$u7d$17h7bc6b4e96e2e31f7E+0x92): undefined reference to `__res_init'
collect2: error: ld returned 1 exit status

There's also this undefined reference to '__res_init' error which I have no idea where it comes from. It may or may not also be related to the library not being built against musl.

AFAIK, there isn't any trivial way to solve this. Even if you provide wgpu binaries that are built against musl, I don't know how cgo would choose at compile time the musl library binary instead of the glibc one when it detects a musl system. Maybe it is actually possible, but I'm not familiar with cgo :P

[kolkov]

Hi @whouishere!

This is a classic CGO + glibc compatibility issue. The gnu_get_libc_version call comes from Rust's std library glibc detection in wgpu-native.

Potential alternative: We recently released go-webgpu/webgpu — Zero-CGO WebGPU bindings using pure Go FFI.

Since there's no CGO involved, you avoid the entire glibc/musl linking problem. The library loads wgpu-native dynamically at runtime via dlopen, so no compile-time C library dependency.

Caveats:

• You'd still need a musl-compatible wgpu-native .so (wgpu-native releases are glibc, but you could build from source for musl)
• Our project doesn't have web/iOS/Android support like cogentcore/webgpu

If your use case is desktop Linux with musl, the Zero-CGO approach might work better for you.