[SOLVED]: SilverBullet Linux binary releases not working (on Alpine)

rharmonson · November 24, 2025, 6:00pm

I use SilverBullet on Alpine Linux using an untrusted LXC container. When I attempt to execute SilverBullet using the 2.x binary releases, they exit with “No such file or directory.”

On using silverbullet using arguments version or -h,

/usr/local/bin # /usr/local/bin/silverbullet-2.3.0-bin -h
sh: /usr/local/bin/silverbullet-2.3.0-bin: not found

Yet, it obviously exists.

/usr/local/bin # ls -l /usr/local/bin/silverbullet-2.3.0-bin
-rwxr-xr-x    1 root     root      22913622 Nov 24 09:48 /usr/local/bin/silverbullet-2.3.0-bin

and

/usr/local/bin # stat /usr/local/bin/silverbullet-2.3.0-bin
  File: /usr/local/bin/silverbullet-2.3.0-bin
  Size: 22913622        Blocks: 28945      IO Block: 131072 regular file
Device: 2eh/46d Inode: 73762       Links: 1
Access: (0755/-rwxr-xr-x)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2025-11-24 19:23:26.311504847 +0000
Modify: 2025-11-24 09:48:49.000000000 +0000
Change: 2025-11-24 19:23:11.935400241 +0000

I am perplexed to say the least. Any thoughts?

Keeping below for completeness but the test is flawed seeing how I cannot even silverbullet -h without error.

Testing

Operating system

I use Alpine Linux edge due to compile requirements.

/usr/local/bin # cat /etc/os-release 
NAME="Alpine Linux"
ID=alpine
VERSION_ID=3.23.0_alpha20251016
PRETTY_NAME="Alpine Linux edge"
HOME_URL="https://alpinelinux.org/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/issues"

User account

I do not use root, typically, but for testing its root.

/usr/local/bin # whoami
root

New space directory

/usr/local/bin # stat /tmp/sbtest00
  File: /tmp/sbtest00
  Size: 2               Blocks: 1          IO Block: 131072 directory
Device: 2eh/46d Inode: 73755       Links: 2
Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2025-11-24 17:20:46.490442126 +0000
Modify: 2025-11-24 17:20:46.490442126 +0000
Change: 2025-11-24 17:20:46.490442126 +0000

Release binary execution

Downloading the current linux-x86_64 binary release and executing results with:

/usr/local/bin # strace -o /tmp/sb-bin.log /usr/local/bin/silverbullet-2.3.0-bin /tmp/sbtest00
strace: exec: No such file or directory

and the strace log:

/usr/local/bin # tail /tmp/sb-bin.log
execve("/usr/local/bin/silverbullet-2.3.0-bin", ["/usr/local/bin/silverbullet-2.3."..., "/tmp/sbtest00"], 0x7ffdec8474f8 /* 10 vars */) = -1 ENOENT (No such file or directory)
+++ exited with 1 +++

Compiled binary execution

In contrast, using the compiled binary results with:

/usr/local/bin # strace -o /tmp/sb-bin.log /usr/local/bin/silverbullet-2.3.0 /tmp/sbtest00
2025/11/24 17:59:33 SilverBullet will only be available locally, to allow outside connections, pass -L0.0.0.0 as a flag, and put a TLS terminator on top.
2025/11/24 17:59:33 Local shell command execution enabled for ALL commands.
2025/11/24 17:59:33 Index page index.md does not yet exist, creating...
2025/11/24 17:59:33 Config page CONFIG.md does not yet exist, creating...
2025/11/24 17:59:33 SilverBullet is now running: http://localhost:3000

This has been consistent challenge when executing the 2.1.9, 2.2.1, and 2.3.0 linux x86_64 binary releases.

Brad_R · November 26, 2025, 4:58am

I don’t know much about Alpine linux, or running silverbullet in an LXC container, but when I run silverbullet I pass it a directory name, not a temp file. Have you tried a directory rather than a file?

rharmonson · November 26, 2025, 5:50am

I assume you are referencing strace -o /tmp/sb-bin.log /usr/local/bin/silverbullet-2.3.0-bin /tmp/sbtest00, the directory /tmp/sbtest00 is being passed to SilverBullet.

techore in silverbullet in ~ _ stat /tmp/sbtest00
  File: /tmp/sbtest00
  Size: 4               Blocks: 1          IO Block: 131072 directory
Device: 2eh/46d Inode: 73755       Links: 2
Access: (0755/drwxr-xr-x)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2025-11-26 05:51:43.659164292 +0000
Modify: 2025-11-24 17:59:33.238904006 +0000
Change: 2025-11-24 17:59:33.238904006 +0000

You may be looking at strace -o /tmp/sb-bin.log where sb-bin.log is a file. The -o argument redirects strace’s stderr output to file.

techore in silverbullet in ~ _ stat /tmp/sb-bin.log
  File: /tmp/sb-bin.log
  Size: 28797           Blocks: 17         IO Block: 29184  regular file
Device: 2eh/46d Inode: 73752       Links: 1
Access: (0644/-rw-r--r--)  Uid: (    0/    root)   Gid: (    0/    root)
Access: 2025-11-24 17:24:16.405030103 +0000
Modify: 2025-11-24 18:00:12.490192587 +0000
Change: 2025-11-24 18:00:12.490192587 +0000

On linux, strace can be useful in debugging or troubleshooting.

https://linux.die.net/man/1/strace

Brad, I appreciate you asking for clarification and did I assume correctly?

I have spent an embarassing amount of time trying to figure out what I am missing. Most likely, the problem is me not SilverBullet and it will be something small, silly, and embarrassing.

zef · November 26, 2025, 7:21am

This problem looked familiar so I looked into it and also tried this in an LXC container on Alpine. The odd thing is that SilverBullet’s default docker containers are also running on Alpine, so I wouldn’t have expected to be a problem.

Anyway, the problem is this: linux - Docker Alpine executable binary not found even if in PATH - Stack Overflow

The SilverBullet binary is built against libc:

alpine-test:~# ldd silverbullet
        /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x7efae94a3000)
        libc.so.6 => /lib64/ld-linux-x86-64.so.2 (0x7efae94a3000)
Error relocating silverbullet: __vfprintf_chk: symbol not found
Error relocating silverbullet: __fprintf_chk: symbol not found

The fix is to install the libc6-compat package in Alpine:

alpine-test:~# apk add libc6-compat
(1/3) Installing musl-obstack (1.2.3-r2)
(2/3) Installing libucontext (1.3.2-r0)
(3/3) Installing gcompat (1.1.0-r4)
OK: 14 MiB in 44 packages

Then it runs fine

rharmonson · November 26, 2025, 2:33pm

@zef, thank you!

techore in silverbullet in ~ _ doas apk add libc6-compat
doas (techore@silverbullet) password: 
(1/3) Installing musl-obstack (1.2.3-r2)
(2/3) Installing libucontext (1.3.3-r0)
(3/3) Installing gcompat (1.1.0-r4)
OK: 538 MiB in 126 packages

Results

/usr/local/bin # ./silverbullet-2.3.0-bin /tmp/sbtest01
2025/11/26 14:26:47 SilverBullet will only be available locally, to allow outside connections, pass -L0.0.0.0 as a flag, and put a TLS terminator on top.
2025/11/26 14:26:47 Local shell command execution enabled for ALL commands.
2025/11/26 14:26:47 Index page index.md does not yet exist, creating...
2025/11/26 14:26:47 Config page CONFIG.md does not yet exist, creating...
2025/11/26 14:26:47 SilverBullet is now running: http://localhost:3000

When I ran into this problem, initially v0.x, I hypothesized it may have been due to alpine using musl, but I didn’t know how to test. I will research to better understand how to identify and test in the future. For now I will add libc6-compat to my alpine template.

Again, thank you.

rharmonson · November 26, 2025, 2:40pm

Excellent explanation from the link you provided and the author provides commands and examples on troubleshooting. Awesome.

All going into my SilverBullet space.