# 🐧 ARM Linux: Location Fetching Timeout Causes Application Not Responding and Crash

[Henrycoding-design]

Description

On ARM-based Linux systems, SPACEAPP may become unresponsive while attempting to fetch the user's location. The application appears to enter a continuous Application Not Responding (ANR) state after the location request times out, eventually leading to an application crash.

This issue appears to be specific to the ARM + Linux combination.

Known Platform Results

Platform	Result
Windows x86/x64	✅ Working
Linux x86_64 (CachyOS)	✅ Working
macOS ARM	✅ Working
Linux ARM	❌ Location fetching timeout → ANR → crash

Current assessment: This is likely related to an ARM + Linux compatibility issue rather than a general Linux or ARM issue.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Launch SPACEAPP on an ARM-based Linux system.
2. Allow SPACEAPP to attempt to determine the current location.
3. Wait for the location request to time out.
4. Observe the application becoming unresponsive.
5. Continue waiting and observe repeated/continuous Application Not Responding behavior.
6. The application eventually crashes.

Expected Behavior

If location fetching fails or times out, SPACEAPP should:

• Handle the timeout gracefully.
• Return control to the application.
• Display an appropriate error/fallback message.
• Avoid blocking the main application thread.
• Continue running normally without crashing.

Actual Behavior

On affected ARM Linux systems:

• Location fetching does not complete successfully.
• The request eventually times out.
• SPACEAPP becomes continuously unresponsive.
• The operating system reports the application as Not Responding.
• The application eventually crashes.

Environment

SPACEAPP: v5.6.x
OS: Fedora Linux
Architecture: ARM64

Additional Information

The issue has not been reproduced on x86_64 Linux during testing. An x86_64 CachyOS test successfully confirmed that:

• SPACEAPP launches normally.
• Location fetching completes normally.
• The application remains responsive.
• macOS on ARM also operates normally.

This suggests that the issue may involve an interaction between ARM architecture + Linux environment + location services/runtime dependencies rather than the application's general location-fetching functionality.

Possible Investigation Areas

This issue may require investigation into:

• ARM-specific behavior
• Linux location services
• GeoClue / system location providers
• Qt / PyQt6 behavior on ARM Linux
• Threading or event-loop behavior during location requests
• Architecture-specific runtime dependencies
• Timeout handling and main-thread blocking

Severity

Medium / High

The application can become completely unresponsive and eventually crash, although the issue appears limited to certain ARM Linux environments.

Status

🟡 Under Investigation

Workaround: Users on ARM Linux may use the macOS ARM build where applicable.