Unable to launch Element in a macOS virtual machine

[alinradut]

Steps to reproduce

1. Set up a macOS Monterey or Ventura guest virtual machine on a macOS host with an M1 processor
2. Download Element.dmg from element.io and install
3. Run Element.app

Outcome

What did you expect?

Expected the Element.app to start

What happened instead?

The application crashes on launch and produced a crash log:

Crashed Thread:        0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:        EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP)
Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000001, 0x000000011475d54c

Termination Reason:    Namespace SIGNAL, Code 5 Trace/BPT trap: 5
Terminating Process:   exc handler [956]

Thread 0 Crashed::  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread
0   Electron Framework            	       0x11475d54c v8::internal::wasm::WasmCodeManager::WasmCodeManager() + 92
1   Electron Framework            	       0x11475d538 v8::internal::wasm::WasmCodeManager::WasmCodeManager() + 72
2   Electron Framework            	       0x11476ce94 v8::internal::wasm::WasmEngine::InitializeOncePerProcess() + 44
3   Electron Framework            	       0x114360068 v8::internal::IsolateAllocator::GetPtrComprCage() const + 2188
4   Electron Framework            	       0x114097684 v8::V8::Initialize(int) + 32
5   Electron Framework            	       0x116f776cc v8::internal::SetupIsolateDelegate::SetupHeap(v8::internal::Heap*) + 37404432
6   Electron Framework            	       0x116f75924 v8::internal::SetupIsolateDelegate::SetupHeap(v8::internal::Heap*) + 37396840
7   Electron Framework            	       0x11338aa04 v8::Signature::New(v8::Isolate*, v8::Local<v8::FunctionTemplate>) + 10416
8   Electron Framework            	       0x11338a7cc v8::Signature::New(v8::Isolate*, v8::Local<v8::FunctionTemplate>) + 9848
9   Electron Framework            	       0x1133765a4 v8::internal::compiler::RawMachineAssembler::TargetParameter() + 8816
10  Electron Framework            	       0x114ef8df4 v8::internal::SetupIsolateDelegate::SetupHeap(v8::internal::Heap*) + 3331640
11  Electron Framework            	       0x114efc19c v8::internal::SetupIsolateDelegate::SetupHeap(v8::internal::Heap*) + 3344864
12  Electron Framework            	       0x114ef882c v8::internal::SetupIsolateDelegate::SetupHeap(v8::internal::Heap*) + 3330160
13  Electron Framework            	       0x113547930 v8::internal::compiler::BasicBlock::set_loop_header(v8::internal::compiler::BasicBlock*) + 13512
14  Electron Framework            	       0x113548a64 v8::internal::compiler::BasicBlock::set_loop_header(v8::internal::compiler::BasicBlock*) + 17916
15  Electron Framework            	       0x1135485e0 v8::internal::compiler::BasicBlock::set_loop_header(v8::internal::compiler::BasicBlock*) + 16760
16  Electron Framework            	       0x113546ff0 v8::internal::compiler::BasicBlock::set_loop_header(v8::internal::compiler::BasicBlock*) + 11144
17  Electron Framework            	       0x1135474c0 v8::internal::compiler::BasicBlock::set_loop_header(v8::internal::compiler::BasicBlock*) + 12376
18  Electron Framework            	       0x1132b3b68 ElectronMain + 128
19  dyld                          	       0x1812cfe50 start + 2544

Complete crash log

Note: it does launch if Rosetta is enabled for the executable.

Personal note: I am running Element in a VM because the homeserver I need to connect to requires a VPN and I don't want to enable the VPN system-wide on my main machine because it's extremely slow and because of privacy concerns.

Operating system

macOS Ventura 13.0 in a virtual machine

Application version

1.11.12

How did you install the app?

https://element.io/get-started

Homeserver

matrix.org

Will you send logs?

No

[clarkf]

This appears to be an electron issue, see electron/electron#35355. It seems that there's a workaround involving adding an entitlement.

[t3chguy]

@clarkf that entitlement is already present https://github.com/vector-im/element-desktop/blob/develop/build/entitlements.mac.plist#L13

t3chguy@Michael-t3chguy-MBP ~> codesign -d --entitlements :- /Applications/Element\ Nightly.app
Executable=/Applications/Element Nightly.app/Contents/MacOS/Element Nightly
Warning: Specifying ':' in the path is deprecated and will not work in a future release
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "https://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd"><plist version="1.0"><dict><key>com.apple.security.cs.allow-jit</key><true/><key>com.apple.security.cs.allow-unsigned-executable-memory</key><true/><key>com.apple.security.cs.disable-library-validation</key><true/><key>com.apple.security.device.audio-input</key><true/><key>com.apple.security.device.camera</key><true/></dict></plist>⏎  

[t3chguy]

Works fine here.