Meshtastic Desktop: Map is not visible

[Mhowser]

Contact Details

MHowser on Github

Checklist

• I am able to reproduce the bug with the latest version.

• I have updated to the latest Alpha firmware, and am able to reproduce the bug. Many issues are fixed quickly in alpha before the general beta release.

• I made sure that there are no existing OPEN or CLOSED issues which I could contribute my information to.

• I have taken the time to fill in all the required details. I understand that the bug report will be dismissed otherwise.

• This issue contains only one bug.

• I have read and understood the Contribution Guidelines.

• I agree to follow this project's Code of Conduct

• I actually read this list, and should be taken seriously.

Affected app version

2.8.0

Affected Android version

Arch Linux

Affected phone model

N/A

Affected node model

N/A, this is a UI problem

Affected node firmware version

N/A, this is a UI problem

Steps to reproduce the bug

install Meshtastic-Desktop, connect to your node. go to the map section. See that there are no maps.

Actual behavior

no maps are present on the screen

Expected behavior

the maps appear just like on android

Screenshots/Screen recordings

Relevant log output

Unable to export logs, the export window is being affected by a separate bug.

Additional information

I am running the desktop client on these specs:

Operating System: Arch Linux
KDE Plasma Version: 6.7.4
KDE Frameworks Version: 6.28.0
Qt Version: 6.11.1
Kernel Version: 7.1.5-zen1-2-zen (64-bit)
Graphics Platform: Wayland
Processors: 32 × AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16-Core Processor
Memory: 64 GiB of RAM (61.9 GiB usable)
Graphics Processor 1: AMD Radeon RX 7600 XT
Graphics Processor 2: AMD Ryzen 9 7950X3D 16-Core Processor
Manufacturer: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd.
Product Name: B650 AORUS ELITE AX

[b8b8]

This is known. The desktop implementation of the android app just hasn't ever had maps supported (yet).

[Mhowser]

I see, I did not find an issue about this so i went ahead and made one.

[b8b8]

Its just the desktop app isnt quite ready for feedback/primetime.
The android app on android is the focus right now. The android app on desktop is nice to have but porting over certain features wasnt/isnt the focus yet.

The desktop app is only sporadically built and released but features are still being added.

[jamesarich]

Waiting on maplibre compose to finish their desktop implementation. Last time I looked there are no other viable maps solutions for kmp.

Not a bug, we're just ahead of the tooling.

[Soyasi]

I dug into this a bit further on the source (v2.8.0 and confirmed still present on v2.8.1) and can confirm the root cause, in case it's useful:

The map screen relies on three CompositionLocal providers that inject the platform-specific map implementation:

• LocalMapMainScreenProvider
• LocalNodeMapScreenProvider
• LocalTracerouteMapScreenProvider

In androidApp/src/main/kotlin/org/meshtastic/app/MainActivity.kt, all three are provided with real implementations (DiscoveryMap, NodeMapScreen, TracerouteMapScreen).

In desktopApp/src/main/kotlin/org/meshtastic/desktop/Main.kt, none of the three are provided. The only CompositionLocalProvider there is LocalEventBranding. Since nothing overrides them, Compose falls back to the default declared in each provider definition:

val LocalMapMainScreenProvider =
    compositionLocalOf<...> {
        { _, _, _ -> PlaceholderScreen("Map") }
    }

I confirmed this at runtime by adding a debug trace at the entry<MapRoute.Map> site in feature/map/.../MapNavigation.kt — navigation reaches the route correctly with no exceptions, and the resolved provider is exactly this default lambda. When run from a source build, it correctly shows the "Map" placeholder text; the official AppImage build shows a fully blank screen instead (possibly a separate, smaller issue in how that specific artifact was built — haven't been able to pin that part down).

So this isn't a rendering bug — it's an unimplemented desktop target for the map feature, which also matches the official docs' "Known Limitations" section ("The interactive map view is Android-only"). Happy to share more detail if it helps with scoping the fix.

[Mhowser]

Waiting on maplibre compose to finish their desktop implementation. Last time I looked there are no other viable maps solutions for kmp.

You might be able to use something from gnome maps https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-maps (GPLv2)

[Soyasi]

Thanks both for the context! Worth noting on the gnome-maps suggestion: it's a GTK4/GJS (JavaScript) app, not a library that could be pulled directly into the KMP/Compose stack — and its rendering is built on libshumate, which is Linux/GTK-specific. Since desktopApp targets Windows/macOS/Linux uniformly through Compose Multiplatform, it probably wouldn't help as a direct dependency, though it (and libshumate more generally) could still be a useful reference for how tile rendering, panning/zoom, and markers are handled, if that's helpful when maplibre-compose's desktop support lands.

For what it's worth, on the Linux side there's already a fully working alternative for viewing the map in the meantime: the community gtk-meshtastic-client (GTK4 + libshumate) renders it correctly, just missing some newer features like traceroute. Not a fix, just a stopgap for anyone hitting this thread while waiting on maplibre-compose.

[Mhowser]

For what it's worth, on the Linux side there's already a fully working alternative for viewing the map in the meantime: the community gtk-meshtastic-client (GTK4 + libshumate) renders it correctly, just missing some newer features like traceroute. Not a fix, just a stopgap for anyone hitting this thread while waiting on maplibre-compose.

Ah didnt know that existed, thanks for the info!