diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index f07fde754..9a9dc14c0 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -445,42 +445,42 @@ jobs:
     name: Release Linux
     if: github.repository == 'block/buzz'
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    # Digest-pinned like the SHA-pinned actions below; Renovate keeps it fresh.
+    container: ubuntu:22.04@sha256:0e0a0fc6d18feda9db1590da249ac93e8d5abfea8f4c3c0c849ce512b5ef8982
     needs: setup
     timeout-minutes: 60
     permissions:
       contents: write
+    env:
+      # AppImage tools (linuxdeploy, appimagetool) are themselves AppImages.
+      # Containers lack FUSE, so we must use the extract-and-run fallback.
+      APPIMAGE_EXTRACT_AND_RUN: "1"
     outputs:
       archive_name: ${{ steps.linux-artifacts.outputs.archive_name }}
       sig: ${{ steps.read-sig.outputs.sig }}
     steps:
-      - uses: actions/checkout@df4cb1c069e1874edd31b4311f1884172cec0e10 # v6
-        with:
-          ref: ${{ github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref || inputs.ref }}
-          persist-credentials: false
-
-      - uses: cashapp/activate-hermit@cea9af7913204a965fd488637a8d1811bba2e616 # v1
-
-      - uses: Swatinem/rust-cache@e18b497796c12c097a38f9edb9d0641fb99eee32 # v2
-        with:
-          workspaces: desktop/src-tauri
-          lookup-only: true
-
-      - name: Install Tauri dependencies (Linux)
+      - name: Install system dependencies
         env:
           DEBIAN_FRONTEND: noninteractive
         run: |
-          sudo apt-get update \
+          # Must run first: bare ubuntu:22.04 ships without curl, wget, git, or
+          # ca-certificates. activate-hermit bootstraps via curl+HTTPS (needs
+          # both), and actions/checkout falls back to a REST tarball without git.
+          # Running as root — no sudo needed.
+          apt-get update \
             -o Acquire::Retries=3 \
             -o Acquire::http::Timeout=30 \
             -o Acquire::https::Timeout=30
-          sudo apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
+          apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends \
             -o Acquire::Retries=3 \
             -o Acquire::http::Timeout=30 \
             -o Acquire::https::Timeout=30 \
             -o DPkg::Lock::Timeout=120 \
             build-essential \
+            ca-certificates \
             curl \
             file \
+            git \
             libasound2-dev \
             libayatana-appindicator3-dev \
             libgtk-3-dev \
@@ -489,7 +489,68 @@ jobs:
             libwebkit2gtk-4.1-dev \
             libxdo-dev \
             patchelf \
+            pkg-config \
             wget
+          # Install GitHub CLI — preinstalled on runners but absent in containers.
+          # wget and ca-certificates are now available from the step above.
+          mkdir -p -m 755 /etc/apt/keyrings
+          wget -q --tries=3 --timeout=30 -O /usr/share/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg \
+            https://cli.github.com/packages/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg
+          # Pin the keyring like appimagetool below. If GitHub rotates the
+          # keyring this fails loudly — recompute and update the hash.
+          echo "6084d5d7bd8e288441e0e94fc6275570895da18e6751f70f057485dc2d1a811b  /usr/share/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg" | sha256sum -c
+          chmod go+r /usr/share/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg
+          echo "deb [arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture) signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/githubcli-archive-keyring.gpg] https://cli.github.com/packages stable main" \
+            > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/github-cli.list
+          apt-get update
+          apt-get install -y --no-install-recommends gh
+
+      - uses: actions/checkout@df4cb1c069e1874edd31b4311f1884172cec0e10 # v6
+        with:
+          ref: ${{ github.event_name == 'push' && github.ref || inputs.ref }}
+          persist-credentials: false
+
+      - uses: cashapp/activate-hermit@cea9af7913204a965fd488637a8d1811bba2e616 # v1
+
+      - uses: Swatinem/rust-cache@e18b497796c12c097a38f9edb9d0641fb99eee32 # v2
+        with:
+          workspaces: desktop/src-tauri
+          lookup-only: true
+
+      - name: Install appimagetool
+        run: |
+          # Pin to an immutable release tag to avoid supply-chain drift from the
+          # mutable `continuous` tag. Tag: 1.9.1, asset: appimagetool-<arch>.AppImage
+          # (https://github.com/AppImage/appimagetool/releases/tag/1.9.1)
+          case "$(uname -m)" in
+            x86_64)  ARCH_SUFFIX="x86_64" ;;
+            aarch64) ARCH_SUFFIX="aarch64" ;;
+            *)
+              echo "::error::Unsupported architecture: $(uname -m)"
+              exit 1
+              ;;
+          esac
+          wget -q --tries=3 --timeout=30 -O /tmp/appimagetool \
+            "https://github.com/AppImage/appimagetool/releases/download/1.9.1/appimagetool-${ARCH_SUFFIX}.AppImage"
+          # SHA256 integrity check. Refuse to run an unverified binary: if a new
+          # arch (e.g. aarch64) is enabled in CI, compute its hash and add it here.
+          if [[ "$ARCH_SUFFIX" == "x86_64" ]]; then
+            echo "ed4ce84f0d9caff66f50bcca6ff6f35aae54ce8135408b3fa33abfc3cb384eb0  /tmp/appimagetool" | sha256sum -c
+          else
+            echo "::error::No pinned SHA256 for appimagetool-${ARCH_SUFFIX} — add it before enabling this architecture"
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          install -m 755 /tmp/appimagetool /usr/local/bin/appimagetool
+          # appimagetool otherwise fetches the AppImage type2 runtime from the
+          # MUTABLE `continuous` tag at repack time — the runtime is the first
+          # code users execute, so pin it too. Tag: 20251108, hash is for the
+          # x86_64 asset (non-x86_64 already hard-fails above).
+          # (https://github.com/AppImage/type2-runtime/releases/tag/20251108)
+          wget -q --tries=3 --timeout=30 -O /tmp/appimage-runtime \
+            "https://github.com/AppImage/type2-runtime/releases/download/20251108/runtime-${ARCH_SUFFIX}"
+          echo "2fca8b443c92510f1483a883f60061ad09b46b978b2631c807cd873a47ec260d  /tmp/appimage-runtime" | sha256sum -c
+          install -D -m 644 /tmp/appimage-runtime /usr/local/lib/appimage-runtime
+          echo "APPIMAGETOOL_RUNTIME_FILE=/usr/local/lib/appimage-runtime" >> "$GITHUB_ENV"
 
       - name: Install desktop dependencies
         run: just desktop-install-ci
@@ -521,6 +582,22 @@ jobs:
           TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY: ${{ secrets.TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY }}
           TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD }}
 
+      - name: Fix AppImage (remove infra libs, symlink system GStreamer)
+        run: |
+          mapfile -t APPIMAGES < <(find desktop/src-tauri/target/release/bundle/appimage -name '*.AppImage' -type f)
+          if [[ ${#APPIMAGES[@]} -eq 0 ]]; then
+            echo "::error::No AppImage found to post-process"
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          if [[ ${#APPIMAGES[@]} -gt 1 ]]; then
+            echo "::error::Expected exactly one AppImage, found ${#APPIMAGES[@]}: ${APPIMAGES[*]}"
+            exit 1
+          fi
+          bash desktop/scripts/fix-appimage.sh "${APPIMAGES[0]}"
+        env:
+          TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY: ${{ secrets.TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY }}
+          TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD: ${{ secrets.TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD }}
+
       - name: Locate Linux build artifacts
         id: linux-artifacts
         run: |
diff --git a/RELEASING.md b/RELEASING.md
index ea0bd897b..98d5dd9c8 100644
--- a/RELEASING.md
+++ b/RELEASING.md
@@ -174,8 +174,9 @@ Each release produces two GitHub releases:
    (macOS).
 
 2. **`buzz-desktop-latest`** — a rolling pre-release for the Tauri
-   auto-updater containing `latest.json`, the signed `.tar.gz` archive,
-   and its `.sig` signature.
+   auto-updater containing `latest.json` and each platform's signed
+   updater artifact plus its `.sig` signature (`.tar.gz` on macOS,
+   `.AppImage` on Linux, and `_alpha-unsigned.exe` on Windows).
 
 ---
 
@@ -187,6 +188,15 @@ Silicon (`darwin-aarch64`, the `release` job) and Intel
 `.AppImage`. Both macOS DMGs are codesigned, notarized, and attached to
 the same `v<version>` release. Intel users download the `_x64.dmg`.
 
+The Linux AppImage is post-processed by `desktop/scripts/fix-appimage.sh`,
+which strips infra libraries over-bundled by linuxdeploy (they crash on
+Mesa 25+ / GLib 2.88 distros — see
+[tauri-apps/tauri#15665](https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri/issues/15665))
+and re-signs the artifact. As a result the AppImage relies on the
+host's Wayland/GStreamer/graphics stack and requires GLib >= 2.72
+(Ubuntu 22.04 or newer). The `release-linux` job builds inside a
+`ubuntu:22.04` container for broad GLIBC compatibility.
+
 ---
 
 ## Prerequisites
@@ -219,7 +229,7 @@ The version string must be valid semver: `MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH` with an optional pr
 
 ### Auto-updater reports "no update available"
 Verify that the `buzz-desktop-latest` release exists and contains a
-valid `latest.json`. The auto-updater manifest currently lists
-`darwin-aarch64` only, so Intel and Linux users do not yet receive
-auto-updates — they download new versions manually from the release
-page. (Adding their entries to `latest.json` is a follow-up.)
+valid `latest.json`. The manifest covers all four platform keys
+(`darwin-aarch64`, `darwin-x86_64`, `linux-x86_64`,
+`windows-x86_64`); a missing entry usually means that platform's
+release job failed — check the workflow run.
diff --git a/desktop/scripts/fix-appimage.sh b/desktop/scripts/fix-appimage.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..45f537bb7
--- /dev/null
+++ b/desktop/scripts/fix-appimage.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,158 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# fix-appimage.sh — Remove infra libs from a Tauri-produced AppImage that crash
+# on Mesa 25+ / GLib 2.88 distros (Ubuntu 26.04, Fedora 42+, etc.).
+#
+# Usage: fix-appimage.sh <path-to.AppImage>
+#
+# Set TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY / TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD to
+# re-sign after repacking (CI release builds). Without them the script
+# repacks but skips signing, which is fine for local testing.
+#
+# Set APPIMAGETOOL_RUNTIME_FILE to a pre-downloaded AppImage type2 runtime to
+# avoid appimagetool fetching one from its mutable `continuous` tag (CI pins
+# this; unset is fine for local testing).
+#
+# Root cause — three interlocking failures (upstream: https://github.com/tauri-apps/tauri/issues/15665):
+#
+#  1. EGL crash: linuxdeploy bundles libwayland-client.so.0 (1.22) alongside
+#     the app. Mesa 25's libEGL calls the bundled version at runtime; the version
+#     skew causes eglGetDisplay to return EGL_BAD_PARAMETER under Wayland, which
+#     WebKitWebProcess treats as fatal and aborts before the window ever appears.
+#
+#  2. GStreamer crash: linuxdeploy also bundles libgst*.so* (GStreamer core libs).
+#     AppRun unconditionally sets GST_PLUGIN_SYSTEM_PATH_1_0 to a dir inside the
+#     AppImage that the bundler never populates (bundleMediaFramework is false by
+#     default), so GStreamer's plugin discovery yields an empty registry. The
+#     "GStreamer element appsink not found" error kills the render process; as a
+#     side effect the broken run poisons ~/.cache/gstreamer-1.0/registry.x86_64.bin.
+#
+#  3. WebKit helper mismatch (latent): the bundled WebKit helpers
+#     (WebKitNetworkProcess/WebKitWebProcess) have RUNPATH=$ORIGIN only, and
+#     linuxdeploy string-patches /usr -> ././ inside libwebkit2gtk so the helper
+#     dir is resolved relative to the process cwd. AppRun's chdir($APPDIR/usr)
+#     makes this work; any launch that bypasses AppRun (extracted-AppDir usage,
+#     repack workflows, dbus/systemd activation with cwd=/) resolves the helpers
+#     wrong -- spawning nothing, dying on unresolved bundled libs, or spawning
+#     the system helpers -- and the window never appears.
+#
+# Fix: remove the offending libs so the app uses the system copies (which are
+# newer and ABI-compatible on any distro shipping glib >= 2.72 / Ubuntu 22.04+),
+# and symlink the system GStreamer plugin directory so discovery works correctly.
+# No tauri.conf.json knob can do this — bundle.linux.appimage only exposes
+# bundleMediaFramework, files (copy-only, no remove/symlink), and bundleXdgOpen.
+
+set -euo pipefail
+
+if [[ $# -lt 1 ]]; then
+  echo "Usage: fix-appimage.sh <path-to.AppImage>" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+if [[ ! -f "$1" ]]; then
+  echo "Error: file not found: $1" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+APPIMAGE_ABS="$(realpath "$1")"
+APPIMAGE_DIR="$(dirname "$APPIMAGE_ABS")"
+APPIMAGE_NAME="$(basename "$APPIMAGE_ABS")"
+
+# Locate the desktop/ directory (this script lives at desktop/scripts/).
+SCRIPT_DIR="$(cd "$(dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")" && pwd)"
+DESKTOP_DIR="$(cd "$SCRIPT_DIR/.." && pwd)"
+
+# Detect multiarch triplet for GStreamer plugin path.
+case "$(uname -m)" in
+  x86_64)  MULTIARCH="x86_64-linux-gnu" ;;
+  aarch64) MULTIARCH="aarch64-linux-gnu" ;;
+  *)
+    echo "Error: unsupported architecture: $(uname -m)" >&2
+    exit 1
+    ;;
+esac
+
+WORKDIR="$(mktemp -d)"
+trap 'rm -rf "$WORKDIR"' EXIT
+
+echo "==> Extracting $APPIMAGE_NAME"
+(cd "$WORKDIR" && APPIMAGE_EXTRACT_AND_RUN=1 "$APPIMAGE_ABS" --appimage-extract)
+
+LIBDIR="$WORKDIR/squashfs-root/usr/lib"
+
+# Guard against a bundler layout change: if the primary offending lib is not
+# where we expect it, the rm globs below would silently no-op and we'd ship
+# an unfixed artifact. Fail loudly instead so a tauri/linuxdeploy upgrade
+# that changes the bundled lib set gets noticed here, not by users.
+if ! compgen -G "$LIBDIR/libwayland-client.so*" > /dev/null; then
+  echo "Error: libwayland-client not found in $LIBDIR — bundler layout changed; update fix-appimage.sh" >&2
+  exit 1
+fi
+
+echo "==> Removing infra libs that conflict with system Mesa / GLib / GStreamer"
+rm -f \
+  "$LIBDIR"/libwayland-client.so* \
+  "$LIBDIR"/libwayland-cursor.so* \
+  "$LIBDIR"/libwayland-egl.so* \
+  "$LIBDIR"/libwayland-server.so* \
+  "$LIBDIR"/libglib-2.0.so* \
+  "$LIBDIR"/libgio-2.0.so* \
+  "$LIBDIR"/libgobject-2.0.so* \
+  "$LIBDIR"/libgmodule-2.0.so* \
+  "$LIBDIR"/libmount.so* \
+  "$LIBDIR"/libblkid.so* \
+  "$LIBDIR"/libselinux.so* \
+  "$LIBDIR"/libpcre2-8.so* \
+  "$LIBDIR"/libgst*.so* \
+  "$LIBDIR"/libzstd.so* \
+  "$LIBDIR"/libelf.so* \
+  "$LIBDIR"/libffi.so*
+
+echo "==> Symlinking system GStreamer plugin directory"
+# On distros without the Debian multiarch layout (e.g. Arch), this symlink
+# dangles — GStreamer then falls back to its default plugin discovery, which
+# is a safe degradation (unlike the original empty in-bundle dir).
+rm -rf "$LIBDIR/gstreamer-1.0"
+ln -s "/usr/lib/$MULTIARCH/gstreamer-1.0" "$LIBDIR/gstreamer-1.0"
+
+echo "==> Repacking AppImage"
+# Pass a pinned type2 runtime when provided (CI sets APPIMAGETOOL_RUNTIME_FILE);
+# without it appimagetool downloads the runtime from its mutable `continuous`
+# tag at repack time — acceptable for local testing, not for release builds.
+RUNTIME_ARGS=()
+if [[ -n "${APPIMAGETOOL_RUNTIME_FILE:-}" ]]; then
+  RUNTIME_ARGS=(--runtime-file "$APPIMAGETOOL_RUNTIME_FILE")
+fi
+APPIMAGE_EXTRACT_AND_RUN=1 ARCH="$(uname -m)" appimagetool \
+  "${RUNTIME_ARGS[@]}" \
+  "$WORKDIR/squashfs-root" "$APPIMAGE_ABS"
+
+# Re-sign after repack so the updater can verify the artifact.
+# Tauri 2.11 with createUpdaterArtifacts=true produces two possible formats:
+#   New: <name>.AppImage + <name>.AppImage.sig   (sign the AppImage directly)
+#   Old: <name>.AppImage.tar.gz + .tar.gz.sig    (tar-wrapped, then signed)
+# We handle both: always re-sign the AppImage; if a .tar.gz sibling exists
+# alongside it, recreate it from the freshly repacked AppImage and re-sign that.
+# Our release config pins createUpdaterArtifacts: true (build-release-config.mjs),
+# so the tar.gz branch is dead in CI today — kept deliberately because the
+# workflow's artifact-locate step prefers a tar.gz when one exists; dropping
+# this branch could publish a stale tarball containing the unfixed AppImage.
+if [[ -n "${TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY:-}" ]]; then
+  # `tauri signer sign` reads TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY and
+  # TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY_PASSWORD from the environment (same as the
+  # macOS jobs in release.yml) — never pass the password via argv, where
+  # it would be visible in /proc/<pid>/cmdline.
+  echo "==> Re-signing AppImage"
+  (cd "$DESKTOP_DIR" && pnpm tauri signer sign "$APPIMAGE_ABS")
+
+  TARBALL="$APPIMAGE_ABS.tar.gz"
+  if [[ -f "$TARBALL" ]]; then
+    echo "==> Recreating updater archive $TARBALL"
+    tar -czf "$TARBALL" -C "$APPIMAGE_DIR" "$APPIMAGE_NAME"
+    echo "==> Re-signing updater archive"
+    (cd "$DESKTOP_DIR" && pnpm tauri signer sign "$TARBALL")
+  fi
+else
+  echo "==> TAURI_SIGNING_PRIVATE_KEY not set — skipping signing (local build)"
+fi
+
+echo "==> Done: $APPIMAGE_ABS"