3.3.0 .deb is missing the libssl3t64 dependency, so hex fails to start on distros with OpenSSL 4

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Assessment

Difficulty
1/5
Estimated time
Under an hour
Newbie friendliness
84/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Clearly specified
Activity status
Active
Tech stack
linux, rust
Domain
devops, release

Research direction

PR #1043 already adds libssl3t64 | libssl3 to the .deb Depends; read that change and find the packaging configuration used for Linux .deb releases. Check that the next stable package includes this dependency, then verify its generated Depends line includes it.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

3.3.0 .deb is missing the libssl3t64 dependency, so hex fails to start on distros with OpenSSL 4

Hex version

3.3.0, stable channel, Linux x64 .deb (hex 3.3.0-1, installed from https://anoma.ly/hex/download/linux-x64-deb)

Platform

Ubuntu 26.10 (amd64), GNOME 49 on gdm3, Wayland session

What happens

/usr/bin/hex does not start at all:

$ hex --version
/usr/bin/hex: error while loading shared libraries: libssl.so.3: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

ldd /usr/bin/hex confirms both OpenSSL libraries are unresolved:

libssl.so.3 => not found
libcrypto.so.3 => not found

Ubuntu 26.10 ships OpenSSL 4.0.3, so it provides libssl.so.4 (package libssl4) and libssl3t64 is not installed by default. Nothing pulls it in, because the 3.3.0 .deb does not declare it:

$ dpkg -s hex | grep Depends
Depends: libc6 (>= 2.39), libgcc-s1, libstdc++6, libasound2t64 | libasound2,
 libvulkan1, libxkbcommon0, libxkbcommon-x11-0, libx11-6, libxcb1,
 libxcursor1, libxi6, libwayland-client0, curl

So apt install ./hex-3.3.0-linux-x64.deb succeeds, and the app is simply unlaunchable — nothing in the UI explains why, since the loader fails before Hex starts.

Steps to reproduce
  1. On Ubuntu 26.10 (OpenSSL 4.0), with libssl3t64 not installed.
  2. Install hex-3.3.0-linux-x64.deb.
  3. Run hex --version or click Hex in the app grid.
Expected

Hex starts and prints its version.

Workaround
sudo apt install libssl3t64

After that hex --version prints hex 3.3.0 and the app runs normally.

Notes

PR #1043 ("Linux releases run on Debian 12 (glibc 2.36)") adds libssl3t64 | libssl3 to the .deb Depends and libssl.so.3 to the rpm. It merged at 2026-11-02T16:45:39Z, two minutes after v3.3.0 was published (16:43:16Z), so the 3.3.0 .deb still carries the old dependency list. Opening this so the next stable release ships the fix, and so other Ubuntu 26.10 users hitting the loader error find the workaround.

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