Used blender a couple of weeks ago and it worked fine. Tried opening it today, and it crashed with some python errors about plugins. So I removed those from ~/.config/blender/5.1/extensions/user_default but no help. Uninstalled and reinstalled Blender and its dependencies, same. Other than a blank window appearing for a few seconds, the following was all I saw, even with debug enabled:
me@mine ~ $ blender -d
Switching to fully guarded memory allocator.
Blender 5.1.2
Build: 2026-05-19 10:38:26 Linux Release
argv[0] = blender
argv[1] = -d
Add-on not loaded: "space_view3d_pie_menus", cause: No module named 'space_view3d_pie_menus'
Add-on not loaded: "space_view3d_modifier_tools", cause: No module named 'space_view3d_modifier_tools'
Add-on not loaded: "object_boolean_tools", cause: No module named 'object_boolean_tools'
Add-on not loaded: "add_mesh_extra_objects", cause: No module named 'add_mesh_extra_objects'
Add-on not loaded: "add_curve_extra_objects", cause: No module named 'add_curve_extra_objects'
Add-on not loaded: "add_mesh_BoltFactory", cause: No module named 'add_mesh_BoltFactory'
Add-on not loaded: "mesh_looptools", cause: No module named 'mesh_looptools'
Add-on not loaded: "bl_ext.user_default.nd", cause: No module named 'bl_ext.user_default.nd'
Add-on not loaded: "bl_ext.user_default.CAD_Sketcher", cause: No module named 'bl_ext.user_default.CAD_Sketcher'
Add-on not loaded: "bl_ext.user_default.fabex", cause: No module named 'bl_ext.user_default.fabex'
Writing: /tmp/blender.crash.txt
Segmentation fault (core dumped) blender -d
me@mine ~ $ cat /tmp/blender.crash.txt
# Blender 5.1.2, Commit date: 2026-05-18 13:43, Hash ec6e62d40fa9
# backtrace
blender(+0x25a94fd) [0x62fb99ed24fd]
blender(+0x18bc633) [0x62fb991e5633]
/usr/lib/libc.so.6(+0x3e270) [0x7683eb132270]
/usr/lib/libSPIRV-Tools-opt.so(+0x5b006) [0x7683e91d6006]
/usr/lib/libSPIRV-Tools-opt.so(_ZNSt17_Function_handlerIFbPKjEZNK8spvtools3opt11Instruction11ForEachInIdERKSt8functionIFvS1_EEEUlS1_E_E9_M_invokeERKSt9_Any_dataOS1_+0x38) [0x7683e91cec78]
/usr/lib/libSPIRV-Tools-opt.so(_ZN8spvtools3opt17AggressiveDCEPass21AddOperandsToWorkListEPKNS0_11InstructionE+0xb5) [0x7683e91d5e95]
/usr/lib/libSPIRV-Tools-opt.so(_ZN8spvtools3opt17AggressiveDCEPass15ProcessWorkListEPNS0_8FunctionE+0x5a) [0x7683e91dad1a]
/usr/lib/libSPIRV-Tools-opt.so(_ZN8spvtools3opt17AggressiveDCEPass13AggressiveDCEEPNS0_8FunctionE+0xb4) [0x7683e91daec4]
/usr/lib/libSPIRV-Tools-opt.so(_ZN8spvtools3opt17AggressiveDCEPass11ProcessImplEv+0xd9) [0x7683e91dcc69]
/usr/lib/libSPIRV-Tools-opt.so(_ZN8spvtools3opt4Pass3RunEPNS0_9IRContextE+0x2a) [0x7683e9315e7a]
/usr/lib/libSPIRV-Tools-opt.so(_ZN8spvtools3opt11PassManager3RunEPNS0_9IRContextE+0x15e) [0x7683e93171fe]
/usr/lib/libSPIRV-Tools-opt.so(_ZNK8spvtools9Optimizer3RunEPKjmPSt6vectorIjSaIjEEP23spv_optimizer_options_t+0x189) [0x7683e9311369]
/usr/lib/libshaderc_shared.so.1(+0x14f1d) [0x7683ff6e3f1d]
/usr/lib/libshaderc_shared.so.1(+0x167c9) [0x7683ff6e57c9]
/usr/lib/libshaderc_shared.so.1(shaderc_compile_into_spv+0x12) [0x7683ff6e6052]
blender(+0x299ec31) [0x62fb9a2c7c31]
blender(+0x299c3e9) [0x62fb9a2c53e9]
blender(+0x272469b) [0x62fb9a04d69b]
blender(+0x2725b97) [0x62fb9a04eb97]
blender(+0x288d356) [0x62fb9a1b6356]
blender(+0x288d70d) [0x62fb9a1b670d]
/usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6(+0xea659) [0x7683eb3fa659]
/usr/lib/libc.so.6(+0x97739) [0x7683eb18b739]
/usr/lib/libc.so.6(+0x11bedc) [0x7683eb20fedc]
# Python backtrace
me@mine ~ $
If this happens to you, and you are using the Vulkan backend, try this:
blender -d --gpu-backend opengl
If it now works, set the System - Display Graphics - Backend to OpenGL. Seems like a Vulkan / video driver issue.