4.24.0 Linux server build failing

Doing Linux server builds of 4.24.0 is currently failing for me with the following error:

That’s caused by an explicit check in Engine/Source/ThirdParty/FreeType2/FreeType2.Build.cs that throws an exception to stop FreeType2 being included with Unix server builds, and there’s a corresponding check in HarfBuzz.Build.cs that does the same thing for that library.

As a workaround, I tried commenting out those exceptions (lines FreeType2.Build.cs:145 and HarfBuzz.Build.cs:114). That allows the build to proceed, but it fails later due to conflicting definitions of WITH_FREETYPE and WITH_HARFBUZZ in Engine\Plugins\Experimental\Text3D\Intermediate\Build\Linux\B4D820EA\UE4Server\Shipping\Text3D\Definitions.Text3D.h.

I don’t know why FreeType2 and HarfBuzz are being avoided in Linux server builds so I’m not sure what the correct fix would be.

I’ve reported the build error as case #00144760.

I forgot to mention that the FreeType2/HarfBuzz dependencies are caused by the new experimental Text3D plugin. I just tried deleting its entire folder (Engine/Plugins/Experimental/Text3D) and that made my build succeed, and the resulting Linux server binaries are working properly.

Looks like this post slipped through the cracks. It was eventually logged as UE-87878 and will be fixed in 4.24.3 and 4.25 onwards. The fix was blacklisting the Text3D plugin’s Module, and from 4.25 onwards the GeometryProcessing plugin dependency, so deleting the Text3D plugin was a safe fix.