The error message indicates that the following code path (associated with the function ctkAppLauncherPrivate::extractLauncherNameAndDir) is executed in the launcher:
The input to that function is obtained here using argv[0]:
I suspect that on newer Ubuntu, the path the program needs to be obtained from /proc as it is done in qapplication:
Few days ago, within Slicer itself (and not the launcher) the needed a function allowing to get the path of the application on all platforms before instantiating the application … but decided to implement a workaround in 27030
Look like the time has come to have such a function.