GNU bug report logs - #56567
[BUG] Gnome doesn't recognize applications path for flatpak

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Message #5 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jacob Hrbek <kreyren <at> rixotstudio.cz>
To: bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Subject: [BUG] Gnome doesn't recognize applications path for flatpak
Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2022 01:07:06 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Steps to reproduce:
1. Install any flatpak app from a GNOME environment
2. Try to launch the app from activities  (the gnome menu accessible 
through super-key) and expect it to not find it

To fix this i was told that the path 
`~/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share/applications` has to be appended 
in the environmental variable XDG_DATA_DIRS

-- 
-- Jacob Hrbek #StandWithUkraine

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Message #8 received at 56567 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> ist.tugraz.at>
To: Jacob Hrbek <kreyren <at> rixotstudio.cz>, 56567 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: [BUG] Gnome doesn't recognize applications path for flatpak
Date: Fri, 15 Jul 2022 10:17:18 +0200

Am Freitag, dem 15.07.2022 um 01:07 +0000 schrieb Jacob Hrbek:
> Steps to reproduce:
> 1. Install any flatpak app from a GNOME environment
> 2. Try to launch the app from activities  (the gnome menu accessible 
> through super-key) and expect it to not find it
> 
> To fix this i was told that the path 
> `~/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share/applications` has to be
> appended in the environmental variable XDG_DATA_DIRS
Then why don't you simply do so?  Unlike certain distributions *cough*
Ubuntu *cough*, Guix System depends on neither Flatpak nor Snap to
offer "containerized" applications.  This configuration is thus yours
to make.  If your problem is that there's no Guix Home service to do
so, then fair enough, but assuming a regularly managed bash_profile,
that line should be easy enough to add (and more importantly how to add
it should be documented by Flatpak – if not, that's their issue).

Message #11 received at 56567 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Jacob Hrbek <kreyren <at> rixotstudio.cz>
To: Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> ist.tugraz.at>,
 56567 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: [BUG] Gnome doesn't recognize applications path for flatpak
Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2022 06:03:16 +0000

[Message part 1 (text/plain, inline)]

Why is making a user configuration saner in comparison to making it work 
out of the box?

On 15. 07. 22 10:17, Liliana Marie Prikler wrote:
> Am Freitag, dem 15.07.2022 um 01:07 +0000 schrieb Jacob Hrbek:
>> Steps to reproduce:
>> 1. Install any flatpak app from a GNOME environment
>> 2. Try to launch the app from activities  (the gnome menu accessible
>> through super-key) and expect it to not find it
>>
>> To fix this i was told that the path
>> `~/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share/applications` has to be
>> appended in the environmental variable XDG_DATA_DIRS
> Then why don't you simply do so?  Unlike certain distributions *cough*
> Ubuntu *cough*, Guix System depends on neither Flatpak nor Snap to
> offer "containerized" applications.  This configuration is thus yours
> to make.  If your problem is that there's no Guix Home service to do
> so, then fair enough, but assuming a regularly managed bash_profile,
> that line should be easy enough to add (and more importantly how to add
> it should be documented by Flatpak – if not, that's their issue).

-- 
-- Jacob Hrbek #StandWithUkraine

[publickey - kreyren@rixotstudio.cz - 1677db82.asc (application/pgp-keys, attachment)]

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Message #14 received at 56567 <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> ist.tugraz.at>
To: Jacob Hrbek <kreyren <at> rixotstudio.cz>, 56567 <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: [BUG] Gnome doesn't recognize applications path for flatpak
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2022 08:13:17 +0200

Am Sonntag, dem 17.07.2022 um 06:03 +0000 schrieb Jacob Hrbek:
> Why is making a user configuration saner in comparison to making it
> work out of the box?
Because in this instance "making it work out of the box" entails
statefulness that most Guix users would typically like to avoid.  Plus,
we are not talking about a very complicated setup here, it's one line
of shell code to drop into your .bash_profile or similar:

export
$XDG_DATA_DIRS="$HOME/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share:$XDG_DATA_DIRS
"

Now granted, if you wanted to account for the fact that XDG_DATA_DIRS
could be empty on some systems (some foreign distros rely on the
implicit default), then you'd have to code around that, but that's
again not within the scope of Guix System.

Message #17 received at submit <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Csepp <raingloom <at> riseup.net>
To: Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> ist.tugraz.at>
Cc: Jacob Hrbek <kreyren <at> rixotstudio.cz>, 56567 <at> debbugs.gnu.org,
 bug-guix <at> gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#56567: [BUG] Gnome doesn't recognize applications path for
 flatpak
Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2023 13:57:35 +0200

Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> ist.tugraz.at> writes:

> Am Sonntag, dem 17.07.2022 um 06:03 +0000 schrieb Jacob Hrbek:
>> Why is making a user configuration saner in comparison to making it
>> work out of the box?
> Because in this instance "making it work out of the box" entails
> statefulness that most Guix users would typically like to avoid.  Plus,
> we are not talking about a very complicated setup here, it's one line
> of shell code to drop into your .bash_profile or similar:
>
> export
> $XDG_DATA_DIRS="$HOME/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share:$XDG_DATA_DIRS
> "
>
> Now granted, if you wanted to account for the fact that XDG_DATA_DIRS
> could be empty on some systems (some foreign distros rely on the
> implicit default), then you'd have to code around that, but that's
> again not within the scope of Guix System.

Since I am running into this same issue on Sway, *even though* I added
that line to my Zsh profile, I don't think the user config route is the
right one to recommend.
Editing environment variables certainly *seems* easy, but I consider
myself fairly adept at Linux and I could not tell you in what order they
are loaded, and clearly it matters, since j4-dmenu-desktop gets the
wrong variables when launched from Sway, but the right ones when
launched from a terminal.  Even though Sway was also run from a
terminal, via dbus-run-session.
So clearly there are a lot of moving parts, and a regular user who just
wants desktop apps to work should not be expected to manually edit these
files.

Message #25 received at 56567-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org (full text, mbox):

From: Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer <at> gmail.com>
To: Csepp <raingloom <at> riseup.net>
Cc: Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> ist.tugraz.at>,
 kreyren <at> rixotstudio.cz, 56567-done <at> debbugs.gnu.org
Subject: Re: bug#56567: [BUG] Gnome doesn't recognize applications path for
 flatpak
Date: Thu, 13 Feb 2025 14:29:42 +0900

Hi,

Csepp <raingloom <at> riseup.net> writes:

> Liliana Marie Prikler <liliana.prikler <at> ist.tugraz.at> writes:
>
>> Am Sonntag, dem 17.07.2022 um 06:03 +0000 schrieb Jacob Hrbek:
>>> Why is making a user configuration saner in comparison to making it
>>> work out of the box?
>> Because in this instance "making it work out of the box" entails
>> statefulness that most Guix users would typically like to avoid.  Plus,
>> we are not talking about a very complicated setup here, it's one line
>> of shell code to drop into your .bash_profile or similar:
>>
>> export
>> $XDG_DATA_DIRS="$HOME/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share:$XDG_DATA_DIRS
>> "
>>
>> Now granted, if you wanted to account for the fact that XDG_DATA_DIRS
>> could be empty on some systems (some foreign distros rely on the
>> implicit default), then you'd have to code around that, but that's
>> again not within the scope of Guix System.
>
> Since I am running into this same issue on Sway, *even though* I added
> that line to my Zsh profile, I don't think the user config route is the
> right one to recommend.
> Editing environment variables certainly *seems* easy, but I consider
> myself fairly adept at Linux and I could not tell you in what order they
> are loaded, and clearly it matters, since j4-dmenu-desktop gets the
> wrong variables when launched from Sway, but the right ones when
> launched from a terminal.  Even though Sway was also run from a
> terminal, via dbus-run-session.
> So clearly there are a lot of moving parts, and a regular user who just
> wants desktop apps to work should not be expected to manually edit these
> files.

I think it may be that Sway will only honor ~/.profile and not
~/.bash_profile, or something like this?

I think the right approach here could be a home service as Liliana
suggested, to automated the required configuration.  I wouldn't like to
have to maintain this in Guix itself since flatpak is not a standard
component of it, and it seems being opt-in would be less surprising.

The same way GNOME on other systems doesn't recognize Guix installed
applications without you configuring your session files accordingly.

I'll now close this.  A guix home "service" patch would be welcome
though.

-- 
Thanks,
Maxim

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