[SOLVED] Flatpak/Flatseal Gnucash fails to launch

[elmarts]

I just went through a clean install, replacing my Linux Mint 19.3 with Mint 20.2. Gnucash 3.8 is provided and it opens my data file seemingly OK, but I had the flatpak running version 4.x, and would like to get that back. I have installed and reinstalled flatpak, but when I click on the icon for gnucash 4.x, I get the wait timer, and then nothing. Flatseal also reacts the same way, i.e. does not open, although if flatpak is really installed it should at least show its window. Ideas on how to get the flatpak programs running again? Thanks

[mikeflan]

Hi. Is gnucash 4.x in the start menu? If so, delete the icon you have on the desktop, then right click on the one in the start menu and 'Add to desktop' of 'Add to panel'.

[elmarts]

Yes, it is in the start menu, and its properties says the command to invoke it is the following

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/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=gnucash --file-forwarding org.gnucash.GnuCash @@ %f @@

The flatseal command is

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/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=com.github.tchx84.Flatseal com.github.tchx84.Flatseal

Does that help?

[mikeflan]

Yes, it is in the start menu, and its properties says

Yes that helps. How did you access the properties of the Gnucash launcher in the start menu?

I still stand by what I said in my first post. Delete your desktop launcher and then put it back from the start menu. Then try to start Gnucash with the new launcher.

[elmarts]

Open the start menu, right click the icon, and edit properties, then copy the command line. I try to launch from the menu itself. No luck. Uninstalled it, reinstalled it, and still no change in behavior. It simply will not start, just displays the wait throbber, then nothing. How do I test flatpak itself?

[mikeflan]

I try to launch from the menu itself. No luck. Uninstalled it, reinstalled it, and still no change in behavior. It simply will not start, just displays the wait throbber, then nothing.

Please type this in a terminal and report the response:

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gnucash

How do I test flatpak itself?

Type this in a terminal:

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flatpak list

[elmarts]

Please type this in a terminal and report the response:

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gnucash

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ets@Shinobi ~ $ gnucash
Found Finance::Quote version 1.49.

And it runs gnucash 3.8 normally.

Type this in a terminal:

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flatpak list

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ets@Shinobi ~ $ flatpak list
error: While opening repository /home/ets/.local/share/flatpak/repo: opening repo: opendir(objects): No such file or directory

Navigating to this folder shows it is empty save for a config file which contains

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[core]
repo_version=1
mode=bare-user-only
min-free-space-size=500MB

Now i have the files com.github.tchx84.Flatseal.flatpakref and org.gnucash.GnuCash.flatpakref on a different HD and clicking "open with software manager" on them results in their entries ending up in the start menu, and retrying tells me that they are both already installed. But from the above test of flatpak, they are apparently not getting to where they need to be, right?

There is another folder in there, labelled overides - and it contains one file "/home/ets/.local/share/flatpak/overrides/org.gnucash.GnuCash" and does not contain an equivalent flatseal entry.

Doing a search through the file system for flatseal, I found that there are populated folders in /var/lib/flatpak/app/, namely /var/lib/flatpak/app/com.github.tchx84.Flatseal and /var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gnucash.GnuCash

Does this help?

[mikeflan]

Glad to see your non-flatpak Gnucash ver 3.8 is working.

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ets@Shinobi ~ $ flatpak list
error: While opening repository /home/ets/.local/share/flatpak/repo: opening repo: opendir(objects): No such file or directory

I'm not sure why your flatpak installation is messed up. So for flatpaks a repository is just a simple file on your system. Who knew?

Your flatpak installation used to work and now it doesn't. This is a job for Timeshift

I can't give you any other constructive recommendation. We are looking for better help.

[elmarts]

Glad to see your non-flatpak Gnucash ver 3.8 is working.
...
I'm not sure why your flatpak installation is messed up. So for flatpaks a repository is just a simple file on your system. Who knew?

Your flatpak installation used to work and now it doesn't. ..

Well, it worked on 19.3. It has never worked on this 20.2 clean installation. Timeshift would dump me back into the problems with the internet that I left 19.3 for. Thanks for the help so far, but I'm still hosed, and have no clue why.

[elmarts]

This thread has the solution - https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/issu ... -621545087

and

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rm -rf ~/.local/share/flatpak

worked. I now have things running again