[GNC] Annoying Register Issue

[Geert Janssens]

Op vrijdag 13 november 2020 00:01:48 CET schreef David Cousens:
> I prefer to build my own as well. On Linux once the dependencies are
> installed this is pretty easy.
> 
> While the flathub idea is good in principle it seems to require
> configuration of the sandbox and maybe specifically for each app. John Ralls
> has sorted out such issues before and you may possibly find some references
> in the archive of the user and dev forums on how to set premissions for
> flatpaks. The print issue is usually a permissions  setting which allows
> the sandbox the flatpak is run in access to the OS print facilities.
> 
> For my purposes the extra protection of a sandbox environment was not worth
> the learning curve.
> 
> David

Slightly off-topic first: the sandbox is a relatively modern operating system 
concept. It's common on other platforms (like Android, ChromeOS) and is meant 
to protect unexperienced users from malicious attacks. In itself it's a strong 
concept. On linux this idiom has appeared only very recently and hence has to 
prove itself in the face of both long time user habits and early 
implementation issues. Note that flatpak is not the only implementation of 
this though together with snaps and appimages it's explicitly targeted at end-
users rather than sysadmins (who have VM's, containers,...)

Now in particular to flatpak and GnuCash:
1. for 4.3 we have decided to lift all of the sandbox restrictions wrt to 
network and file access. That should simplify storing data files on things 
like network shares, usb drives or in any kind of database (locally hosted or 
not).
2. Printing is handled specially in flatpak. The printing code needs to 
implement what flatpak calls a "portal". We use Gtk for our printing needs and 
Gtk has implemented this portal. As such check printing works fine. However 
for our report system we depend on WebkitGtk (including for printing). And to 
date WebkitGtk has not yet implemented that portal. That is why report 
printing is not working unfortunately and won't until WebkitGtk gets its act 
together or we switch to a different reporting system. The only thing gnucash 
on flatpak currently can do for you is print to a pdf which you can then send 
to your printer.

Regards,

Geert