[GNC] create desktop icons for GNC 4.9 Flatpak on Ubuntu

[Adrien Monteleone]

For the icon issue, while Flatpak apps are sandboxed and might not have 
access to that icon location, have you tried copying it to somewhere in 
your home folder and seeing if that works? (it is the Desktop file using 
it, so this would be weird, but I guess worth a shot)

https://wiki.gnucash.org/wiki/Flatpak#Desktop_Icon
gives the example of making a desktop icon and it specifies a /.local 
location in your home folder. That page might be assuming you installed 
the app for one user (you) and not the system. This might be why the 
icon file is in /var/lib instead of /jeffrey/.local. Though why that 
matters, I'm stumped.

I also find it strange that GnuCash is storing backups on the desktop 
when it is opening the file from the USB drive. But you can try adding a 
"Path" to your desktop file to indicate the 'working' directory:

path=/media/jeffrey/'Mac Drive'/Ledgers/Dad/Dad.gnucash

Did this ever work right before you moved to Flatpak? (that is, 
accessing the files from USB, saving backups in the right location with 
the files, etc.)

Per my other comment about this being a 20.04 flatpak-related bug, 
perhaps it has something to do with the mount-point or type of 
mount-point of the USB.

Did you give permission to access the USB drive to flatpak? (as noted in 
the wiki):
sudo flatpak override org.gnucash.GnuCash --filesystem=$PATH_TO_USB_DRIVE

Finally, are you 100% certain you don't have GnuCash installed either 
from a build or .deb?

When you double-click a data file to open GnuCash (which you say works) 
what version is reported?

What happens when you run your Exec command from the .desktop file in a 
terminal?

Regards,
Adrien

On 3/29/22 1:18 AM, Jeff wrote:
> I have tried all of this.  As per your information I did in fact find an 
> icon in:
> 
> /var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gnucash.GnuCash/x86_64/stable/active/files/share/gnucash/pixmaps/gnucash-icon.ico 
> 
> 
> 
> The desktop link gives me an error of "No suitable backend was found for 
> /home/jeffrey/Desktop/Dad.desktop".  I am using the XML save, 
> uncompressed.  I have a great distrust of compressed data files.
> 
> My .desktop file is:
> 
> [Desktop Entry]
> Type=Application
> Terminal=false
> Exec=flatpak run org.gnucash.GnuCash /media/jeffrey/'Mac 
> Drive'/Ledgers/Dad/Dad.gnucash
> Name=GnuCash 4.9 FLATPAK Dad
> Comment=Manage home and small business accounts
> Icon=/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gnucash.GnuCash/x86_64/stable/active/files/share/gnucash/pixmaps/gnucash-icon.ico 
> 
> 
> And in case you are wondering 'Mac Drive' is an external USB drive that 
> I bought on clearance for half price, and I am not using a Mac 
> computer.  I just never changed the drive name because I had trouble 
> with the initial install of the drive several years ago, pre-Ubuntu. 
> Turned out that I had a bad USB cable.  It works flawlessly if I 
> manually click on Dad.gnucash in the file manager.
> 
> This does not appear anywhere on my server. 
> /home/jeffrey/.local/share/flatpak/app/org.gnucash.GnuCash/x86_64/stable/active/files/share/gnucash/pixmaps/gnucash-icon.ico. 
> 
> 
> Permissions are set to run as executable for the desktop icon. Icon does 
> not show up, just the generic blank icon.  If I hit "Okay" I end up with 
> a new, empty, set of books.  If I manually open Dad.gnucash from the 
> link it opens the correct set of books but; wants to create scheduled 
> transactions going back to 2019. And I also simply installed GNC as a 
> Flatpak.  It also creates backups on the desktop.
> 
> For the life of me I cannot figure out what is going on.  I can create 
> desktop icons for everything except Flatpak programs.
> 
> I have to have a gremlin in my server, because I cannot even build a 
> working version of GNC from source (after uninstalling GNC).
> 
> As of right now I only have one user on my server.
>