[GNC] Linux Mint version of Gnucash 5.4 Stopped Generating Reports

Sat Jun 28 21:13:20 EDT 2025

There are a couple of solutions to this that may work.

I believe there is a system-wide place that allows you to set environment
variables - can you just add the WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSTING_MODE=1 to that
file, so that it is set when any user on the machine runs gnucash?

Another way would be to set up a system wide alias for gnucash -- something
like (I may have the syntax off a bit):

alias gnucash="(WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSTING_MODE=1; /usr/local/bin/gnucash)"

I assumed /usr/local/bin, but as you're using flatpak, you should use the
correct command there.

Once more -- I have just regular Ubuntu with GnuCash on flatpak; it created
an icon for me. It may be that you can edit the icon to set the environment
variable when the icon is invoked.

Maybe one of these will work for you...

On Sat, Jun 28, 2025 at 5:53 PM flieger<at>sonic.net <flieger at sonic.net>
wrote:

> I'm looking for more guidance on this issue.  We are in the process of
> firing microsoft with extreme prejudice and
> migrating everything to linux Mint 22.1  Aside from frequent exercise of
> my expletive vocabulary due to the way GC
> files are scattered about the O/S, much progress has been made.
>
> Progress to date is that Mint is installed, flatpak GC 5.11 is loaded,
> accounts and transactions have been
> transferred and tested.  Saved report configs have been transferred BUT
> when running a report the results tab is
> blank.  No matter what I do, the reports generate empty space.  Yes, the
> computer has an Nvidia graphic card.
>
> I have tried everything I can think of without success, with one
> exception: using Terminal to command
> WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 as suggested, then invoke GC.  Works
> great and the reports
> populate but that is a clumsy way to launch the program.  Creating a
> parallel environment as environment.local is
> not a desirable option as it gets clobbered by updates and the last thing
> I need right now is another post-update
> problem.
>
> Admittedly my last use of *nix was decades ago as full Unix so I'm
> approaching this problem as a complete newbie
> and whatever I put together has to be easily maintainable for when I hand
> this off to my successor.
>
> So - suggestions about how to invoke GC, preferably from within the
> shortcut, would be appreciated.
>
> Before I sign off here I want to thank the brain trust and all the people
> who maintain it and improve GC.  I don't
> (yet) know enough to be a knowledgeable contributor but I'll get there.
>
> Jim
>
> On 14 Dec 2023 at 12:34, Charlie Morrison wrote:
>
> > Thanks John for explaining what is causing the issue.
> >
> > Not sure why the space between "flatpak" and "run" disappeared on my
> > email that went to the list.  The space is there on my sent copy???
> >
> > I'm using Manjaro Linux and the current Nvidia driver is
> > 470.223.02-27.  I think there are too many issues in the 535 version
> > for them to get it into stable yet.  Once the Nvidia driver is
> > updated to the 535 version I will check to see if I still need to use
> > the WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 fix.
> >
> > Thanks, Charlie
> >
> > On 12/14/23 10:58, john wrote:
> > > It won't be fixed in the next release because it's not something
> > > that GnuCash can fix. As you say, the work around is to stop WebKit
> > > using the GPU with WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 in the
> > > environment.
> > >
> > > There's a typo in your flatpak command line that might trip up
> > > somebody not paying close enough attention. The correct command is
> > >     WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 flatpak run
> > > org.gnucash.GnuCash with a space between flatpak and run. For users
> > > whose distros have screwed up the webkitgtk package and aren't using
> > > Flatpak, say     WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 gnucash instead
> > > or set WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 in the environment some
> > > other way.
> > >
> > > Note that this is about webkitgtk not GnuCash so it's completely
> > > independent of GnuCash version. It has been reported for GnuCash
> > > releases as early as 4.4. Also, while there is a known issue with
> > > Nvidia drivers (reportedly resolved by Nvidia Linux driver
> > > 535.113.01), there are a couple of other ways that packagers can
> > > screw up the webkitgtk dependencies and break GPU acceleration
> > > regardless of GPU brand.
> > >
> > > All of which said, Arch Linux managed to screw up their webkitgtk
> > > package so thoroughly that disabling GPU acceleration didn't help.
> > > There's a systemd journal crash on
> > > https://bugs.gnucash.org/show_bug.cgi?id=798549 that you can use to
> > > recognize the problem. I think Arch have fixed it but it might still
> > > manifest in other distros.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > > John Ralls
> > >
> > >
> > >> On Dec 14, 2023, at 05:16, Charlie Morrison <sail43 at bellsouth.net>
> > >> wrote:
> > >>
> > >> If you have an Nvidia GPU, there is an issue rendering reports in
> > >> Linux.  There is a bug report discussing it and it may be fixed
> > >> for the next release but I'm not sure about that.  The report
> > >> information is there but you can't see it.
> > >>
> > >> The workaround is to set an environmental variable that disables
> > >> compositing in Webkitgtk. You can check to see if this fixes it for
> > >> you by starting Gnucash in the terminal using the following
> > >> command:
> > >>
> > >> WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 flatpakrun org.gnucash.GnuCash
> > >>
> > >> If that allows you to see the reports, then setting the
> > >> environmental variable "WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1" will fix
> > >> it.  I have no idea how to do that in Linux Mint however.
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> On 12/14/23 00:44, Larry Nagel wrote:
> > >>> One further addendum:  I can print the report as a PDF, I just
> > >>> cannot see the report on my terminal.
> > >>>
> > >>> Very weird!!!
> > >>>
> > >>> Larry
> > >>> ---
> > >>> *Larry Nagel*
> > >>> *251 Stanford Avenue*
> > >>> *Kensington, CA 94708*
> > >>>
> > >>> *(510) 558-0842*
> > >>> *Cell: (510) 502-6244*
> > >>> *laurencenagel42 at gmail.com*
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> On 2023-12-13 22:12, Larry Nagel wrote:
> > >>>> My apologies in advance because I think this question has been
> > >>>> asked and answered.  I have been running gnucash on Linux Mint
> > >>>> and Windows forever, and I am a fairly low impact user.  I only
> > >>>> run reports when it's time to see the tax man, so I don't know
> > >>>> when simple stored reports like Profit and Loss and Balance Sheet
> > >>>> stopped working.  I presently have flathub 5.4.1 running on
> > >>>> Linux Mint 21.2.  These same reports work fine on the Windows
> > >>>> version of gnucash  [ Version 5.4 Build ID:
> > >>>> 5.3-412-g53245caebf+(2023-09-23)
> > >>>> ].  I'm obviously not copying something to the correct location
> > >>>> ]on
> > >>>> the flathub version.
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!
> > >>>>
> > >>>> Larry
> > >>>> ---
> > >>>> *Larry Nagel*
> > >>>> *251 Stanford Avenue*
> > >>>> *Kensington, CA 94708*
> > >>>>
> > >>>> *(510) 558-0842*
> > >>>> *Cell: (510) 502-6244*
> > >>>> *laurencenagel42 at gmail.com*
> > >>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>> _______________________________________________
> > >>> gnucash-user mailing list
> > >>> gnucash-user at gnucash.org
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> > >>
> > >> _______________________________________________
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> > >
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>
>
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-- 
_________________________________
Richard Losey
rlosey at gmail.com
Micah 6:8