Some apps don't start when launched from GNOME Shell

Describe your issue

What's the expected behaviour?

When I click on an app, it should launch.

What's the current behaviour?

Some apps don't launch from Shell, but they do from the command line. So far I've noticed:

• Fractal (Flathub)
• Podcasts (Flathub)
• Shortwave (Flathub)

Shell ends up in a weird in-between state,

How to reproduce your issue?

Install any of these apps from Flathub on a systemd GNOME Shell install on a OnePlus 6, try to run these apps from Shell (they don't work) and from the command line (they do).

What device are you using?

OnePlus 6

On what postmarketOS version did you encounter the issue?

• edge (master branch)
• v24.06
• v23.12 (supported until 2024-07-16)
• edge (master_staging_systemd branch)
• I confirm that the issue still is present after running sudo apk upgrade -a

On what environment did you encounter the issue?

Environments

• GNOME Shell on Mobile
• Phosh
• Plasma Mobile
• Sxmo (Wayland/Sway) Please post the output of sxmo_version.sh
• Other: Please fill out

How did you get postmarketOS image?

• from https://images.postmarketos.org
• I built it using pmbootstrap
• It was preinstalled on my device

What's the build date of the image? (in yyyy-mm-dd format)

2024-06-15

Additional information

I asked verdre (the mobile Shell author) about it and he said:

the fact that shell ends up in the half-overview mode is a shell issue (it's actually the "normal" overview state that gnome-shell has, instead of the app grid state btw), the fact that the apps aren't starting is a pmOS issue, no clue why

Here is what the in-between state looks like:

added systemd label

How do other distros autostart user apps/services installed from flatpak? Does flatpak create systemd user unit files to autostart/manage them, or does it (or something else) generate xdg autostart config for them? ... Or are they started via some other mechanism?

By clayton craft on 2024-06-20T17:31:17

mentioned in issue #2910 (closed)

By Adrien Plazas on 2024-06-20T10:42:36

Some experiments to try:

• Do they run correctly from GNOME shell (non-mobile)?

• Do they run correctly on non-systemd images w/ gnome shell (mobile)?

By clayton craft on 2024-06-20T17:32:14

This also might be related to #2910 (closed) ?

By clayton craft on 2024-09-13T06:49:04

changed milestone to %initial systemd support

I tried running the apps from a "GNOME Classic" session (still in mobile Shell) and they worked fine. Sadly I won't be able to help debug this more, an update destroyed my install and pmOS won't boot anymore.

By Adrien Plazas on 2024-06-20T19:47:27

I'm currently unable to debug this because flatpak is broken on Alpine edge: https://gitlab.alpinelinux.org/alpine/aports/-/issues/16444

By clayton craft on 2024-09-13T06:49:40

Fwiw, this works for me in systemd with GNOME Shell mobile. I couldn't try on the newest versions though due to the bug Clayton mentioned.

By verdre on 2024-09-13T08:43:42

@verdre you should be able to retry this now

Closing, since this doesn't seem to be a problem anymore? If it is, we can re-open it

closed