Re: flatpak applications in the gnome applications menu (XDG_DATA_DIRS)

[Luis Felipe <luis.felipe.la@protonmail.com>]

Hi, Christophe,


> I installed Element (1) by flatpak, but applications installed by
> Flatpak do not appear on the gnome desktop applications menu (even
> after reboot).


You have to add some paths to XDG_DATA_DIRS.

I'm using Guix System, and this is what I do:

1. Add the following to .bash_profile file

# MAKE FLATPAK APPLICATION LAUNCHERS AVAILABLE IN GUIX'S GNOME
export XDG_DATA_DIRS="$XDG_DATA_DIRS:$HOME/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share"
export XDG_DATA_DIRS="$XDG_DATA_DIRS:/var/lib/flatpak/exports/share"

Note that I don't know why ".bash_profile" instead of ".profile". I use the former because using the latter never works for me.

2. Restart the GNOME SHELL. You can do this as follows:

2.1 Press Alt + F2
2.2 Enter the letter r
2.3 Press Enter

After this, flatpak applications should be listed along with the applications you install with guix.

About the error, I don't know. I've experienced other problems with flatpaks though. For example, it is common that some flatpak applications can't access the file system, but some can.

Anyways, hope that helps.