Apps working when launched from container, but not host. about distrobox

[89luca89]

Hey @pseudofakee thanks forma the big reporter, can you post the desktop file generated? to check if there are some errors in the file generation

Thanks!

[pseudofakee]

Yup

[pseudofakee]

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Atom
Comment=A hackable text editor for the 21st Century
GenericName=Text Editor
Exec=/usr/local/bin/distrobox-enter --name Arch -e  env ATOM_DISABLE_SHELLING_OUT_FOR_ENVIRONMENT=false /usr/bin/atom %F
Icon=atom
Type=Application
StartupNotify=true
Categories=GNOME;GTK;Utility;TextEditor;Development;
MimeType=text/plain;
StartupWMClass=atom

[89luca89]

Thanks

Executing directly from your host's terminal:

/usr/local/bin/distrobox-enter -v --name Arch -e env ATOM_DISABLE_SHELLING_OUT_FOR_ENVIRONMENT=false /usr/bin/atom

Does it work? If not can you try pasting the output? Thanks!

[pseudofakee]

Doesn't work . :)

atom_error.txt

[89luca89]

Mmmh can you try executing without the

env ATOM_DISABLE_SHELLING_OUT_FOR_ENVIRONMENT=false

Could be because it's not handling well multiple commands passed to the container

[pseudofakee]

/usr/local/bin/distrobox-enter -v --name Arch -e /usr/bin/atom

Returns
atom_error_2.txt

dropping the -e gets me into the container (without the ability to find /usr/bin/atom so it fails there )

[89luca89]

/usr/local/bin/distrobox-enter -v --name Arch -e /usr/bin/atom

Returns atom_error_2.txt

dropping the -e gets me into the container (without the ability to find /usr/bin/atom so it fails there )

And doesn't work still right? any other error? I mean after the + '[' 0 -ne 0 ']' on the terminal?

[pseudofakee]

atom_error_3.txt

[89luca89]

@pseudofakee Had to install atom to dig into this 😃

Not really sure how distrobox should handle this, but the problem here is that atom is not really... well atom

/usr/bin/atom is a script that launcher electron9 to then launch node and so on, so it launches, forks and exits
this works if you're inside the container and launch atom because your environment is still up and running (you're inside it)

if you launch directly with distrobox-enter --name Arch -e /usr/bin/atom the main PID (the script) exits before electron can do his thing, so the container exits
That is why I didn't see any error from distrobox, podman nor atom itsef 😄

the solution here is to launch /usr/bin/atom -f so in foreground then it works both using the desktop file and directly launching the command with distrobox-enter
the env part works also at that point so it's not a problem on distrobox not supporting multiple commands

[pseudofakee]

Awesome, you got it ;)

It makes sense, I was also having that issue when trying to call the synth 'Aeronaut' which is also electron based.

Thanks for the work !

[89luca89]

I'll close this issue then @pseudofakee if you have any idea on how to improve distrobox to handle these cases don't hesitate to open an issue for a feature request 😄

[89luca89]

Created a feature request to add extra flags to exported apps and services to fix situation like this one
Thanks @pseudofakee for bringing up this type of problem 😄