I have added a second hard drive to my recent clean install of Zorin 16 Core, by adding the necessary information into /etc/fstab. Now I can create, read, update and delete data to the drive through it's mount point, which shows in the left pane in the Files process. But almost every other application I have - for example, Audacious - cannot 'see' this 2nd hard drive or its mount point.
How do I correct that ?
After thought: I understand flatpak apps are sandboxed: could that be the reason why flatpak apps cannot see this additional drive?
That is entirely possible.
I use Audacious as my preferred music player.
I had no idea it comes as a flatpak. I install it through APT only. Are only Flatpak apps having this issue?
You ask a good question; my answer is probably 'yes', but given on the basis of very limited data. Audacious is a confusing example: the Zorin Software Manager seems to install only the flatpak version. I also have this version installed on my Mint 20.2 system; it, too, is unable to 'see' a 2nd hard drive I have on the computer. However, the Software Manager in Mint installs only the 'officially' supported version from the Ubuntu repository - i.e not a flatpak version. That non-flatpak version is quite able to see the second hard drive.
Back on Zorin, I haven't yet understood how to install app packages other than through the Software Manager - i.e. no Synaptic Package Manager like in Mint. Yes, I could probably install from the command line, but not confident about that.
Shotwell, as a flatpak, is not able to see my 2nd had drive.
I have also checked these flatpak apps in Zorin: Audacity, Scribus, Krita, FreeFileSync, GIMP. All of these are able to see and access my 2nd hard drive.
I have not yet found a non-flatpak app that is unable to see my 2nd hard drive.
Thanks; i just finished installing the Audacious version from the PPA in Ubuntu and found it has no problem seeing my 2nd hard drive (and I assume this is what you are using).
Flatpak audacious now uninstalled. Synaptic installed - a familiar face!
Bottom line: it seems that some (and only some, and only flatpak) flatpak apps have the problem of being unable to see a 2nd hard drive mounted via fstab.
Snap and Flatpak apps are Sandboxed. Sounds good. But... All apps are sandboxed on Linux, so snaps and flatpaks end up double sandboxed, which can be not so good.
Agree; earlier this evening I read a lengthy article, updated yesterday, from a Nicholas Fraser, a developer in Canada, on ludocode.com, titled "Flatpak is not the future". It was a powerfully expressed and illustrated dissertation which has made me reconsider whether I should be using flatpak so much.
(On the other hand all other solutions to the packaging of linux apps and the library dependency/currency nightmare, seem equally fraught. For somebody like me, who has been unsuccessful in compiling an app - any app - in a linux development environment during the last 15 years or so of trying, flatpak has been very useful. I had no trouble compiling/link editing in the 60s but life was simpler then.).
Before you can address the dependency nightmare, you must first address whether there is one in the first place.
A lot has changed in the past 15 years. I came into Linux long after you did... So I got lucky.
I am fully confident we can help you sort out most installations easily with APT.