Apps can't seem to find my 2nd hard drive

General Help
#1

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?

#2

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?

#3

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.

#4

There is no reason to lack confidence:

sudo apt install synaptic

You can check which are flatpaks with terminal:

flatpak list

#5

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.

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#6

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.

#7

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.).

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#8

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.

2 Likes
#9

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