Zorin 18.1 clean install, no installed programs will open

General Help
1

I freshly booted another computer to zorin and I'm trying to build this setup, but from the start no program installed through the app store nor from downloaded packs will launch. I can get flatpak spotify to flash open but it immediately crashes; waterfox just doesn't launch at all, nor does anything I've tried. I've uninstalled, re-installed, rebooted etc. but nothing changes.

I don't know how to troubleshoot this either, I'm not sure they all even install even though the appstore claims they do, since I can't find them from anywhere in the filesystems. I've tried on Xorg but there's no difference. Everything pre-installed seems to work, but that doesn't get me very far.

I'm too much of a noob and don't know how to launch any from the terminal since I can't even find the files, so I'm stuck now. Help?

Edit// Alright so far I've managed to get KolourPaint and Firefox to launch through the store, so something does work.

2

How much RAM do you have?

3

8GB, should be enough to run the os and the programs

4

Yes, that should be enough RAM.

5

Let's start with your full system specs. This is a pretty abnormal problem.

I know you did another installation; but did you reuse the same iso and LiveUSB bootstick?

1 Like
6

Are Secure Boot and Fast Boot in BIOS disabled? If Windows is installed: Is Fast Start-Up in Windows disabled? Do You have an encrypted Drive?

Can You name spcifically all Program that You installed and that not work? Are these Programs Flatpak, Snap or .deb/APT Packages?

7

So, I was fiddling around to see if I could do anything, and windows compatibility thing got stuck installing, so I re-installed the gnome-software (I've installed zorin three times on different setups and I've had to do that every time). That seems to have fixed a lot of the problems with the app store installs too. Now basically everything flatpak I manage to get installed launches, so it seems like part of this was just an app store problem.
I also got .debs installing, so that probably got solved just by all the rebooting.

But. So far I have identified three programs that I still can't get to work, and all three might even be separate issues.

  • Spotify: Flatpak installs, launches and crashes immediately. .deb installs through terminal, crashes immediately. Snap claims it installs, but actually doesn't and won't do anything (snaps almost never work anyway, so I avoid them).
  • Xmind: Flatpak doesn't install, loads up until it just drops. .deb installs without terminal, but doesn't launch.
  • Waterfox: Flatpak installs, doesn't launch and won't do anything. .tar files do nothing. On top of this the main user told me they couldn't get waterfox to install on this thing even with windows, which makes this one extra weird.

The setup itself is a very old desktop, from 2011 I think! Insides are AMD Phenom II X6 1055t, AMD Barts XT (Radeon HD 6870), 8GB ram (as mentioned), motherboard is asus but I didn't figure out the specifics yet, nor for the hard disk.
64-bit, kernel is Linux 6.17.0-22-generic, Zorin OS 18.1. Core.
Through BIOS fast boot is off, secure boot doesn't even exist, no windows or other os installed, disk shouldn't be encrypted.

And yes, I used the same USB as yesterday, so it shouldn't be corrupted either... Honestly I'm baffled

8

Let's take an app at the time. Spotify. Launch it via the terminal, the flatpak version;
flatpak run com.spotify.Client

the .deb version
spotify

There might come some vital info out of it.

9

I can't get the spotify flatpak to install again, but the .deb install says

[0426/120922.673187:ERROR:third_party/crashpad/crashpad/snapshot/elf/elf_dynamic_array_reader.h:64] tag not found
[0426/120922.686628:ERROR:third_party/crashpad/crashpad/util/file/directory_reader_posix.cc:43] opendir /home/media/.cache/spotify/attachments/4a911217-95af-4bf8-ac9a-0c8a7022f4e3: No such file or directory (2)

On other news I did get the Xmind flatpak to install after more trying, and now it launches properly, so at least that's solved I guess. Oh this all makes no sense...

Edit// after refreshing gnome-software I caught the flatpak spotify install error (I think), it says

no application was created for running url-to-app on plugin=packagekit with dedupe-flags=7 with search=file:///home/media/refresh, elapsed time since creation 1ms
10

Try clear your system .cache directory.

11

How do I do that?

12

By deleting the files/folders in .cache directory. Press alt+h to see hidden files in Nautilus/file browser.
If you don't won't to wipe all the cache you can can find Spotify folder down in it and delete it.

13

after clearing the .cache fully and trying to launch it again, I got the same error, and the flatpak through store is still stuck as well

14

Are you on an extern HDD?
Also might consider that the iso you installed is borked/broken. Did you ran checksum on it?

15

No, this is installed on internal ssd disk if I got the details right. And the iso shouldn't be borked since I installed zorin with it succesfully on another computer just day before

16

But there's something that went wrong somehow. If it's the permission system went bad somehow.
By the way what's the full specs of the computer?

17

Yeah this is really weird. Specs are

ASUSTeK Computer INC. M4A87TD/USB3, 8,0 GiB, AMD Phenom™ II X6 1055T × 6, AMD Barts XT (Radeon HD 6870)
64-bit, kernel is Linux 6.17.0-22-generic, Zorin OS 18.1. Core

18

Have you been able to update the system first?

19

BIOS should have been updated, and zorin did update itself. Checking updates zorin says everything is up to date (through the settings and also with sudo apt update)

20

Then I'm bit loss what's wrong. :thinking:
Next thing is to try another distro on it to see if the same thing occurs. If it does, it may be a hardware thing.