Adrien, Regards, snort! I am thinking to myself, you linux people must be crazy helping people remotely out of the goodness of your heart. Who has the time to do this day after day? And then, the advice you gave me to simply look in help/about and find where the damn files are stored in the flatpak and copy/paste them into the right place on the environment version. Frightfully simple. Easy! Effective! If you understand the depth of the feeling of appreciation I am having after a Very Big Day, after a long, dark year in a world with so little to be happy about, that is why you do what you do. I can not begin to tell you how wonderful this is for me and what it means to be functional electronically. Furthermore, to KNOW more and understand a *little* better.
I will save all these communications and refer to them as needed. Hugs to the whole entire team. I can't speak highly enough about linux right now, and this has been my consistent sentiment since switching at the beginning of this year. Now I'm working on my husband - to get him to take the leap. I will help him!!! Julie way off in Oregon what used to be the good old us of a On Sun, Oct 25, 2026 at 8:31 AM Adrien Monteleone < [email protected]> wrote: > Julie, > > Check David H's suggestion concerning the About dialog. I keep > forgetting that one. It takes the mystery out, thankfully! > > Once you have a grasp of what files you want to preserve and which type > of installation you want to stick with, then you'll know where to place > them and move on. > > Also take note of Tommy's answer above about creating a symbolic link > from the known good location to the other so you don't have to move > files around. Take special note too, that Tommy linked the GNC_DATA_HOME > folder itself, not individual files. That way, only one link is needed > and everything in it is visible to both types of installations. > > With reference to the flatpak version of the Exec command, I have this > on an Nvidia machine and it works: > > Exec=flatpak run --env=WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 > --env=WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 org.gnucash.GnuCash > "/home/user_foo/.../my_book.gnucash" > > Here's how that breaks down: > > `flatpak run org.gnucash.GnuCash` > > is the actual command, which executes 'flatpak' and tells it to 'run' > 'org.gnucash.GnuCash' which is the official, full name of the flatpak > version of GnuCash, but inserted after "run" are: > > '--env=WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1` > > and, > > `env=WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1` > > which are the switches for 'run' that set environment variables to work > around the Nvidia problems. I already had the first one in there and > left it in just in case a future update for the Nvidia driver might > necessitate it again. There might be a cleaner way to do this, and > indeed, we can set the environment variables outside of this file rather > than having the command invoke it every time. > > The last part within the "" is the direct path to the book file I want. > I think there is a variable that can be used here instead to open the > last used file. (which is the GnuCash default way of doing things) But > this installation is for a family member's business and they only have > the one file. I discovered however that I needed to specify the full > path including "/home/user_foo/" because the shortcut "~/" didn't work. > GnuCash kept telling me it couldn't find the file. Yet if I clicked File > > Open, it brought me right to it! (specifying the full path, just > works without File > Open) > > In conversational English that translates to: > > "Hey flatpak, run GnuCash, but do it in a special environment, and > please, tell GnuCash to open specific file for me when it starts up." > > ---- > As for which version to use, that is mostly a personal preference with a > caveat: > > At some point in the near future, (end of March 2027) 6.0 is planned to > be released. (though it may be held back and another 5.x released > depending on 6.x Roadmap progress) > > It is generally not recommended to open books between two major versions > back and forth. (5.x and 6.x in this case) The last minor version is > usually okay, but still not a 'best practice'. (5.18? and 6.0) Thus, if > you keep one machine on flatpak it will eventually hit 6.0 and beyond, > while the other machine will be stuck on 5.5 until you upgrade the > underlying Operating System, and even then, you'll only get the newer > version of GnuCash that is in that new OS version's repository, which > could still be older than 6.0. > > This is a good reason to use flatpaks. They allow you to stay more up to > date for specific applications, but keep the underlying operating system > on a long term support release cycle. > > There's otherwise nothing inherently bad about staying on an older > version on both machines, save you won't benefit from any bug fixes from > newer versions until you update. You also get the benefit of perhaps > experiencing occasionally newly introduced bugs! > > No path is perfect. There are always tradeoffs. > > Whichever route you choose, I recommend doing the same on both machines > so they stay in-sync as long as you keep them otherwise equally up to date. > > > Regards, > Adrien > > On 10/25/26 12:52 AM, Julie G wrote: > > Fumes is right. This takes "it" out of me. But i do feel empowered > when i > > accomplish Stuff :-D > > So i managed to change the "exec=" line in the environment version such > > that my NVIDIA card no longer freezes my desktop. My laptop works (no > > NVIDIA) and runs the flatpak version. I wouldn't mind running the > flatpak > > version on the desktop because it can find the reports wherever they are > > already. While this might be great, it would only work if i managed to > > successfully change the "Exec=" line. > > > > Conversely, if i run the environment version, it 1) might not be possible > > to use the company file on both (?) And 2) it would mean either copying > the > > saved reports file/s to the needed location or recreating them. > > > > I've effectively identified what would be required of me with each > > scenario. It comes down to which option would be the easiest, and the > > version compatibility question. I don't actually work on the company > file > > all that often on the laptop, so that isn't a deal breaker. Conversely, > if > > i settle on the environment version, i could install that on the laptop > > too, and that would solve that. > > > > The remaining question is whether i can figure out where to copy the > saved > > reports file/s. If i can, i guess i'd go that route (environment on > > both). Otherwise, i'd punt to plan b. > > > > Is my logic sound? > > _______________________________________________ > gnucash-user mailing list > [email protected] > To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: > https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user > ----- > Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. > You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All. > _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
