Flatpak - GnuCash
Flatpak
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Flatpaks
are bundles which besides the program also contain all required libraries. Use cases:
If your Linux distribution is
too old
to offer all required libraries but has Flatpak support, you can install a
recent released
version of GnuCash from the
FlatHub
repository.
If a developer or a translator asks you to
test
their recent work, you can use a
nightly
version from
our Flatpak repository
Note flatpak's
Sandbox
concept: it uses files in
$HOME/.var/app/org.gnucash.GnuCash/
and
$HOME/.local/share/flatpak/app/org.gnucash.GnuCash/
Contents
Known Issues
1.1
Resolved
Flatpak Documentation
Installation
3.1
Regular releases at
flathub.org
3.2
Nightly Test Versions at
gnucash.org
3.3
Getting Older Releaseses
3.4
Selecting the GnuCash version to run
Configuration
4.1
Granting Access to Other Resources
4.2
Changing the Locale
Tips
5.1
Getting Console Output
5.2
Using Command Line Tools
5.3
Desktop Icon
5.4
SQL Connection
5.5
Maintenance
5.5.1
Overview
5.5.2
Update
5.5.3
Cleanup
5.6
Crash: Stacktrace
5.7
GTK Inspector
5.8
Other
Known Issues
Architecture
While the
program
flatpak
supports many architectures, it appears that the
service
flathub.org
dropped support for new
i386
packages sometime between September and December 2019, the release dates for GnuCash 3.7 and 3.8 respectively and
32-bit arm packages after GnuCash 4.4.
The
nightly builds on code.gnucash.org
are
x86_64
only.
We do not ship the
Python Bindings
no
direct report printing
, but printing them to file and direct printing of checks works and
Nvidia GPU
Linux has had ongoing issues with Nvidia graphics drivers since early 2023. If you have an Nvidia GPU and GnuCash can't display reports or crashes when you try, run
flatpak run --env=WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 org.gnucash.GnuCash
Potential loss of settings
This happens when a few conditions coincide
On your host system you are using (or have been using) GnuCash 4.7 or older
You install or upgrade to flatpak GnuCash 4.5 or newer
Under these conditions your flatpak GnuCash preferences will be reset due to changes internal to flatpak itself. We have created a fix for this in GnuCash 4.7 (native) in combination with flatpak GnuCash 4.8-1. Unfortunately this fix can only work if you have run GnuCash 4.7 (or more recent) at least once natively on your host system before running GnuCash 4.8-1 or more recent in flatpak. This is currently (at the time of the flatpak 4.8-1 release) unlikely to happen unless the user makes quite an effort. Over time this situation will improve.
How to fix
In case you hit this issue there are a few ways forward:
If you can run GnuCash 4.7+ natively on your host and you have installed GnuCash flatpak 4.8-1+
do run GnuCash 4.7+ natively at least once and
(re)move the file
$HOME/.var/app/org.gnucash.GnuCash/config/glib-2.0/settings/keyfile
. The next time you start GnuCash flatpak it will import your preferences from your host GnuCash.
If you're not in a position you can run GnuCash 4.7+ natively on your host and you didn't tweak a lot of preferences
the easiest fix then is probably to manually go through and set the preferences you tweaked before the first time you start flatpak GnuCash 4.5 or above. They should stay set after that.
If you do want to restore your preferences while not able to run GnuCash 4.7+ natively on your host
you can run the following commands in a shell:
# Backup your current sandbox settings:
cp
$HOME
/.var/app/org.gnucash.GnuCash/config/glib-2.0/settings/keyfile
$HOME
/gnucash-settings.save
# Real conversion:
dconf dump /org/gnucash/ >
$HOME
/.var/app/org.gnucash.GnuCash/config/glib-2.0/settings/keyfile
perl -pi.bkp -e
's!^[[]![org/gnucash/!'
$HOME
/.var/app/org.gnucash.GnuCash/config/glib-2.0/settings/keyfile
For the nitty-gritty details that causes this issue, refer to
Bug 798194
Current list
Resolved
To use
smart cards
At least
Flatpak 1.3.2
needs to be installed on your system.
Because the
software on our build server is to old
, you have to follow the instructions in
#Granting Access to Other Resources
All
current
versions are
PSD2
capable
—an EU directive—of online banking via
FinTS
Online-Banking (german)
protocol.
Current versions of GnuCash flatpak will no longer attempt to recompile all scm sources though it will continue to emit warnings about obsolete .go files:
;;; note: source file /app/share/guile//2.2/ice-9/eval.scm
;;; newer than compiled /app/lib/guile/2.2/ccache/ice-9/eval.go
Workaround
# --system install
cd
/var/lib/flatpak/app/org.gnucash.GnuCash
# OR --user install
cd
$HOME
/.local/share/flatpak/app/org.gnucash.GnuCash
sudo find . -name
'*.go'
-exec touch
'{}'
';'
Flatpak Documentation
Overview
Usage Instructions
Command Reference
Installation
You can configure many package managers like
Gnome Software
or KDE's
Discover
to at least install or update Flatpaks from Flathub, but on this page we will use the more powerful
flatpak
command line tool.
The examples to install flatpak itself are written for
Debian
(in
Buster
Flatpak
is already included, for
Stretch
and
Jessie
backports exist) and its derivates like
Ubuntu
Hint
For other distributions replace
apt*
by your preferred commandline software managment tool and its command, i.e. for many rpm based distributions
zypper install flatpak
FlatPak.org offers
Instructions for several distributions
Annotation for the following examples
sudo
is not required.
flatpak
is smart enough to ask on demand your desktop for the dialog like under KDE:
Regular releases at
flathub.org
You can have both the
regular
, currently GnuCash 5.15, and
beta
branches installed at the same time.
Note
The current versions contain Aqbanking 6.9.1.
Beta
s (GnuCash 5.9xx) are previews and only released in the last months before the next main version, see
Release Schedule
See also
Flathub
For Stable Releases
# Install FlatPak (on debian based distributions, others have to replace 'apt-get install'):
sudo apt-get install flatpak
# Register FlatHub repository for a system app (available to all users):
sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
# or only you:
flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
# Install GnuCash ...
# for all users:
# sudo is only needed for a --system install, if the user is not in the 'sudo' group
# --system is the default if --user is not specified
sudo flatpak install --system flathub org.gnucash.GnuCash
# or only you:
flatpak install --user flathub org.gnucash.GnuCash
# Run GnuCash:
flatpak run org.gnucash.GnuCash
Default App Installation Locations
--system (for all users, default) /var/lib/flatpak
--user ~/.local/share/flatpak
Tip
To get the most recent version, run each quarter year (see
Release Schedule
):
flatpak update
For Unstable (i.e., beta) Releases
Do the process for stable releases, but
install
, and
run
as follows.
# Register:
flatpak remote-add --user --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/beta-repo/flathub-beta.flatpakrepo
# Install
flatpak install --user flathub-beta org.gnucash.GnuCash
# Run
flatpak run --branch
beta org.gnucash.GnuCash
Downgrading
It can't be done from the average package manager, but it can be done from the command line. It's a two-step command:
flatpak remote-info --log flathub org.gnucash.GnuCash
# list all commits in the repo
flatpak update --commit
HASH --appstream flathub org.gnucash.GnuCash
# checkout commit HASH in the repo
The
appstream
argument isn't needed if you have only one repository configured for org.gnucash.GnuCash.
Nightly
Test Versions at
gnucash.org
Warning
Save your data before using test versions!
Often you can find test versions on the
build-server
. They come in two flavours:
Stable
Version 5.15 plus
all recent
bug fixes, but no new features:
Future
Only available after the implementation of a feature from
Release Schedule#Goals for 6.0
The branches were named
maint
and
master
before the GnuCash 5.0 release.
Version 5.15 plus new features, but bug fixes can be
delayed
a few days:
Tip
The file names in these directories can be used in the example below after trimming the „
gnucash-
“ prefix and „
.flatpakref
“ suffix.
Note
The current version contains Aqbanking 6.9.1.
sudo apt install flatpak
#install Flatpak
# register repositories:
sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists gnucash https://code.gnucash.org/builds/flatpak/gnucash-nightlies.flatpakrepo
sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
flatpak --arch
x86_64 remote-ls gnucash
# show all packages
# output should be:
# org.gnucash.GnuCash
# org.gnucash.GnuCash.Debug
# org.gnucash.GnuCash.Locale
sudo flatpak --arch
x86_64 install gnucash org.gnucash.GnuCash//stable-C5.8-20-ga84189b79d-D5.7-2-ge45aa63c
# <-- change version here!
flatpak run org.gnucash.GnuCash
# start program
Note
flatpak --arch=x86_64
is only required, if you have a 64-bit processor with a 32-bit OS.
Getting Older Releaseses
There may be occasions where you would like to install an older version of GnuCash - an important bug in the most recent version prevents you from upgrading, you may want to do regression tests, ...
While flathub by default will install or upgrade to the most recent version, it also provides access to a number of older versions. Here is how you can downgrade to one such version from the command line:
Install current gnucash
$ flatpak install flathub org.gnucash.GnuCash
List all gnucash packages that are available in flathub
$ flatpak remote-info --log flathub org.gnucash.GnuCash
ID: org.gnucash.GnuCash
Ref: app/org.gnucash.GnuCash/x86_64/stable
Arch: x86_64
Branch: stable
Collection: org.flathub.Stable
Download:
110
,5 MB
Installed:
319
,5 MB
Runtime: org.gnome.Platform/x86_64/43
Sdk: org.gnome.Sdk/x86_64/43
Commit: 612379218b8be2d2dba316db580154efd4521d35f24f9500c3eafe4694dfe4ea
Parent: c3d6b1ff9fb14beb33d26d11068c4f40fb9cf400c14f090b8f24f077205b173d
Subject: Package gnucash
.1
16bb64cf
Date:
2023
-05-04
15
:46:25 +0000
History:
Commit: c3d6b1ff9fb14beb33d26d11068c4f40fb9cf400c14f090b8f24f077205b173d
Subject: Package gnucash
.0-1
6a579a23
Date:
2023
-03-29
00
:17:36 +0000
Commit: 08e6ac442846255491fa72592cd8451e274efd7649e430d9f968adc6f0e723f3
Subject: Package GnuCash
.0
c9b14ae9
Date:
2023
-03-26
20
:34:31 +0000
Commit: 511cf18127561c55b5999121c6b301ca1e90d6cc988a00701257606df7fae86f
Subject: Release GnuCash
.14
b2942403
Date:
2023
-03-25
23
:27:27 +0000
Commit: eb1be08966b94073a6f219dcf8f61f42c88228d1d1f2aba15da990591bccf3c7
Subject: Fix GnuCash tarball sha256
bd9f8e1e
Date:
2022
-12-18
22
:30:44 +0000
Commit: 7e2d8364088a32d0f6849893a43b41a5623886c2d5c7da3505c023ba0c86fa5f
Subject: Fix GnuCash tarball sha256
bd9f8e1e
Date:
2022
-12-18
22
:30:44 +0000
Commit: 75419560fa6ece2e44ca421e261266cd2469c43970f67ad5d9498cb952274b84
Subject: Fix Flathub build id.
98f80163
Date:
2022
-10-23
00
:28:02 +0000
Commit: dc06bee16009e51bfe041891feb8ec36e282b732e87702a2ad914913ec2ea675
Subject: Package gnucash
.12-2
5b8ae13f
Date:
2022
-10-22
22
:51:18 +0000
Commit: 24135ed2a3a1ed806df526a632ad1d178039648e0c620478dd1bab50312c22e3
Subject: Package gnucash
.12-1.
b335bd5a
Date:
2022
-10-16
14
:19:27 +0000
Commit: 98bea86b69a63cc6ed5a1854344d115a683d6cee7ca56b81e7210f2da2706d88
Subject: Package gnucash
.12.
fea1ed21
Date:
2022
-09-25
18
:36:54 +0000
Take note of the commit hash (the long string of digits and letters) for the gnucash version you want to install. For example to install gnucash 4.14, the relevant commit hash would be 511cf18127561c55b5999121c6b301ca1e90d6cc988a00701257606df7fae86f
Upgrade/Downgrade gnucash to the version you like
$ flatpak update --commit
For the example of upgrading to 4.14, this would become
$ flatpak update --commit 511cf18127561c55b5999121c6b301ca1e90d6cc988a00701257606df7fae86f org.gnucash.GnuCash
Selecting the GnuCash version to run
To list the installed versions:
flatpak info org.gnucash.GnuCash
To run an installed version other than the default:
flatpak run --branch=
To change the default version:
flatpak make-current org.gnucash.GnuCash
As always you can use
--system
or
--user
to distinguish between system-wide and user-space installations.
Configuration
Granting Access to Other Resources
As each Flatpak app runs in a sandbox, you have to unlock additionally required resources like
USB or Network Drive
with fix mountpoint
# After configuring automatic mounting of the drive in the host system
sudo flatpak override org.gnucash.GnuCash --filesystem
$PATH_TO_DRIVE
with changing mountpoint
sudo flatpak override org.gnucash.GnuCash --talk-name
org.gtk.vfs.* --filesystem
xdg-run/gvfs
Now GnuCash Flatpak can see the share under
Other Locations
when it is mounted.
[1]
Smartcard Reader
To use smart cards in
AqBanking
on the host—your Linux PC—the demon
pcscd
must be running,
the related socket must become unlocked for your GnuCash-Flatpak once:
sudo flatpak override org.gnucash.GnuCash --socket
pcsc
sudo
may be required depending on the rest of your installation.
See also
Changing the Locale
Refer to
Locale Settings
to determine the settings required.
Refer to
Configuration Locations - System-wide
for instructions on how to change Flatpak environment variables using
flatpak override
Tips
Getting Console Output
In case of trouble get the
console output
flatpak run org.gnucash.GnuCash
or even better
flatpak run org.gnucash.GnuCash --logto stdout
The latter will print all logs to the console rather than to an inaccessible trace file.
Using Command Line Tools
To call
command line
tools like
aqbanking-cli
, the following opens a command shell inside the sandbox of GnuCash.
flatpak run --command
sh org.gnucash.GnuCash
Inside you can call related shell commands for
Online Banking
like
aqbanking-cli
… or
Online Quotes
gnc-fq-*
etc. However,
gnc-fq-update
does not work.
Example
Query Versions
This is required on bug reporting.
flatpak run --command
sh org.gnucash.GnuCash
[📦 org.gnucash.GnuCash ~]$
gnucash --version
GnuCash 3.8 development version
Build ID: git e6b3c56+(2020-01-26)
[📦 org.gnucash.GnuCash ~]$
aqbanking-cli versions
Versions:
AqBanking-CLI: 6.0.2
Gwenhywfar : 5.1.3.0
AqBanking : 6.0.2.0
[📦 org.gnucash.GnuCash ~]$
exit
exits
Example
Fetch Online Quotes
The following enters the GnuCash sandbox and runs a
gnucash-cli
command in a single line (using the example of getting price quotes). This can be useful for automation, i.e. creating a modern
systemd
timer or a classical
cron
job to get price quotes on a regular basis.
flatpak run --command
gnucash-cli org.gnucash.GnuCash --quotes get /path/to/file.gnucash
Attention
Notice the order of the arguments!
Desktop Icon
Assuming you want to create a desktop icon to open your second file
test-2.gnucash
from your
Documents
folder:
[Desktop Entry]
Type
Application
Terminal
false
Exec
flatpak run org.gnucash.GnuCash Documents/test-2.gnucash
Name
GnuCash (flatpak) test-2
Comment
Accounting for my alter ego
Icon
~/.local/share/flatpak/app/org.gnucash.GnuCash/x86_64/stable/active/files/share/gnucash/pixmaps/gnucash-icon.ico
[2]
[3]
Notes
Terminal
Enable it while debugging to see concole output.
Exec, Name
Replace
test-2.gnucash
by your real filename.
Comment
Whatever makes sense for you.
Icon
Replace
~/.local/share
by
/var/lib
if you installed with -
-system
option.
Replace
x86_64
by
i386
or whatever you used at installation with the
--arch
option.
SQL Connection
Use
127.0.0.1
instead of
localhost
. The latter will tell the mysql client to use unix file sockets. These are not permitted by default by the flatpak sandbox. You can
enable permissions
for this on your gnucash flatpak, though I don't know offhand where the unix socket is located. You'll have to figure that out first (it will look like a file on your system somewhere) and then use the flatpak override commmand to tell it to allow access to that file for the
org.gnucash.GnuCash
package.
Using 127.0.0.1 on the other hand will force mysql to use a real network connection. Those are not restricted in the GnuCash flatpak.
More details: [}}URL:GH}}flathub/org.gnucash.GnuCash/issues/17 FlatHub GnuCash issue 17]
Maintenance
Overview
If you forgot which parts were installed and in which mode, run
flatpak list
Name Application ID Version Zweig Ursprung Installation
default …eedesktop.Platform.GL.default 19.08 flathub user
Mesa …eedesktop.Platform.GL.default 21.1.7 20.08 flathub system
Mesa …eedesktop.Platform.GL.default 21.1.7 20.08 flathub user
Mesa …eedesktop.Platform.GL.default 21.2.2 21.08 flathub user
Intel …edesktop.Platform.VAAPI.Intel 19.08 flathub user
Intel …edesktop.Platform.VAAPI.Intel 20.08 flathub system
Intel …edesktop.Platform.VAAPI.Intel 20.08 flathub user
Intel …edesktop.Platform.VAAPI.Intel 21.08 flathub user
openh264 …freedesktop.Platform.openh264 2.1.0 2.0 flathub system
openh264 …freedesktop.Platform.openh264 2.1.0 2.0 flathub user
GNOME Application Platform vers… org.gnome.Platform 3.38 flathub user
GNOME Application Platform vers… org.gnome.Platform 40 flathub system
GNOME Application Platform vers… org.gnome.Platform 40 flathub user
GNOME Application Platform vers… org.gnome.Platform 41 flathub user
GNOME Software Development Kit … org.gnome.Sdk 3.38 flathub user
GNOME Software Development Kit … org.gnome.Sdk 40 flathub user
GNOME Software Development Kit … org.gnome.Sdk 41 flathub user
GnuCash org.gnucash.GnuCash 4.8a+ (Flathub 4.8-1) stable flathub system
GnuCash org.gnucash.GnuCash fbf8284+ maint-C4.8a-62-gfbf828476f-D4.8-3-g9d2b4e95 gnc-testing-repo user
This user has a system and a user installation and did not clean up it on a regular base. There is
a system wide stable version from flathub and
a user specific from
gnc-testing-repo
which contains
self built
versions.
Note
You can learn more about the
Available Runtimes
Sandbox Permissions Reference
Update
You should — also if no new GnuCash version was announced — sometimes run
sudo flatpak update
# sudo is only required for systemwide installations
to look for updated components of your Flatpak environment. That might look like:
ID Zweig Op Remote Download
1. org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default 19.08 u flathub < 85,1 MB
2. org.freedesktop.Platform.VAAPI.Intel 19.08 u flathub < 8,7 MB
3. org.gnome.Platform.Locale 3.34 u flathub < 322,2 MB (partial)
4. org.gnome.Platform 3.34 u flathub < 320,4 MB
5. org.gnome.Sdk.Locale 3.34 u flathub < 325,8 MB (partial)
6. org.gnome.Sdk 3.34 u flathub < 663,9 MB
Proceed with these changes to the user installation? [Y/n]:
It is primarly important, if you reported a
problem
about which the Gnucash-Developers said, its cause lies not in Gnucash but one of the by Flatpak installed Gnome libraries. But also for
security reason
s you should keep your environment up to date.
Cleanup
As there might now be some obsolate parts, you should run
flatpak uninstall --unused
These runtimes in installation 'user' are pinned and won't be removed; see flatpak-pin(1):
runtime/org.gnome.Platform/x86_64/40
runtime/org.gnome.Platform/x86_64/41
runtime/org.gnome.Sdk/x86_64/40
runtime/org.gnome.Sdk/x86_64/41
KENNUNG Zweig Op
1. [-] org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default 19.08 r
2. [-] org.freedesktop.Platform.VAAPI.Intel 19.08 r
3. [-] org.gnome.Platform 3.38 r
4. [-] org.gnome.Platform.Locale 3.38 r
5. [-] org.gnome.Sdk 3.38 r
6. [-] org.gnome.Sdk.Locale 3.38 r
Uninstall complete.
The pinned modules are still in use by your apps.
Crash: Stacktrace
Flatpak Debugging
has instructions for running gdb in a flatpak round out the gdb instructions in
Stack_Trace
. An alternative if you have
systemd-coredump
installed (it's there by default in Fedora 28 and later) you can use
[1]
to easily generate a stack trace (in gdb
where
and
bt
are synonyms).
GTK Inspector
flatpak run --env
GTK_DEBUG
interactive org.gnucash.GnuCash
Other
Migration
from normal package to
flatpak
(german)
From
reddit: Flatpak app don't seemed to have access to network drives
User discussion in March 2022
Desktop Entry Specification
Retrieved from "
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This page was last edited on 17 April 2026, at 18:23.
This page has been accessed 6,534 times.
Content is available under
GNU Free Documentation License 1.2
unless otherwise noted.
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