Julie, USER_DATA_HOME is a variable, intended to indicate that this location varies by operating system.
On Linux, this is ~/.local/share David P.S. I don't know why that wiki page is as complicated as it is; very few people understand it without extensive training. On October 25, 2026 8:13:19 AM GMT+05:30, Julie G <[email protected]> wrote: >Adrien et al., > >Outlining the circumstances first: >the laptop has gnucash flatpak 5.17 >saved reports are available in that version > >the desktop has gnucash the environment, version 5.5 >It has no saved reports, as i just installed it to replace what I think was >the same gnucash flatpak 5.17. > >i went to the wiki and am endeavoring to get very familiar with it. First >thing i hoped to do was find and locate the saved reports folder/files. >Following the wiki, i did find this: >/home/julie/.var/app/org.gnucash.GnuCash/data/gnucash >in this folder, i see: "saved-reports-2.8" > >I suspect these are my saved reports from the old flatpak version i >uninstalled. > >next i hoped to find and locate the folder that saved files *would* be in, >...in the environment version. I thought maybe i could just copy and paste >the file, voila? But alas, i don't see where the wiki tells me where linux >saves these data files. It says that linux pristine will have data in the >subdirectory "USER_DATA_HOME". i haven't been able to find that path. >Mine starts with home/user... and i see no "data" folder... i can find >home/user/.local/share/applications and then gnucash. >i tried stabbing in the dark and copied the saved-reports-2.8 from the >flatpak installation location, >/home/julie/.var/app/org.gnucash.GnuCash/data/gnucash >to the environment location: /home/julie/.local/share/applications >*...that didn't work. * >i am fresh out of ideas, and thinking in the end how many saved reports >have i? 12? maybe it would be faster to recreate them, expecially since >i can refer to the laptop version to recreate them on the desktop version. >...then maybe i can find the file by searching for it and THAT's where i >could copy the saved-reports-2.8. ??? >am i simply a danger to myself and software? :-) > >please do advise, if you're so inclined. tonight i will dabble with >recreating one report, but i can't/won't do them all tonight. if by some >stroke of empathy can get Prime Directive from here soon enough, i may be >able to save myself from myself and learn something in the meantime. > >We shall see... > >TIA! > > >On Thu, Oct 22, 2026 at 10:56 AM Adrien Monteleone < >[email protected]> wrote: > >> On 10/21/26 22:00, Julie G wrote: >> > I DID IT! Thanking the people over at bugs.gnucash SO much. I copied >> the >> > gnucash.desktop file from home to .local, opened it in a text editor, and >> > changed line EXEC= from whatever it said to Exec=/usr/bin/env >> > WEBKIT_DISABLE_DMABUF_RENDERER=1 gnucash %f >> > and then i made good notes about what I did, for future reference :-) >> > when I now click on the icon for gnucash it works. >> >> Great! >> >> Thanks for reporting back so we know that worked. >> >> > Teeny misteak though. Someone in a forum who was trying to help me with >> > this suggested in uninstall the flatpak version and install the >> ...regular? >> > version. I don't know what is PC to call this version, maybe the >> > non-flatpak version? Anyway, of desperation I did this without realizing >> > all my saved report configurations would be deleted along with the >> > program. This is on my desktop computer. I have them on my laptop >> version >> > of gnucash, which is a flatpak. My question is, how might I uninstall >> the >> > version on my desktop and *replace* it with the very same program off of >> my >> > laptop? Is that a possibility? Seems like it could be. And then all my >> > saved reports would be back? >> >> The non-flatpak is the standard 'repo' version. ('Repository') Each >> Linux distribution maintains its own repository of software you can >> install. Those versions are usually tested and compiled, and perhaps >> tweaked, to work with your specific Linux distribution. Apps from those >> repositories come with various extensions, but the most common you'll >> probably see is '.deb' or '.rpm'. The '.deb' extension is used by the >> Debian Linux distribution and its derivatives such as Ubuntu and Mint. >> (".rpm' is used by Fedora/RedHat and its derivatives) >> >> If you are running the flatpak on your laptop and want to do the same on >> the dekstop, simply install the flatpak version on the desktop. Either >> follow the instructions on the wiki, or you may find it in your Software >> Center and you can install it from there. While you can have both the >> .deb and flatpak version installed, you probably want to remove the .deb >> version so you don't accidentally launch the wrong one down the road. >> (user configuration files are also stored separately for each version, >> so that can indeed lead to confusion if you are not very meticulous >> about which one you use and when) >> >> It is possible your saved report configurations still exist on the >> desktop computer. But they are where the flatpak used to look for them >> and now you have the repo version which looks somewhere else. >> >> Get very familiar with the wiki section about Backups and Configuration >> locations. It can take a few reads to get a good grasp of it, but after, >> you'll be able to see where your file are stored and how to get to them. >> (and what needs to be backed up!) >> >> >> > A teeny other detail...When replacing what it said on the EXEC= line, I >> > couldn't tell you what it used to say before I changed it. I tried going >> > to the laptop and looking for that particular file there. However, i can >> > not find the path where the gnucash.desktop file is saved, so i can't >> copy >> > it to the .local folder, which I also can't find. I did find it through >> a >> > search; there is probably only one .local folder, and because I hadn't >> put >> > a copy of gnucash.desktop in it in the past, there wasn't one there. >> >> It probably just didn't have the 'WEBKIT' part in it, but all the rest. >> >> See the gnucash wiki about Backup and Configuration locations. As noted >> above, they are different for flatpak vs. a regular 'repo' installation. >> >> Don't bother with this until you get it straightened out which version >> of the app you want to run on both machines. >> >> > And finally, what is meant by gnucash.desktop? On my laptop would it be >> > something different, or is this a different meaning of the word desktop? >> >> The file has the same name on both, but as noted above, they will be in >> different locations depending on how the app was installed. >> >> Flatpaks are in their own 'sandbox' so they don't clobber or interfere >> with other apps or important files. Their access to files on your drive >> is limited to this sandbox. (unless you configure it otherwise) This is >> why the configuration files are in one place with a flatpak installation >> and a different place with a regular repo installation. >> >> Generically a '.desktop' file is used by Linux distributions as >> 'launchers'. That is, when you click an icon to launch an app, what you >> are really doing is opening the '.desktop' file for that app which then >> triggers the Exec command line in that file, which is what launches the >> app itself, sometimes with special parameters. (such as the WEBKIT >> workaround) Other things can be specified in .desktop files such as the >> icon to display for it, and what menu category to place it in. Without >> this .desktop file, you would have to navigate every time to where the >> binary copy of the app is stored and launch it from there, or use the >> command line directly to do so. This is analogous somewhat to >> 'shortcuts' in the Windows world. >> >> Every app that appears in your menu has a .desktop file, usually as >> "name_of_app.desktop". >> >> Regards, >> Adrien >> >> _______________________________________________ >> 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.
