Python error errno2 prevents installing in debian buster

Hi, while I was reinstalling my Debian buster system, all of a sudden, snap will not install my VPN client anymore.

The terminal print out reads eventually “ERRNO2, no such file or directory 'update-desktop-database”

Full print out is
" root@debian:/home/user# snap install --classic riseup-vpn
error: cannot perform the following tasks:

  • Run install hook of “riseup-vpn” snap if present (run hook “install”:

/snap/riseup-vpn/152/meta/hooks/install:14: DeprecationWarning: decodestring() is a deprecated alias since Python 3.1, use decodebytes()
lines = decode(POLKIT).split(b"\n")
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/snap/riseup-vpn/152/meta/hooks/install”, line 26, in
subprocess.call([‘update-desktop-database’])
File “/usr/lib/python3.7/subprocess.py”, line 323, in call
with Popen(*popenargs, **kwargs) as p:
File “/usr/lib/python3.7/subprocess.py”, line 775, in init
restore_signals, start_new_session)
File “/usr/lib/python3.7/subprocess.py”, line 1522, in _execute_child
raise child_exception_type(errno_num, err_msg, err_filename)
FileNotFoundError: [Errno 2] No such file or directory: ‘update-desktop-database’: ‘update-desktop-database’
-----) "
what should be done?

riseup should fix their snap to include all dependencies instead of using the system ones …

snap packages need to be self contained so they work on all systems/distros out there … seems this snap does use the system python instead of shipping its own …

EDIT: this is indeed also true for update-desktop-database which should be shipped in the snap as well, with properly adjusted paths and library search paths so that the in-snap versions are found and used by default