Snap not found, despite being available in search

store
1

When trying to install a specific snap (wickrme) I get an error:

$ snap search wickrme
Name     Version  Publisher  Notes  Summary
wickrme  5.93.5   wickrinc   -      Secure Messaging for Teams
$ snap install wickrme
error: snap "wickrme" not found

Same thing happens when trying to install through snap-store. The snap appears to be available, but the error “snap X not found” happens whenever I try to install.

Other snaps like spotify install correctly.

How do I go about debugging this?

2

What CPU architecture is your installation? Wickrme is only available for amd64 so if you’re on arm/arm64, for example, it won’t be installable.

3

It appears to be x86_64, which afaik was later rebranded amd64?

$ arch
x86_64
4

snap publishers can define regional limits by country, perhaps the snap is not installable in your region (perhaps by accident) …

5

I’ve now been in contact with Wickr support, and apparently it’s a known issue that they can’t reproduce.

Is there something I can do to debug this? A way to enable logging for the snap CLI to see why it’s failing to find it during install?

6

Maybe the same issue as this?

7

It’s possible, but no way for me to check since apparently snap can’t be debugged.

For what it’s worth, snap debug connectivity only outputs * PASS.

8

Maybe pinging @roadmr Daniel here, so he could check (if it’s still on him) ?

9

You can set a couple of variables (SNAPD_DEBUG and SNAPD_DEBUG_HTTP) to get a dump of snapd-store communications, but that won’t help because the determination of whether the snap is available based on your region (derived from your IP address) is done store-side. Looking at the dialog you’ll simply see snapd requesting the given snap and the store saying there’s nothing by that name.

As explained in the thread linked to above, if your country can’t be determined, the store errs on the side of caution and doesn’t give access to snaps with regional restrictions (such as wickrme). Since that thread was posted, we have updated our IP resolution database, so it should no longer be the case that your IP is just not in there, in which case the only explanation is that your IP doesn’t resolve to a country, which in turn I’ve only seen happen when someone is using an anonymizing service such as Tor, with some country IP databases identifying those as simply “Anonymizing proxy” and not providing a country value.

If that’s the case, then it’s probably the reason why. If not, I can gladly dig further if you share your external IP address with me via direct message so I can see why it’s not resolving to a country.

  • Daniel
1 Like
10

Thank you for the insights Daniel! That does make (some) sense.

I ended up using the workaround mentioned in the linked thread by running snap download wickrme on another computer and transferring the files to the target manually. Although not perfect, it is a workable solution for now. I have also reported this to Wickr’s support, and they are looking into documenting the workaround on their end.