Snaps not working after system update - Ubuntu 20.10

snapd
1

Good morning!

Today, after a system update, my snaps stopped launching. Even Ubuntu Software is not working anymore. It seems to be a permissions issue:

(base) kairand@Talos:~$ snap run chromium /snap/chromium/1411/bin/desktop-launch: line 51: /home/kairand/.config/user-dirs.dirs: Permission denied Failed to move to new namespace: PID namespaces supported, Network namespace supported, but failed: errno = Operation not permitted Trace/breakpoint trap (imagem do núcleo gravada)

(base) kairand@Talos:~$ snap run discord /snap/discord/115/snap/command-chain/desktop-launch: line 50: /home/kairand/.config/user-dirs.dirs: Permission denied sed: can’t read /home/kairand/.config/user-dirs.dirs: Permission denied /snap/discord/115/snap/command-chain/desktop-launch: line 243: /home/kairand/.config/user-dirs.dirs: Permission denied cp: cannot open ‘/home/kairand/.config/user-dirs.locale’ for reading: Permission denied /snap/discord/115/snap/command-chain/desktop-launch: line 248: /home/kairand/.config/user-dirs.locale: Permission denied realpath: ‘’: No such file or directory realpath: ‘’: No such file or directory realpath: ‘’: No such file or directory realpath: ‘’: No such file or directory realpath: ‘’: No such file or directory realpath: ‘’: No such file or directory realpath: ‘’: No such file or directory realpath: ‘’: No such file or directory /snap/discord/115/snap/command-chain/desktop-launch: line 20: /snap/discord/115/gnome-platform/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgtk-3-0/gtk-query-immodules-3.0: No such file or directory ERROR: /snap/discord/115/gnome-platform/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libgtk-3-0/gtk-query-immodules-3.0 exited abnormally with status 127 /snap/discord/115/usr/share/discord/Discord: error while loading shared libraries: libX11.so.6: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory (base) kairand@Talos:~$

(base) kairand@Talos:~$ snap run spotify /snap/spotify/43/bin/desktop-launch: line 51: /home/kairand/.config/user-dirs.dirs: Permission denied Gtk-Message: 06:56:58.241: Failed to load module “gail” Gtk-Message: 06:56:58.241: Failed to load module “atk-bridge” (spotify:9114): Gtk-WARNING **: 06:56:58.241: cannot open display: :1 (base) kairand@Talos:~$

I’m new to GNU/Linux and I don’t know how to fix this. Is there any way or I need to wait for updates? I’m using a Core i5 4670K with a GTX 1070Ti (Nvidia driver 440.95.01). My system is Ubuntu 20.10, with GNOME 3.38.1 and kernel version 5.8.0-31-generic. I’m not using Wayland. Here is my snap list:

image

Skype works. Seems like it’s the only one.

Thanks in advance!

2

Hi, sorry this is happening for you, can you paste the output of the following command:

snap version

also are you using Wayland or X11?

1 Like
3

Also, once you’ve collected the information @ijohnson asked for, can you run this command:

$ sudo systemctl restart apparmor.service

and then check whether the snaps that failed before work now.

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4

Thanks for the help!

Sure! Here is the result: image

I’m using X11.

I’ve tried it, but my snaps are still broken.

5

EDIT: I’ve just tried sudo rm /var/lib/snapd/system-key && sudo systemctl restart snapd and it also didn’t work. However, manually uninstalling and installing worked with 3 apps. I think I’m just going to uninstall and install every snap.

6

I had the exact same problem after the last system updates. Thanks @KairanD for the solution!

7

Not because of the system update here (20.10 installed a few weeks ago) but the same problem and error messages occurred today.

snap version
snap    2.48+git481.g5387521
snapd   2.48+git481.g5387521
series  16
ubuntu  20.10
kernel  5.8.0-31-generic

chromium & thunderbird do not start anymore (other snaps are not affected)
I changed the channel (stable> edge) and updated snapd which fixed the issue

Does anyone have any other clue about that unexpected ‘user-dirs.dirs: Permission denied’ error message ?

And what does this message ‘Failed to move to new namespace: PID namespaces supported, Network namespace supported, but failed: errno = Operation not permitted’ mean exactly ?

1 Like
8

I have the same issue, is’t there anyway other than reinstalling every single app that stopped opening again ?

9

Seems like a lot of people may be affected by this issue. It happens after the last kernel update (going to 5.8.0-31-generic).

My snaps stopped working immediately after the update on my desktop. However, my notebook (Core i7 3537U and GT 740M) received the update yesterday and snaps are working. I’m going to try with my tablet (Atom Z3775 and Intel HD Graphics) to see if it happens. All my computers are running Ubuntu 20.10.

Is there any way we can help to find the cause?

@boda I’ve tried a lot of fixes that I found reading forums. None of them worked. Unfortunately, reinstalling is the only alternative that fixed my snaps. Considering the ones I had installed, only Skype was working (and I don’t know why).

10

some of the snaps that stopped working, worked when I downloaded the edge version of them, except for spotify I had to reinstall it again, odd thing that some snaps kept working and didn’t got affected

11

I want to say that this is still problem in 24.04. I already had to reinstall all snap-based dekstop programs (all browsers + e-mail client) like 3 or 4 times after updates. All snaps didn’t have access to ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs directory and they stopped working.

Reinstalling snaps is not a satisfying solution after 4 years since this was first reported. Especially that i.e. removing snap might also mean removing all of the data along it. This is especially dangerous in case of e-mail client.

Is there a better solution? Why snaps can’t look inside of ~/.config/user-dirs.dirs after some update is being installed?

For me this issue makes current desktop Ubuntu unreliable. I don’t want to deal with such problems when I have important work to finish now.