Flatpak evolution broken

Hi! I’m trying to use evolution for the first time via the flatpak on Gentoo and have tried using both systemd and OpenRC, evolution crashes with:

user@localhost ~ $ flatpak run org.gnome.Evolution

(process:3): GLib-GIO-WARNING **: 04:18:56.823: Can't find module 'dconf' specified in GSETTINGS_BACKEND

(evolution-source-registry:14): GLib-GIO-WARNING **: 04:18:56.878: Can't find module 'dconf' specified in GSETTINGS_BACKEND

(evolution-addressbook-factory:30): GLib-GIO-WARNING **: 04:18:57.087: Can't find module 'dconf' specified in GSETTINGS_BACKEND

(evolution-calendar-factory:47): GLib-GIO-WARNING **: 04:18:57.133: Can't find module 'dconf' specified in GSETTINGS_BACKEND

(org.gnome.Evolution:57): GLib-GIO-WARNING **: 04:18:57.322: Can't find module 'dconf' specified in GSETTINGS_BACKEND

(evolution-alarm-notify:64): GLib-GIO-WARNING **: 04:18:57.572: Can't find module 'dconf' specified in GSETTINGS_BACKEND
/app/bin/evolution: line 30:    57 Killed                  /app/bin/evolution.bin "$@"
user@localhost ~ $ flatpak run org.gnome.Evolution

(process:3): GLib-GIO-WARNING **: 04:21:13.779: Can't find module 'dconf' specified in GSETTINGS_BACKEND

(org.gnome.Evolution:28): GLib-GIO-WARNING **: 04:21:13.998: Can't find module 'dconf' specified in GSETTINGS_BACKEND

(evolution-alarm-notify:35): GLib-GIO-WARNING **: 04:21:14.319: Can't find module 'dconf' specified in GSETTINGS_BACKEND
/app/bin/evolution: line 30:    28 Killed                  /app/bin/evolution.bin "$@"

On systemd evolution runs for about 20 seconds and then crashes with this error (the journal also has the same error), on OpenRC evolution window opens for a split second and then crashes with the same error. I tried looking through issues on gitlab and couldn’t find anyone else experiencing this so I’m posting here first before opening a bug report. I guess most people don’t use the flatpak? So they aren’t experiencing this I guess

I’m trying to use evolution for the first time via the flatpak

Hi,

what Flatpak is that, please? Did you compile yourself or installed
something prebuilt, like from the flathub.org site? What version is
that, please? (flatpak list may show the version).

Can’t find module ‘dconf’ specified in GSETTINGS_BACKEND

That is the problem, shown many times. I gave it a try and realized
that the message is clear, even I did not get it on the first look. You
have exported a GSETTINGS_BACKEND environment variable, which is set to
“dconf”, which is inherited into the Flatpak, but the Flatpak version
does not have the needed module, thus it errors out. You can verify
when you run a terminal and in it:

   set | grep GSETTINGS_BACKEND

it’ll be fine (or better) when you’ll:

   unset GSETTINGS_BACKEND
   flatpak run org.gnome.Evolution

No idea why you have it exported, but it’s rather non-standard. You
should not do that.

I guess most people don’t use the flatpak?

Many people do use Flatpak, at least that one from the Flathub.org.
Check the app page [1], near the bottom is an “Installs” information,
which currently says 269,092 - I do not know how that number is
calculated, maybe it just piles up in time, no idea, I’m sorry.

In any case, being there any such problem you face, it would be filled
long ago, by many people.

Bye,
Milan

[1] Install Evolution on Linux | Flathub

The gsettings messages are just warnings and In my experience harmless
Yes I’m using the flatpak from flathub v3.56.1, theres nothing fancy going on in my setup (other than the gsettings warinings that you mentioned not sure why but there is 878043 – sys-apps/flatpak-1.14.0-r1 Can't find module 'dconf' specified in GSETTINGS_BACKEND. Just want to run evolution and read mails

/app/bin/evolution: line 30: 28 Killed /app/bin/evolution.bin "$@"

This is the error message but I don’t know what it means or how to diagnose it.

Ok now unset gsettings and now get:

user@localhost ~ $ unset GSETTINGS_BACKEND
user@localhost ~ $ flatpak run org.gnome.Evolution


** (process:741): WARNING **: 14:19:03.544: Error writing credentials to socket: Error sending message: Broken pipe
/app/bin/evolution: line 30:    28 Killed                  /app/bin/evolution.bin "$@"

I see. I thought it’s at least partly related to the crash, but
obviously not. Flatpak has its own coredumpctl, which Fedora has named
flatpak-coredumpctl and packages it in the flatpak package itsef.
You can use it to get to the place of the problem.

Thanks I’ll try that