[SOLVED] Inkscape does not allow access to anything outside of ~/

[Rhianne]

Hi everyone,

I'm a web developer switching over from CorelDraw and so far InkScape does most of what I've needed to accomplish. My gratitude to the developers!

My problem is this: On my laptop (Ubuntu 18.04), I have a dev copy of a directory structure used on our production servers.


/acs
/acs/dev
/acs/uat


The reason this is done is because, in production, the /acs directory is a NAS mount and the code that resides in its bowels checks the execution directory to set a bunch of debug flags and whatnot. This is by way of saying that I can't just simply move it to my home folder and expect my dev codebase to work without hacks.

I can access these folders in Nautilus (or any other program) without any issues: I am recursively the owner of the lot (I just double-checked this again and in fact, I just in a vain hope gave everybody every available permission, recursively, it's rwxrwxrwx across the board for each file and directory in the hierarchy.)

However, the InkScape File|Open browser does not show the /acs directory in the File System view. It shows everything else, /etc, /usr, /bin etc. It's not even that it shows it but denies permission - it just doesn't show it.


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I tried making a symbolic link to /acs in my home folder, it still doesn't show it. If I type /acs in the Location input, it tells me "No such directory".

I've worked around this for the last few days by manually copying the files I need to edit into my home directory and then copying them back after, but this has now gotten old and a right PITA. I want to edit images in-place, please.

I have no idea whether this is a file system permission problem or a bug in InkScape, or due to some idiosyncrasy of how InkScape treats user directories. My last resort is to copy the lot into my home folder and reverse the symbolic link, but this seems like silly overkill. I've trawled through the FAQ and program settings but nothing seems like an obvious solution (to a neophyte like me).

Any help to resolve this would be highly appreciated, and thank you in advance!

Rhianne

PS. It's InkScape 0.92 on Ubuntu 18.04 LTS 64-bit.

[brynn]

Welcome to the forum!

Your question is well over my head, so I would have to refer you to Inkscape developers to get an answer.  We do have one member who might be able to answer (but your question is so far over my head, I couldn't even guess if she might be able to answer, haha). 

If she can't answer, you can reach developers via the User mailing list or IRC (devel or user).  Info on both here:  https://inkscape.org/en/community/

[Rhianne]

Thank you, Brynn!

[Moini]

I suspect you have installed the snap (https://tutorials.ubuntu.com/tutorial/basic-snap-usage) version of Inkscape. Snap is an extra safe, and thus extra restrictive way of installing applications on Ubuntu/Linux.
In my view, that package format still very much a 'work-in-progress', and there already exist better ones (others may disagree).
To check, do

Code: [Select]

snap list

on the command line.

Uninstall the snap version on the command line doing:

Code: [Select]

sudo snap remove inkscape

then install the 'real' Inkscape program from the ppa, following the instructions here:
https://launchpad.net/~inkscape.dev/+archive/ubuntu/stable

[Rhianne]

Moini... you're a bloody champion! Pillar of society, stand-up chap, hero of the people, &c! 


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Thank you so much! 

Rhianne

[Moini]

Glad it worked :-)

(and humh, I didn't know about that additional restriction - I think it's probably possible to lift it, using some command line command, but I wouldn't know which, and the ppa version doesn't have any of those restrictions, so it's usually the better choice (in my view). I had someone tell me that starting a simple calculator packaged as a snap takes 30 seconds... while almost no time when you use the normal .deb packaged version.).

[Rhianne]

Yeah, do we really need YAPM? Every donkey and his uncle wants to reinvent the wheel every six months.










(Yet Another Package Manager )

[brynn]

stand-up chap

chap-ette 

[Rhianne]

Hah! Not if you're a Hero Of the Soviet Union!