[snap] Libreoffice/Firefox do not open files from thunderbird (more general: from /tmp)

[Frederik Elwert]

I received a document via e-mail in Thunderbird. I have the Libreoffice snap package installed. When I want to open the document from Thunderbird, I see the Libreoffice splash screen, and then a dialog stating "/tmp/mozilla_<user>0/<filename>.docx does not exist."

The same dialog appears when I navigate to the folder in Files and want to open it.

When I copy the file to my desktop, however, I can open it without problems.

I guess the source of the issue is confinement, that the Libreoffice snap can only access files from $HOME. But this breaks the case where thunderbird creates a temporary copy in /tmp.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

This is a known issue with no solution as of today: https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/sharing-files-via-tmp/1613

[Dennis Shimer (dshimer)]

Sorry for just being a random barely technical user, but...
Is there any hope in the following?
https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/allowing-xdg-open-to-open-files/3789/6

[Jose Luis (jose-luis-guillot)]

This is also happening to me, but I don't have a snap version installed, I don't even know what that is.

[etaymaz (etaymaz)]

I had also the same problem. LibreOffice (6.3.4.2 snap1), installed by "Ubuntu Software" on Ubuntu 18.04 could not open documents attached to e-mails (Thunderbird) and even those on the web. It had also problems in linking with Zotero. I removed it completely and installed the one from the LibreOffice site (https://www.libreoffice.org/donate/dl/deb-x86_64/6.3.4/en-US/LibreOffice_6.3.4_Linux_x86-64_deb.tar.gz). LibreOffice now works without any problem, and it opens much faster.

[OlivierS (olivier-olivier)]

I installed Ubuntu 20.04 on my daughters laptop. She had no problems with the previous Ubuntu, but this bug is too hard for an ordinary user to fix. She opens a document from Firefox to Libreoffice, and the document doesn't exist. Since those two applications are most important to her, it makes the laptop unusable. This is such a big usability problem this should really not have become part of Ubuntu 20.04.

Out of ideas I moved to an external (less trusted) normal libreoffice deb package. Meaning she now doesn't get any libreoffice security updates which is bad. But the laptop is usable again.

Will this be fixed? Or should I move to another distribution that has regular packages?

[Reuben Thomas (rrt)]

@OlivierS 20.04 has .deb LibreOffice (6.4.5), so there's no need to worry just yet. You can install it directly with apt. No need to use an external PPA.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Also affecting the firefox snap, from duplicate bug #1970607.

[Sandonanet s.n.c. (sandonanet)]

today upgraded distribution from 21.10 to 22.04 LTS. Problem persists. Also tried to uninstall Firefox, Thunderbird, Libreoffce and reinstall. Same problems

[Steve (x-launchpad-net-runway-ch)]

I confirm also: Firefox installed with snap is still unable to open attachements from Thunderbird. Still means near 4 year now!
Before 22.04 it was possible to install FF with apt. With 22.04 it isn't. So please, fix that or send snap to hell :-)

[BjornW (bjornw)]

I can confirm this issue also exists with opening attached Libre Office documents from within Mozilla Thunderbird. What a pity this problem still exists in a LTS version. What can I do to help fixing this issue?

[khink (kees-fmf)]

Is there a way to grant Snap access to the /tmp/ directory? I googled for this, but only found a workaround (suggestion to create ~/tmp and symlink that as /tmp) which defies the idea of having a /tmp/ (which clears on reboot).

This issue is still around in 22.04, and is quite inconvenient as many applications (like firefox/jammy,now 1:1snap1-0ubuntu2 amd64) lean on there being an accessible /tmp/ dir.

https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/firefox-snap-no-access-to-gvfs-and-tmp/27253/5 has more details on this, but no solution.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

I've added a snapd task because it is a question that comes up time and again on the snapcraft forum, and would likely require changes in snapd itself for apps to be able to safely share a temporary directory.

[Ronald Huetter (user-0209)]

Same, if you click a link in evolution mail that should open in firefox. It breaks such an important use case that I don't understand, how snap moved forward to standard. Can't explain this to friends, whom I have recommended changing to Ubuntu.

[Tom Chiverton (bugs-launchpad-net-falkensweb)]

Same, it must surely be a common use case to download files to /tmp because you do not expect (or want) them to persist. That's what /tmp is for...

[Daniel M Gessel (danielmgessel)]

I mounted a tmpfs in ~/tmp and FireFox can read from there.

I haven't tried the link from /tmp to ~/tmp, but editing /etc/fstab to move /tmp to ~/tmp, then a link from /tmp to ~/tmp might be a workaround on a system with only one user.

But I also saw my first kernel panic after moving some stuff from /tmp to ~/tmp (but haven't reproduced it again), so I'm not sure this is all kosher...

[Tom Chiverton (bugs-launchpad-net-falkensweb)]

In fact, it's worse under KDE, because you pick '/tmp/' in the side bar of the file save dialogue, it looks right, you can press save, the download feedback happens OK, and then the files don't appear in the host system at all.

[Håkon Strandenes (hakostra)]

This is terrible for every small team that has files shared in NFS mounted directories that snaps cannot access. This looks essentially to be the same problem this one: https://bugs.launchpad.net/snapd/+bug/1972762

This needs a simple, user-friendly fix ASAP.

[Tom Chiverton (bugs-launchpad-net-falkensweb)]

Skype has the exact same problem, where files downloaded from chats to /tmp are not visible to other applications.

Should I raise a separate bug ?

[Marco Contenti (marco-contenti)]

Initially not knowing the cause, I filed this bug report on Thunderbird: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1868956
I think there is a conflict between assumptions on how the /tmp directory can be used in Thunderbird and snap. This must be resolved.