Atom installed as a snap doesn't show up in menus or in the terminal

[Gustav Näslund]

I have installed Atom editor as a snap through the software center. I am able to launch the program using the "launch" button in gnome software.

However the Atom launcher doesnt show up in gnome shell application launcher and I am unable to start it from the terminal using the "atom" command. It seems like the application doesnt register in the right places.

~ $ atom 08:23:28
No command 'atom' found, did you mean:
 Command 'atrm' from package 'at' (main)
 Command 'atom4' from package 'atom4' (universe)
 Command 'atoms' from package 'horae' (multiverse)
 Command 'atobm' from package 'x11-apps' (main)
 Command 'atop' from package 'atop' (universe)
atom: command not found

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: snapd 2.27.6+17.10
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.12.0-13.14-generic 4.12.10
Uname: Linux 4.12.0-13-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu1
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Thu Sep 21 08:20:20 2017
InstallationDate: Installed on 2016-09-15 (370 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu-MATE 16.04.1 LTS "Xenial Xerus" - Release amd64 (20160719)
SourcePackage: snapd
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to artful on 2017-09-02 (18 days ago)

[Gustav Näslund (naslund-gustav)]

I am not sure if the bug originates from Ubuntu or from the snap itself. I have filed a bug at the upstream atom snap repository as well. See https://github.com/snapcrafters/atom/issues/9

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Ghislain Vaillant (ghisvail)]

This issue is not specific to Atom, it affects any GUI application installed as a snap on a wayland session. I confirmed this with the snap team in there support channel. It is supposed to be fixed with snapd version 2.28.

Meanwhile, try logging in with the X session and you will find that the applications are discoverable there.

[Ghislain Vaillant (ghisvail)]

You can also type `snap run atom` is a terminal to launch the application.

[t2d (t2d)]

I stumbled upon the same problem with the snap of keepassxc. Will snapd 2.28 ever hit Ubuntu 17.10?

[Aidan Stein (theendbeta)]

The issue might be with your login shell - XDG_DATA_DIRS (which is what was fixed in snapd 2.28) is set when /etc/profile is sourced. If you don't source /etc/profile, such as for zsh (the shell I am using) or fish, then XDG_DATA_DIRS is never set and the .desktop files in /var/lib/snapd/desktop won't be found.