How can I launch an external program from my snap application outside of the snap context?

Question

In vala I am launching the elementary OS Settings like this:

var appinfo = AppInfo.create_from_commandline ("switchboard", null, AppInfoCreateFlags.SUPPORTS_URIS);
appinfo.launch_uris (list, null);

But this fails because I assume the process is running isolated somehow.

(vpn-status:14798): GLib-GIO-ERROR **: No GSettings schemas are installed on the system
Trace/breakpoint trap (core dumped)

Any ideas how I could launch this external program properly?

Answer 1

This is indeed likely due to your application being strictly confined within the snap. You can test this by installing your snap with the ---devmode option which overrides the strict confinement.

You can also debug the security confinement using the snappy-debug package:-

sudo snap install snappy-debug

Then run it:-

snappy-debug.security scanlog

In another window, start your application and you should get useful security debugging info output from the above program.