Common Linux Issues

Below, you’ll find a running list of known anomalies and issues encountered while using Accountable2You on Linux distributions.

Although Linux represents a small share of our active devices, we do our best to keep this resource as up-to-date as possible. However, Accountable2You and our Support team cannot directly support the included workarounds (including terminal commands). Please proceed with discretion.

All distributions

Updating Accountable2You

Currently, A2U is distributed exclusively via Snap, which requires apps/processes to be stopped before updating packages. Since A2U is designed to run all the time (unlike most apps), there's some mild conflict with Snap's normal update process.

Workaround: Sometimes, restarting your computer will give Snap enough time to update A2U before it launches.

If restarting doesn't automatically update A2U, you can either wait 14 days for Snap to force the update or you can reinstall our app:

1. sudo snap remove --purge accountable2you
2. sudo snap install accountable2you

Keep in mind that reinstalling will create a new device in your account, so activity captured before reinstalling will no longer appear in your reports.

Alert for Wayland display server

If your machine is using the Wayland display server, you’ll likely see the alert below in your Detailed Report: “Monitoring is limited under Wayland. We suggest asking the user about this.”

In short, Wayland’s emphasis on security limits communication between applications, which prevents our app from capturing the details we typically expect to monitor.

We are aware of its increasing adoption among Linux distributions. Unfortunately, our developers have determined that reliable monitoring for all apps isn’t feasible on Wayland, given A2U’s current method of capturing activity.

The detail on your reports may vary depending on the apps and browsers you use. If you and your partners find the level of monitoring to be satisfactory, you’re welcome to continue using Wayland!

However, if you’re missing activity, the best step will be to switch to the X11 display server.

i3 window manager

The i3 window manager is associated with a handful of GUI issues. In most cases, A2U’s GUI will not launch while using i3.

Workaround: When you need to interact with our app's GUI (e.g., registering the app or changing settings), you can temporarily switch your window manager, open A2U's GUI, and perform the actions.

A2U should still run normally in the background and capture activity after switching back to i3.

Fedora

Accountable2You’s icon does not appear

Once Accountable2You is successfully installed and registered, the icon is not shown as expected in the menu bar.

The missing icon is not an issue specific to Accountable2You. Some desktop environments do not allow app status icons to appear in the menu bar. However, the icon's primary purpose is to serve as a status indicator, so the application is most likely running correctly.

Workarounds: If you would like to check the true status of the A2U app, generate a diagnostic report, or access the App Exclusions list, you can open the Accountable2You app from the installed application folder or by running the command accountable2you.diagnostics or accountable2you.settings.

Alternatively, if you would like to force the application status icon to appear, Gnome Extensions has an extension called “KStatusNotifierItem/AppIndicator Support.” This extension should allow you to customize the app icons shown in the menu bar.

Linux Mint

Trouble installing Snap Store

Linux Mint 20 and later does not allow the Snap Store to be installed via the APT package management system. (You can read more here.)

Workaround: The Linux Mint team provides the commands below, so they are not directly supported by Accountable2You. On the majority of systems, they should work smoothly. However, as always when modifying system files, we advise you to proceed at your own risk:

1. Open Terminal.

   In Terminal, run the following commands one at a time:

   1. sudo rm /etc/apt/preferences.d/nosnap.pref
   2. apt update
   3. apt install snapd
2. Once those operations are complete, proceed with the normal Accountable2You installation steps for Linux.