AppImage behaviour change from 23.3 to 23.4 - .home folder

[tobyo]

Hi, I noticed that since I updated MX Linux from 23.3 to 23.4 the AppImage version of Retroarch behaves differently.

I recently decided to install MX Linux 23.4 onto an Asus Mini PC. I installed the AppImage version of Retroarch (v1.91.1) and noticed the program could not find its resources.

I remembered I had the same version of Retroarch installed on a laptop running MX Linux 23.3 so I booted it up and sure enough it worked fine. I later then updated the same laptop to MX Linux 23.4 and noticed the same issue with the AppImage also happened to the laptop.

This is the folder structure of the AppImage version of RetroArch:

Screenshot_2024-10-08_21-28-02.jpg

RetroArch has a config file and it normally references '~/.config/retroarch/assets', this is where it would normally look for files.
But I think in the case of the AppImage version, it uses the 'RetroArch-Linux-x86_64.AppImage.home' folder and treats that as the Home folder.

And this behaviour seems to no longer work since updated to 23.4.

I could work around this (and it is not really a big issue), but it's always been convenient for me to simply copy the .appimage and .home folder to another computer and keep all my usual RetroArch config etc. working.

So I wondered is this a bug with AppImages in MX Linux? It seems related to how the .home folder works.

[dolphin_oracle]

I doubt it’s anything in MX. Usually applications set their own configuration folders.

[tobyo]

I don't believe it is specific to RetroArch; just the way it is working with the '.home' folder.

From the page here: https://docs.appimage.org/user-guide/portable-mode.html

If there is a directory with the same name as the AppImage plus .home, then $HOME will automatically be set to it before executing the payload application

This was working in MX Linux 23.3 but not longer works in 23.4, so perhaps something has changed?

I would imagine that other AppImages that use the .home folder would also have the same issue in MX Linux 23.4?

[dolphin_oracle]

I don't believe it is specific to RetroArch; just the way it is working with the '.home' folder.

From the page here: https://docs.appimage.org/user-guide/portable-mode.html

If there is a directory with the same name as the AppImage plus .home, then $HOME will automatically be set to it before executing the payload application

This was working in MX Linux 23.3 but not longer works in 23.4, so perhaps something has changed?

I would imagine that other AppImages that use the .home folder would also have the same issue in MX Linux 23.4?

well, there is no daemon or running application that controls either the home folder or appimages on any of our desktops, so I really don't know what it would be. unless possibly some permission issue particular to your own home folder. but again, since applications typically launch as a regular user, and a regular user would have rights to the user's home folder, I really don't know what it would be.

[dolphin_oracle]

I downloaded Retroarch. it comes packaged with that .home file. pre built, didn't even need to run the appimage.

just delete the .home folder, and it will default and/or create the folder in .config as usual.

[tobyo]

I downloaded Retroarch. it comes packaged with that .home file. pre built, didn't even need to run the appimage.

just delete the .home folder, and it will default and/or create the folder in .config as usual.

Thank you very much!
To get it working I downloaded a fresh 7z from the Retroarch website and like you said the fresh version boots and finds the .config folder inside the .home folder.

So I took my existing .config folder and replaced it with the one in the fresh install. The reason for this is it contains many BIOS files and other assets that don't come with the appimage.

I am not sure why the fresh version works, as it references the same folder title and I also replace the .config folder entirely with my previous version so any references in the ini files would all be as they were when it wasn't working

Either way I am very pleased it works and I appreciate your efforts in helping me.

[EDIT] This worked on the laptop, but not on the mini PC. I suspect, as you said, it is related to a permissions problem. I couldn't find the cause; so in the end I resorted to just moving the files from the appimage.home to the .config folder created in my Home folder.