Won't launch

[vanessakindell]

OS: System76 Pop!_os

Commands: flatpak install com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim
flatpak run com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim

Result: he installation directory has been set to /home/[my home folder]/thinkorswim.
Extracting files ...
Finishing installation ...
sed: can't read /home/[my home folder]/.var/app/com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim/data/thinkorswim/workspace.*.tos.prod.xml: No such file or directory
/app/bin/thinkorswim: line 15: /home/[my home folder]/.var/app/com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim/data/thinkorswim/thinkorswim: No such file or directory

Nothing loads in the GUI at all.

[jkoelker]

Can you see if the process is running? The sed is trying to fix java window re-homing on wayland, but since its a fresh install, it will fail, but it should still launch the process.

If it is running, then it would appear to be the re-homing issue with java apps, through trial and error I found that on an existing install, editing the workspace and removing the ACCOUNT_MODELS blob works around the issue (which is what the sed tries to do https://github.com/flathub/com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim/blob/master/thinkorswim#L12).

Best I can recommend is to kill the process, and relaunch it a few times, I've found that eventually it will launch and after that the workspace editing trick will get it to launch. Unforts with it being closed source there's nothing I can do about fixing the real issue. I've notified ToS support, you might try the same, but linux and non osx unix variants are technically unsupported by them.

[jmac09]

I have the same issue as vanessakindell.

I check my processes, and I don't have any open SED processes running. It looks like the home directory is not getting set.

Here is my error:

---

flatpak run com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim
Starting Installer ...
The installation directory has been set to /home/[username]/thinkorswim.
Extracting files ...
Finishing installation ...
sed: can't read /home/[username]/.var/app/com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim/data/thinkorswim/workspace.*.tos.prod.xml: No such file or directory
/app/bin/thinkorswim: line 15: /home/[username]/.var/app/com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim/data/thinkorswim/thinkorswim: No such file or directory

The directory /home/[username]/thinkorswim is not getting created.

I modified my .profile file to include the following and logged out and then back.

export XDG_DATA_HOME=${XDG_DATA_HOME:="$HOME/.local/share"}

then I reran:
flatpak run com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim

and got the same error.

In the master sh file (https://github.com/flathub/com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim/blob/master/thinkorswim), I see it is calling
/app/extra/thinkorswim_installer.sh, but I can't find this file anywhere on my system except here:

/var/lib/flatpak/.removed/com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim-e379ba0b5553a7760357b0379f8b3597940b316417236f175606ea7173b7bf87/files/extra/thinkorswim_installer.sh
/var/lib/flatpak/app/com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim/x86_64/stable/e379ba0b5553a7760357b0379f8b3597940b316417236f175606ea7173b7bf87/files/extra/thinkorswim_installer.sh

[jkoelker]

sed is the process that is ending with the error, it will be a java process and look something like:

/app/jre/bin/java -Dinstall4j.jvmDir=/app/jre -Dexe4j.moduleName=/home/jkoelker/.var/app/com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim/data/thinkorswim/thinkorswim

[vanessakindell]

I found a workaround: The whole issue is that the program wasn't given the home folder filesystem access. All you have to do to get it working is install FlatSeal and change that setting and it works.

Tested under Pop! OS and Linux Mint.

[tidux]

The workaround via Flatseal does not work on Fedora 36.

[jmac09]

Hi Vanessa, what exactly did you do in Flatseal to get thinkorswim to run on flatpak? Under the TOS app in flatseal, i went to filesystem and toggled on filesystem=home, but TOS still didn't work.

Thanks,
Jason

[kinghat]

same issue on manjaro stable channel.

[eli-xciv]

For everyone who wants to run this flatpak and is running into this issue. There seems to be a disconnect at the installer where the thinkorswim script adds the -dir.

I was able to handjam the install for the flatpak; testing on Fedora 36

# You may need to install a run time for this work.
flatpak install org.freedesktop.Sdk//20.08

flatpak run --command=sh  com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim

# Run the installer 
sh /app/extra/thinkorswim_installer.sh

exit
flatpak run com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim

This installer will give you a prompt, during the installation on where to install TOS.
enter /home/<your_username>/.var/app/com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim/data/thinkorswim

Once it's installed into the app, it'll run normally every flatpak run after.

[rohsaurus]

After doing the config change with flatseal, I then had to open up thinkorswim manually using the terminal. I went to where it was installed (in my case ~/thinkorswim) and just ran ./thinkorswim. I let it do its updates, and after closing and restarting a few times, the desktop shortcut worked for me. However, it doesn't work through the pop os launcher or dock.

[SaltyCybernaut]

I was able to get the TOS Flatpak working on Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS by following the steps below. I believe the root cause is that the installer script thinkorswim_installer.sh and the executable bundled inside the script assume different defaults for the installation directory.

Install the TOS Flatpak

flatpak install com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim
note: I installed this as a 'user' Flatpak (option 2 for me)

Attempt to run TOS and watch it fail

flatpak run com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim

Starting Installer ...
The installation directory has been set to /home/<your_user_directory>/thinkorswim.
Extracting files ...
Finishing installation ...
sed: can't read /home/<your_user_directory>/.var/app/com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim/data/thinkorswim/workspace.*.tos.prod.xml: No such file or directory
/app/bin/thinkorswim: line 15: /home/<your_user_directory>/.var/app/com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim/data/thinkorswim/>thinkorswim: No such file or directory
The installation directory being set to /home/<your_user_directory>/thinkorswim is why it fails.

Give TOS access to your home folder using FlatSeal (this might be optional)

Enter the TOS 'container'

flatpak run --command=sh com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim

Run the TOS installer

sh /app/extra/thinkorswim_installer.sh

Choose a custom installation

Set the installation directory to /home/<your_user_directory>/.var/app/com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim/data/thinkorswim

Exit the TOS 'container'

exit

Start TOS from the GUI or Terminal

flatpak run com.tdameritrade.ThinkOrSwim

[uberscientist]

@SaltyCybernaut great write up, I didn't have to do the FlatSeal permission changing since it should only be touching the flatpak 'container' dir that needs to be updated, dunno how this issue isn't an issue for others!