"Launch on login" does not work

[pgalbraith]

The "launch on login" option can be selected, but it does not work. Upon logging in the app does not start, and upon starting the app again the setting for launch on login has been lost.

[FakeShemp]

Are you using the flatpak version? This option cannot work on the flatpak version.

[WhyNotHugo]

Slack would need to ship a systemd unit for this to work, but it cannot do this via flatpak: https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/issues/2787

FWIW, this doesn't work on non-flatpak versions either, due to the lack of a standard mechanism that would work on Linux desktop in general. Some DEs use autostart desktop entries, while many services rely on systemd's user units.

Just configure this via your DE settings (or your init script). Slack should probably remove the checkbox entirely and let users configure it via their desktop anyway.

[pgalbraith]

@WhyNotHugo this works fine on my desktop if I install the deb from the slack website. While you may not like they way they wrote their app, and you may have very justifiable reasons for that opinion, I don't see how that translates into a supportable position that their implementation is defective and you can arbitrarily change the functionality you don't like and still label it as the same application.

[WhyNotHugo]

Like I said, there's no single standard way to implement "auto start on login" on Linux desktop. Whatever mechanism Slack's deb implements is also supported by your desktop, but it's no supported by Flatpak.

We can agree to disagree on opinions on the topic, but there's nothing that can be done for this package.You need to ask the guys over at https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak to implement a way for applications to auto-start. Like https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/issues/2787

[pgalbraith]

@WhyNotHugo when there's a functionality issue that's blocked by an upstream issue, the usual way to handle that is to acknowledge the problem with a flagged issue, and refer to the upstream changes that are needed to fix the problem. Simply denying that there's a problem doesn't help anyone.

[pgalbraith]

I'm definitely getting the impression that there's some nefarious practices going on somewhere, this is not the first flatpak app I've had issues with, nor the first where a dev has tried to pretend that a difficult-to-fix problem must not be a problem at all. All this pretending that there aren't issues with flatpak apps is really painting a bad picture of the whole thing.

[FakeShemp]

We're not saying it's not an issue. We're saying it's an issue that is literally impossible to fix.

[pgalbraith]

If you acknowledge that this is functionality that works in the upstream app, and does not work in this package, then it's a packaging issue that should be acknowledged formally by documenting it here and pointing out that it is difficult to fix because it requires upstream work and collaboration, as @WhyNotHugo has already pointed out. It is not impossible, it's just difficult.

Closing this issue very loudly says that you don't believe it's an issue, and that attitude speaks very poorly of this entire project. If the upstream developers realized that there were 150 issues caused that required this upstream functionality, don't you think that's important information? Closing this issue is dishonest, and unhelpful.

[FakeShemp]

You are correct. I don't believe this is an issue. I believe you are the issue.

Feel free to be the one taking over maintaining this Slack package cause I sure don't want to do it any more.

[pgalbraith]

Then you probably shouldn't be doing it.

[GerardoGR]

Sorry for Necro-bumping this issue. But I stumbled upon this issue looking for an answer and the solution I found might work for someone else: Create a com.slack.Slack.desktop file under the autostart directory:

• From the terminal

  cat <<EOF > ~/.config/autostart/com.slack.Slack.desktop
  [Desktop Entry]
  Categories=GNOME;GTK;Network;InstantMessaging;
  Comment[en_US]=Slack Desktop
  Comment=Slack Desktop
  Exec=/usr/bin/flatpak run --branch=stable --arch=x86_64 --command=slack --file-forwarding com.slack.Slack @@u %U @@ --startup
  GenericName[en_US]=Slack Client for Linux
  GenericName=Slack Client for Linux
  Icon=com.slack.Slack
  MimeType=
  Name[en_US]=Slack
  Name=Slack
  Path=
  StartupNotify=true
  StartupWMClass=Slack
  Terminal=false
  TerminalOptions=
  Type=Application
  X-DBUS-ServiceName=
  X-DBUS-StartupType=
  X-Desktop-File-Install-Version=0.26
  X-Flatpak=com.slack.Slack
  X-Flatpak-RenamedFrom=slack.desktop;
  X-KDE-SubstituteUID=false
  X-KDE-Username=
  EOF

• Via KDE Plasma 5.25 UI: Go to System settings -> Startup and Shutdown -> Autostart then click Add -> Add application -> Look for slack in the menu -> Ok . It is worth to point out that if the com.slack.Slack.desktop is created this way the application will be started in a maximized window, if you want to start it hidden/minimized you need to add the --startup option as written in the terminal case.

Thank you @FakeShemp and @WhyNotHugo for maintaining this flatpak!