Fix Obsidian Snap File Dialog on Fedora Wayland

Fixes the Obsidian Snap’s broken “Open folder as vault” button on Fedora running GNOME/Wayland. The button appears to do nothing when clicked — no file picker dialog appears and no error is shown to the user. The root cause is a portal authentication failure between the Snap’s Electron process and xdg-desktop-portal. This skill creates a wrapper script and .desktop override that bypass the broken Wayland portal path.

Root Cause

The Obsidian Snap (classic confinement) does not set SNAP_DESKTOP_FILE in its environment. On Fedora 44+, xdg-desktop-portal validates the calling application’s desktop file identity via snap metadata. Without the DesktopFile key, portal operations are silently denied:

GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied:
Portal operation not allowed: Key file does not have key
"DesktopFile" in group "Snap Info"

Electron’s dialog.showOpenDialog goes through the portal path when --ozone-platform=wayland is active (auto-detected). The portal denial causes the dialog promise to silently fail — no dialog, no error visible to the user.

Prerequisites

• Fedora with GNOME and Wayland session
• Obsidian installed via Snap (snap list obsidian)
• xdg-desktop-portal and xdg-desktop-portal-gnome installed

Steps

1. Diagnose

   Run the diagnostic script to confirm the issue applies:

   bash ~/.agents/skills/fedora-obsidian-fix/scripts/diagnose.sh
   

   The script checks: Snap installation, Wayland session, portal services, and the portal error condition.

2. Apply the fix

   Run the fix script to create the wrapper and desktop override:

   bash ~/.agents/skills/fedora-obsidian-fix/scripts/fix.sh
   

   This creates:

   • ~/.local/bin/obsidian-wrapper.sh — sets BAMF_DESKTOP_FILE_HINT, SNAP_DESKTOP_FILE, GTK_USE_PORTAL=1, and passes --ozone-platform=x11 --class=md.obsidian.Obsidian to Obsidian
   • ~/.local/share/applications/obsidian_md.obsidian.Obsidian.desktop — user-local .desktop override that launches via the wrapper
   • ~/.local/share/applications/obsidian_obsidian.desktop — shadows the Snap-provided default .desktop to prevent duplicate icon on the GNOME Dash

3. Restart Obsidian

   Quit Obsidian completely and relaunch from the Dash (or run ~/.local/bin/obsidian-wrapper.sh from terminal).

4. Verify

   Click “Open folder as vault” → the GNOME file picker should appear and the “Open” button should respond.

Gotchas

• Snap refreshes do not break the fix. The user-local .desktop file in ~/.local/share/applications/ takes priority over the snap-provided one in /var/lib/snapd/desktop/applications/.
• Competing .desktop files cause duplicate Dash icons. Snap installs obsidian_obsidian.desktop with the same StartupWMClass=md.obsidian.Obsidian as our user override. When GNOME sees two .desktop files claiming the same StartupWMClass, it matches running windows to both — the pinned favorite gets one match, and the second file spawns a duplicate generic icon. The fix script shadows the Snap default with a Hidden=true override.
• --class flag is required with --ozone-platform=x11. Without it, Electron creates utility/splash windows with WM_CLASS Obsidian (the binary name) while the main vault window uses md.obsidian.Obsidian (the Electron app-id). The mixed WM_CLASS values can cause additional icon mismatches. The wrapper passes --class=md.obsidian.Obsidian to force all windows to use the same WM_CLASS that matches the .desktop file’s StartupWMClass.
• Stale SingletonLock. If Obsidian was killed without clean shutdown, ~/.config/obsidian/SingletonLock may be stale. The fix script removes it automatically.
• --ozone-platform=x11 trade-off. This forces Electron to use XWayland instead of native Wayland. Visual differences are minimal (slightly different window decorations, no fractional scaling), but the file dialog works reliably.
• The Vulkan warning is harmless. When running on Wayland, Obsidian may log '--ozone-platform=wayland' is not compatible with Vulkan. With the x11 override, this warning disappears.
• GTK_USE_PORTAL=1 alone is insufficient. The env var makes GTK apps route dialogs through the portal, but the portal itself rejects the call due to the missing Snap desktop file identity. The --ozone-platform=x11 bypasses the portal path entirely.

Verification

• ~/.local/bin/obsidian-wrapper.sh exists and is executable
• Wrapper includes --class=md.obsidian.Obsidian and --ozone-platform=x11
• ~/.local/share/applications/obsidian_md.obsidian.Obsidian.desktop exists and Exec= points to the wrapper
• ~/.local/share/applications/obsidian_obsidian.desktop exists with Hidden=true (shadows Snap default)
• No duplicate Obsidian icons on the GNOME Dash when running
• Obsidian launches from Dash without portal errors
• “Open folder as vault” → “Open” button opens the file picker

Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md for version history.