You are supposed to use /var/home/user instead of /home/user in your paths, scripts, etc (or /var/$HOME). Im not certain on the why but iirc its because on immutable systems only /var is writable so anything writable has to be under it.
this post was submitted on 20 Feb 2025
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Thanks for chiming in. I've confirmed creating the file in the file browser under "Home > .config > MangoHud" places the file in /var/home/curious_dolphin/.config/MangoHud, so I'm still scratching my head as to why I'm unable to edit the document after the initial save. As a workaround, I've placed the config file in my top level home folder (aka /var/home/curious_dolphin) w/ a link to it from /var/home/curious_dolphin/.config/MangoHud where the app expects, and this seems to be working as desired.
Idk that much about bazzite, but I've been running silverblue/kinote for awhile. /home shouldn't be read only. Same for /etc and /var. Can you create any files in $HOME OR $HOME/.config/ ?
Can you create any files in $HOME OR $HOME/.config/ ?
Yes - I can create (and later edit) files under /home/curious_dolphin, even under /home/curious_dolphin/.config, but for some reason once I've created a file under /home/curious_dolphin/.config/MangoHud, I cannot edit it even though the file and its parent directory appear to have the same permissions as the other files that I can edit.
In other words, after creating test.txt under /home/curious_dolphin/.config/MangoHud, I cannot edit it:
curious_dolphin@bazzite:~$ ls -la ./.config/MangoHud/
total 20
drwxr-xr-x. 1 curious_dolphin curious_dolphin 42 Feb 20 14:46 .
drwxr-xr-x. 1 curious_dolphin curious_dolphin 552 Feb 20 14:47 ..
-rw-r--r--. 1 curious_dolphin curious_dolphin 9671 Feb 20 12:22 MangoHud.conf
-rw-r--r--. 1 curious_dolphin curious_dolphin 5 Feb 20 14:46 test.txt
However, after creating test.txt under /home/curious_dolphin/.config, I can edit it:
curious_dolphin@bazzite:~$ ls -la ./.config
total 44
drwxr-xr-x. 1 curious_dolphin curious_dolphin 552 Feb 20 14:47 .
drwx------. 1 curious_dolphin curious_dolphin 460 Feb 20 14:41 ..
drwxr-xr-x. 1 curious_dolphin curious_dolphin 42 Feb 20 14:46 MangoHud
-rw-r--r--. 1 curious_dolphin curious_dolphin 10 Feb 20 14:47 test.txt
Not at all familiar with your setup... In general, you need to know where there is a directory that is outside of the non mutable distro stuff, then just create a link in the current directory to the file that is elsewhere.
Android is like this and uses SELinux to enforce context access to files. It has been several years since I hacked around with that stuff, but I think ../downloads and ../data are the two directories that Android allows files access for read and write but not execute. Of course, that is not directly helpful here, but the abstract ideas might point you somewhere useful.
It may also be helpful to have a look at the script that installed the app in the first place. That likely will lead you to how the file was created in the first place. That script knew how to write to the directory. I did silverblue around F2x. This is how I figured out a lot of it; using install scripts when documentation was sparse.
Thanks for the tip to create a link to the file that is elsewhere. This works for me. I'm now able to configure MangoHud in a text file without using Goverlay.
If it's immutable, then...nowhere? You need userspace mounts to reference if you want to load anything from a disk, so... your home directory.