[Errno 13] on trying to launch Anki on Deb13

Anki Help
1

Hello! I keep getting an Error 13 for lacking permissions on trying to launch Anki on Deb13. I have not gotten the app to launch successfully at all, so this has been a problem from the get-go. Anki does however keep running in the background even after the failed boot.

Exact error message below:

Error during startup: ⁨Traceback (most recent call last):

File “/home/runner/work/anki/anki/out/installer/build/anki/linux/zip/anki/app_packages/aqt/main.py”, line 198, in _init_

File “/home/runner/work/anki/anki/out/installer/build/anki/linux/zip/anki/app_packages/aqt/main.py”, line 1002, in setupAddons

File “/home/runner/work/anki/anki/out/installer/build/anki/linux/zip/anki/app_packages/aqt/addons.py”, line 211, in _init_

File “/home/runner/work/anki/anki/out/installer/build/anki/linux/zip/anki/app_packages/aqt/addons.py”, line 230, in addonsFolder

File “/home/runner/work/anki/anki/out/installer/build/anki/linux/zip/anki/app_packages/aqt/profiles.py”, line 315, in addonFolder

File “/home/runner/work/anki/anki/out/installer/build/anki/linux/zip/anki/app_packages/aqt/profiles.py”, line 353, in _ensureExists

File “”, line 228, in makedirs

PermissionError: [Errno 13] Permission denied: ‘/home/j-k/.local/share/Anki2/addons21’

How do I proceed? Thank you in advance.

PS: Anki was installed as root, if that matters

2
  1. You installed via the normal install script as outlined in the manual?
  2. What command are you running exactly to run anki?
  3. Did you check the permissions of users and groups of the specified path?
3

I followed the installation guide step-by-step and ran the commands in the quoteblocks

File manager says the file perms are limited to root, which isn’t supposed to be the case I gather?
I have tried running anki simply by typing in “anki” into terminal, as well as running it from the file manager and running it from it’s shortcut.

4

It’s not. Mine is drwxr-xr-x (checked with ls -halp ~/.local/share/Anki2/). You should be able to just chmod the entire Anki2 folder accordingly.

(or use the gui if prefered, of course)

5

I have now changed all perms, I got a bit farther, but still ran headfirst into an error. Debug info below

Anki 26.05 (e64c6b1a)
Python 3.13.13 Qt 6.11.0 PyQt 6.11.0
Platform: Linux-6.12.94+deb13-amd64-x86_64-with-glibc2.41

Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/home/runner/work/anki/anki/out/installer/build/anki/linux/zip/anki/app_packages/aqt/errors.py”, line 199, in show_help
File “/home/runner/work/anki/anki/out/installer/build/anki/linux/zip/anki/app_packages/aqt/utils.py”, line 116, in openHelp
File “/home/runner/work/anki/anki/out/installer/build/anki/linux/zip/anki/app_packages/anki/_backend_generated.py”, line 1240, in help_page_link
File “/home/runner/work/anki/anki/out/installer/build/anki/linux/zip/anki/app_packages/anki/_backend.py”, line 175, in _run_command
anki.errors.InvalidInput: CollectionNotOpen

I changed perms and ran from GUI as /usr/

6

I have never seen this error and am not sure what could be causing this. Hopefully someone else here has an idea.

7

Actually, thinking about this a little bit more: maybe the issue is that the collection failed to be opened? Could you check for the database file in Anki2 and verify that the permissions had been updated properly for the files as well?

8

Yea, that ended up being the problem. The read-write permissions didn’t apply to it properly. Everything seems to work now, more or less anyway

Thanks! I really hate Linux but I have no other options with this POS laptop xD