pCloud run at start-up

[davidrhoderick]

Pre-submit checks

• I checked for similar issues beforehand, but could not find any, not even closed ones. I could not add my bug report to any existing issue.
• I am going to take the time to to fill in all the required details. I know that the bug report will be dismissed otherwise.

Describe the bug

Before I used AppImageLauncher, I could set up pCloud to run at start-up using a terminal command. However, since starting to use AppImageLauncher, the CLi provides no help on launching app images:

⋊> ~ ail-cli pcloud                                                                              09:10:59
No such command available: pcloud
⋊> ~ ail-cli                                                                                     09:11:02
Usage: ail-cli [options] <command> [...]

Options:
  -h, --help     Displays help on commandline options.
  --help-all     Displays help including Qt specific options.
  -v, --version  Displays version information.

Arguments:
  <command>      Command to run (see help for more information
  [...]          command-specific additional arguments

Available commands:
  integrate    Integrate AppImages passed as commandline arguments
  unintegrate  Unintegrate AppImages passed as commandline arguments
⋊> ~ ail-cli -h                                                                                  09:11:05
Usage: ail-cli [options] <command> [...]

Options:
  -h, --help     Displays help on commandline options.
  --help-all     Displays help including Qt specific options.
  -v, --version  Displays version information.

Arguments:
  <command>      Command to run (see help for more information
  [...]          command-specific additional arguments
⋊> ~ ail-cli --help-all                                                                          09:11:11
Usage: ail-cli [options] <command> [...]

Options:
  -h, --help               Displays help on commandline options.
  --help-all               Displays help including Qt specific options.
  -v, --version            Displays version information.
  --qmljsdebugger <value>  Activates the QML/JS debugger with a specified port.
                           The value must be of format port:1234[,block].
                           "block" makes the application wait for a connection.

Arguments:
  <command>                Command to run (see help for more information
  [...]                    command-specific additional arguments

Nor are there any ways to set up an AppImage to launch on start-up:

Even setting "Start pCloud Drive on system startup" has no effect:

Expected behavior

One of the following should be possible:

• When running ail-cli --help or ail-cli --help-all, I should be able to see how to launch an application.
• I should be able to configure an AppImage to launch at start-up through AppImageLauncher.
• If an app is supposed to start on start-up, just like I've configured pCloud, it should start on start-up.

To re-iterate, only one of those would be necessary to get this working. I can use "Startup Applications" with ail-cli to run the app the same way I would restart it using AppImageLauncher if it's not possible to configure through the AppImageLauncher GUI or if the pCloud settings can't be persisted.

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Download pCloud (probably need to sign up for an account)
2. Install/Set up with AppImageLauncher
3. Run it to confirm it runs.
4. Go to "Settings -> General" and check the box next to "Start pCloud Drive on system startup"
5. Restart your computer.
6. Notice that pCloud is not running.

Screenshots

ail-cli has no manual or help output

No ways to configure auto-startup in AppImageLauncher

pCloud Drive settings don't take affect

Distribution and desktop environment

OS: Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS x86_64 
Host: X570 I AORUS PRO WIFI -CF 
Kernel: 6.12.10-76061203-generic 
Shell: bash 5.1.16 
DE: GNOME 42.9 
WM: Mutter 
WM Theme: Pop 
CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 PRO 4750G with Radeon Graphics (16) @ 4.454GH 
GPU: AMD ATI 0a:00.0 Renoir 
9297MiB / 63662MiB

cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Pop!_OS"
VERSION="22.04 LTS"
ID=pop
ID_LIKE="ubuntu debian"
PRETTY_NAME="Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS"
VERSION_ID="22.04"
HOME_URL="https://pop.system76.com"
SUPPORT_URL="https://support.system76.com"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://github.com/pop-os/pop/issues"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://system76.com/privacy"
VERSION_CODENAME=jammy
UBUNTU_CODENAME=jammy
LOGO=distributor-logo-pop-os

Installed AppImageLauncher version

AppImageLauncher version 2.2.0 (git commit 0f91801), built on 2022-11-02 23:51:55 UTC

List of AppImages you tried

• pCloud Drive version 1.14.8 downloaded from here
• Cursor:
  Version: 0.46.11
  VSCode Version: 1.96.2
  Commit: ae378be9dc2f5f1a6a1a220c6e25f9f03c8d4e10
  Date: 2025-03-07T06:51:09.153Z
  Electron: 32.2.6
  Chromium: 128.0.6613.186
  Node.js: 20.18.1
  V8: 12.8.374.38-electron.0
  OS: Linux x64 6.12.10-76061203-generic

Additional context

• Probably a duplicate of pCloud AppImage Cannot Start neither from Termninal nor at Boot #705
• pCloud Drive should run at start-up so that you have files accessible without having to start it manually
• pCloud Drive uses FUSE (or similar) to mount the drive.

[TheAssassin]

You can just run the AppImage directly. It should be in ~/Applications. The CLI does not provide any method to launch an AppImage by a random binary name, you're using it incorrectly. Its purpose is to manage desktop integration from the CLI.

[TheAssassin]

There are multiple questions(?) in this issue, hence I'm replying to another one I saw:

Nor are there any ways to set up an AppImage to launch on start-up:

Nope. That's not AppImageLauncher's purpose. You can set that up from your desktop environment.

AppImageLauncher does not provide a reliable way to launch AppImages that would survive updates (yet), that would be a separate issue.

[TheAssassin]

pCloud Drive settings don't take affect

If pCloud does not properly support autostart, that's pCloud's problem. ownCloud's desktop client for instance had the same issue and needed to support AppImages explicitly.