Problems to use monodevelop 7.0 installed via flatpak as external script editor for Unit 5.6 on Ubuntu

Question

I have Ubuntu 16.04 and I'm trying to use the latest monodevelop as my external script editor for Unity 5.6, but I can't found the executable location, I tried .local/share/flatpak/app/com.xamarin.MonoDevelop/x86_64/stable/active/files/bin but nothing there is working for me.

Answer 1

With respect to user8248906, I think his answer could use a bit more detail. Flatpak requires a different method for its installed apps. In the specific case of MonoDevelop, the command to use would be:

flatpak run com.xamarin.MonoDevelop

To make this work with Unity, we need to create a script that unity knows how to start. Save the following snippet into a file somewhere you can access, with a name such as monodevelop.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash
flatpak run com.xamarin.MonoDevelop "${@// /?}"

The above bash script simply opens the file specified in MonoDevelop. The last part "${@// /?}" replaces the spaces in the filename with "?" characters to work around a bug in MonoDevelop that prevents it from accepting file paths containing spaces.

Now that you have the file saved, it will likely need to be marked as executable, which can be performed via chmod +x monodevelop.sh from the command line. Next, in Unity, navigate to "Edit->Preferences->External Tools", and change the "External Script Editor" setting to point to the script above.

Now Unity should be able to open MonoDevelop properly!

Answer 2

flatpak run com.xamarin.MonoDevelop