Published Flatpak

[fllmn]

Flatpak is a simple way to distribute applications without having to deal with dependencies. Cross-distro support without having to build external libraries.

There seems to be two different options for hosting the Flatpak, most commonly on Flathub or self hosting or potentially on Github Pages. I assume the prior is preferred.

Before this can be done there are few things that needs to be addressed to meet the Flathub requirements:

Reformat: The manifest needs to reference the github repository. The structure of the dependency manifests could be tidied up #30

Architecture specification: In case this is going to be x86 only it needs to be specified in a flathub.json file. I might have a go and see if this works on arm64.

Desktop file: All graphical applications are required

Appstream file: TBD

Icon:

[fllmn]

@knipknap Do you have any ideas or plans for an icon?

[knipknap]

@fllmn There is one here, but it is ugly :-(

https://github.com/barebaric/rayforge/blob/main/data/com.barebaric.rayforge.svg

[fllmn]

Ah great! And more meta data files needed for Flathub, awesome!

[knipknap]

@fllmn just a hint: I added a new dependency today, python3-pyclipper. It worked right away on all platforms, so I think it should not cause trouble with the flatpak either, I hope.

[fllmn]

Thanks for the heads up! I'll have a look at it when the 0.22 flatpak is released

[knipknap]

@fllmn how would it be released, if not from the pipeline in main?

[fllmn]

They way I envisaged was to run the workflow from the main pipeline but in manifest reference a release tag, currently that's 0.22. As soon as 0.23 is ready the manifest and metainfo files get updated with any relevant changes. Not right there so I'm planning on manually submitting the first release.

Happy to do otherwise if you prefer.

[WildRikku]

This issue reads like a Flatpak is now available, is that correct? If so, where can I get it? Apparently it's not yet available through Flathub.

[knipknap]

They way I envisaged was to run the workflow from the main pipeline but in manifest reference a release tag

Ah, of course, I did not think of that! Sure, fine with me!

[fllmn]

This issue reads like a Flatpak is now available, is that correct? If so, where can I get it? Apparently it's not yet available through Flathub.

Yes, you can build the flatpak locally. From the project root folder you can run

./flatpak/build-flatpak.sh

This requires you have flatpak-builder installed as a flatpak

[rebeltaz]

This issue reads like a Flatpak is now available, is that correct? If so, where can I get it? Apparently it's not yet available through Flathub.

Yes, you can build the flatpak locally. From the project root folder you can run

./flatpak/build-flatpak.sh

This requires you have flatpak-builder installed as a flatpak

I know I can't build this from source under 22.04, but since flatpaks include the necessary dependencies, I thought I'd see if it could build a flatpak.

From the main directory, I ran

flatpak/build-flatpak.sh

without the ./ specified. Using the ./ I get the

Script called from wrong dir. Please start from the root of the repository

error. Once that runs, though, I get

Dependency Sdk: org.gnome.Sdk 47
Installing org.gnome.Sdk/x86_64/47 from flathub
error: No remote refs found similar to ‘flathub’
Error installing deps: running flatpak --user install -y --noninteractive flathub org.gnome.Sdk/x86_64/47: Child process exited with code 1

If I run a search

flatpak search org.gnome.Sdk

I get

Name Description Application ID Version Branch Remotes
GNOME Software Development Kit version … Tools and headers for developing applications using the GNOME application pla… org.gnome.Sdk 49 flathub
GNOME Software Development Kit version … Tools and headers for developing applications using the GNOME application pla… org.gnome.Sdk 48 flathub
GNOME Software Development Kit version … Tools and headers for developing applications using the GNOME application pla… org.gnome.Sdk 47 flathub
GNOME Software Development Kit version … Tools and headers for developing applications using the GNOME application pla… org.gnome.Sdk 3.38 flathub

Is the 22.04 instead of 24.04 the issue or is it something else?

[fllmn]

My guess (without any testing) is that you're missing the flathub repository that hosts the runtime. Try adding the repository by running

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

and then try building again 🙂