flatpak from alien repo installed with getmod: the experience

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francois
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flatpak from alien repo installed with getmod: the experience

Post#1 by francois » 12 Mar 2023, 12:26

I have installed flatpak from alien repo with getmod. The experience of installing flatpak and of working with flatpak to fetch packages or modules will be shared. What is interesting with flatpak packages is that they are distribution agnostic, that is they could be installed on porteus, ubuntu, archlinux, etc.

flatpak description:
https://docs.flatpak.org/en/latest/using-flatpak.html

flatpak commands:

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root@porteus:/home/guest# flatpak --help
Usage:
  flatpak [OPTION…] COMMAND

Builtin Commands:
 Manage installed applications and runtimes
  install                Install an application or runtime
  update                 Update an installed application or runtime
  uninstall              Uninstall an installed application or runtime
  mask                   Mask out updates and automatic installation
  pin                    Pin a runtime to prevent automatic removal
  list                   List installed apps and/or runtimes
  info                   Show info for installed app or runtime
  history                Show history
  config                 Configure flatpak
  repair                 Repair flatpak installation
  create-usb             Put applications or runtimes onto removable media

 Find applications and runtimes
  search                 Search for remote apps/runtimes

 Manage running applications
  run                    Run an application
  override               Override permissions for an application
  make-current           Specify default version to run
  enter                  Enter the namespace of a running application
  ps                     Enumerate running applications
  kill                   Stop a running application

 Manage file access
  documents              List exported files
  document-export        Grant an application access to a specific file
  document-unexport      Revoke access to a specific file
  document-info          Show information about a specific file

 Manage dynamic permissions
  permissions            List permissions
  permission-remove      Remove item from permission store
  permission-set         Set permissions
  permission-show        Show app permissions
  permission-reset       Reset app permissions

 Manage remote repositories
  remotes                List all configured remotes
  remote-add             Add a new remote repository (by URL)
  remote-modify          Modify properties of a configured remote
  remote-delete          Delete a configured remote
  remote-ls              List contents of a configured remote
  remote-info            Show information about a remote app or runtime

 Build applications
  build-init             Initialize a directory for building
  build                  Run a build command inside the build dir
  build-finish           Finish a build dir for export
  build-export           Export a build dir to a repository
  build-bundle           Create a bundle file from a ref in a local repository
  build-import-bundle    Import a bundle file
  build-sign             Sign an application or runtime
  build-update-repo      Update the summary file in a repository
  build-commit-from      Create new commit based on existing ref
  repo                   Show information about a repo

Help Options:
  -h, --help              Show help options

Application Options:
  --version               Print version information and exit
  --default-arch          Print default arch and exit
  --supported-arches      Print supported arches and exit
  --gl-drivers            Print active gl drivers and exit
  --installations         Print paths for system installations and exit
  --print-updated-env     Print the updated environment needed to run flatpaks
  --print-system-only     Only include the system installation with --print-updated-env
  -v, --verbose           Show debug information, -vv for more detail
  --ostree-verbose        Show OSTree debug information

root@porteus:/home/guest# 
I have installed flatpak and tried it with the gnumeric package.

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root@porteus:/home/guest#getmod -m flatpak
root@porteus:/home/guest#flatpak update
root@porteus:/home/guest# flatpak search gnumeric
Name       Description                  Application ID    Version Branch Remotes
The Gnume… A High-Precision Spreadshee… …numeric.Gnumeric 1.12.55 stable flathub
GNU PSPP   GNU PSPP is a program for s… org.gnu.pspp      1.6.2   stable flathub
root@porteus:/home/guest#

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root@porteus:/home/guest# flatpak install gnumeric
Looking for matches…
F: An error was encountered searching remote ‘flathub’ for ‘gnumeric’: Unable to load summary from remote flathub: TLS support is not available
error: No remote refs found similar to ‘gnumeric
The error flathub: TLS support is not available is corrected by downloading glib-networking-2.70.1-x86_64-1
https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/issues/1207

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root@porteus:/home/guest# getmod -m glib-networking
Reading Package Lists...Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  glib-networking 
0 upgraded, 0 reinstalled, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove, 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 3.0kB/136.0kB of archives.
Do you want to continue? [y/N]
Then to install gnumeric:

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root@porteus:/home/guest# flatpak install gnumeric
Looking for matches…
Found ref ‘app/org.gnumeric.Gnumeric/x86_64/stable’ in remote ‘flathub’ (system).
Use this ref? [Y/n]: 
Feel free to comment your experience with flatpak with porteus.
Prendre son temps, profiter de celui qui passe.

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francois
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flatpak from alien repo installed with getmod: the experience

Post#2 by francois » 12 Mar 2023, 12:36

Impression or temporary verdict:
flatpak works on porteus, but installation of a package it uses a lot of processing time to do so. I have not measured the memory print on my linux box, but according to the time necessary to install gnumeric and the sizes of the downloads output that what I saw on my terminal, it seems to take a lot of place.

This issue of memory storage tied to flatpak will have to be investigated. is a concern:
https://discussion.fedoraproject.org/t/ ... ages/67970

At present, I would not recommend flatpak as a way to provide software on porteus. flatpak does not seem to adhere to the KISS philosophy, it is not compact and it is not fast in terms of package installation.

What do you think?
Prendre son temps, profiter de celui qui passe.

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