On Wed, 2017-02-22 at 12:37 -0700, Chris Murphy wrote:
It'd be nice if there were a direct download + install for
flatpak
applications. Either licking on the URL in Firefox causes GNOME
Software to autolaunch and do whatever needs to be done (find and
install runtimes as well as the application); or maybe an included
webextension for Firefox that can do the installation.
If you go here, that is pretty much what you get:
http://flatpak.org/apps.html
There's still some polish that we need to do in gnome-software to make
this experience as smooth as it can be, but the basic functionality is
there now.
At the moment I'm confused about --system vs --user installation
locations. Somehow I have some things that are system and others are
user. This is relevant because a system domain installation means
it's
the rootfs volume that takes the storage hit; where user domain
installation means it's the home volume that takes the storage hit.
And if runtime and application are split, then backup and restore
strategy has to account for this split or it's possible the
application ends up "broken" if the runtime is missing.
My gut instinct is that the first user created by g-i-s should be an
admin (in group wheel) by default. And when a user in group wheel is
doing flatpak application installations, that by default they're
installed on rootfs not in home, so that they're available for any
user. I'm not super inclined to applications being stored in
/home/<user>/.
gnome-software has a setting: install-bundles-system-wide, which
defaults to true. You will get a polkit dialog when you try to install
a flatpak. I don't think there's a need for making things more
complicated.
A "neat" option would be a flatpak exported file that
describes the
system's flatpak state (all remotes, runtimes, applications) that can
be imported into a clean system, and then ask flatpak to do the
restore or whatever other command means "make it go" and then flatpak
goes out and downloads and installs those items.
Last, I'd rather not have to manage or even be aware of runtimes.
Can't the application flatpak define what runtime(s) it prefers in
order, and then go out and get them? This especially applies to GNOME
Software which shows runtimes separate from the application.
That is what is done with the .flatpakref files that I've mentioned
above. The file provides gnome-software with enough information to
install not just the application and its remote, but also the required
runtime and their remote. Again, the gnome-software support for this is
still improving, but it all works with the commandline tools.