Flatpak Port

[jo5huajohn]

I'm not sure if this is in a state to be merged, but I figured it would be good if other people with more experience with flatpaks took a look at this and suggested best practices/improvements that I could make.

[vrement]

Oh nice! The first "RC" is here

[berarma]

I know nothing about Flatpak packaging so I can't help.

This patch doesn't affect normal operation , I can merge and let users try it.

Apart from merging, I guess there's some more work to do to create the actual package and publish it. Are you doing it too?

Instead of patching the meson build file, wouldn't it be easier to use the command line arguments to change the udev path?

[berarma]

There might be some important tips here. I would need help implementing them correctly for Flatpak though.

[jo5huajohn]

I've removed the patch in my local branch and added the config in the metadata file in my local workspace.

[jo5huajohn]

As for creating the actual package and supporting it, I'd like to do it, but it will take a while since I'm still learning what goes into creating a flatpak. I'm also looking into how to support XDG portals in the application. From what I understand, oversteer only needs to integrate the file chooser portal to select profiles and test CSVs.

[jo5huajohn]

I've implemented the xdg file chooser portal and updated the appdata file, but I'm not so sure about the udev rules since as I understand it, it violates flatpak rules.

[jo5huajohn]

Additionally, I would like to rename the app-id to io.github.berarma.oversteer as per the flathub app id requirements:

The Application ID should be a real URL of a domain that the app author has control over or where their app is hosted.

Ignoring this will lead to problems down the line, such as not being able to verify the app and receiving payments. It also decides, which verification methods will be available. For e.g. using io.github.flathub.TestApp would only allow for Github or Website verification.

[berarma]

I've implemented the xdg file chooser portal and updated the appdata file, but I'm not so sure about the udev rules since as I understand it, it violates flatpak rules.

Installing udev rules should be discarded. A Flatpak package shouldn't do that. The user will have to install them manually or ask distros to include the rules. Maybe native packages could be created for the main distros with only the rules. They have never belonged here but it was the easiest way to distribute them.

I've seen there are GTK changes included. Why these changes? And why not apply them independently of this PR?

[jo5huajohn]

This change is to implement the FileChooser portal, and introduce file filters for tests and profiles. FileChooserNative uses FileChooserDialog in the backend, but uses the FileChooser portal if it detects that it is being run in a flatpak environment.

[berarma]

This change is to implement the FileChooser portal, and introduce file filters for tests and profiles. FileChooserNative uses FileChooserDialog in the backend, but uses the FileChooser portal if it detects that it is being run in a flatpak environment.

Why are they duplicated? Once in the source code and the same changes again in portals.diff.

[jo5huajohn]

Oops. That shouldn't have been there. Removed the patch.

[jo5huajohn]

Additionally, I would like to rename the app-id to io.github.berarma.oversteer as per the flathub app id requirements:

The Application ID should be a real URL of a domain that the app author has control over or where their app is hosted.
Ignoring this will lead to problems down the line, such as not being able to verify the app and receiving payments. It also decides, which verification methods will be available. For e.g. using io.github.flathub.TestApp would only allow for Github or Website verification.

Do you have any thoughts on this? Additionally, if the flatpak is good to go, the flatpak directory should be submitted to the flathub repo. I can add a commit to remove the flatpak directory and submit it to the flathub repo.

[berarma]

Additionally, I would like to rename the app-id to io.github.berarma.oversteer as per the flathub app id requirements:

The Application ID should be a real URL of a domain that the app author has control over or where their app is hosted.
Ignoring this will lead to problems down the line, such as not being able to verify the app and receiving payments. It also decides, which verification methods will be available. For e.g. using io.github.flathub.TestApp would only allow for Github or Website verification.

Do you have any thoughts on this? Additionally, if the flatpak is good to go, the flatpak directory should be submitted to the flathub repo. I can add a commit to remove the flatpak directory and submit it to the flathub repo.

I've enabled berarma.gihub.io. Is that enough?

[jo5huajohn]

It isn't necessary, but yeah. I've made the following changes:

• Removed the flatpak directory since this needs to be submitted to the flathub repo.
• Included an image in data/ and referenced this in the README and the appdata file (for flathub images).
• Renamed the application in all appropriate files.

Once this commit is merged, I'll run final tests defined by the flathub guidelines and create a new PR there.

[jo5huajohn]

A flatpak for Oversteer is now live on flathub.

[berarma]

A flatpak for Oversteer is now live on flathub.

I've tried it but it doesn't read settings nor let me change them. It has no permissions.

Shouldn't I make a new release with the Flatpak changes?

[jo5huajohn]

Ideally, yes. But I've linked it to the latest commit for now. I'll start following the releases once 0.8.3 is out.

That's odd. I'm assuming you're running the driver and have the udev rules installed. Do you have xdg-desktop-portal-gnome on your system? You can check by going to the directory /usr/share/xdg-desktop-portal and looking for gnome-portals.conf.

You can also try flatpak override --reset io.github.berarma.Oversteer. This should reset any global permission overrides on the application. Some users have also reported a reboot working.

My suspect is the application can't access the files created by the driver due to flatpak filesystem permissions on your system.

You can also use Flatseal to check if any permissions are denied.

[berarma]

I uninstalled my natively installed version and it removed the udev rules. Now that I've restored them it's working. I'll add a note in the Readme. I'll create a new release shortly so Flatpak users are on a known release version.

Thanks for your work on this! 👏

[jo5huajohn]

Awesome. Happy to help!

[vrement]

Just noticed this after a longer time and i see we now have a flatpak! Great work all involved! Viva la easy effortless Linux installations 👍

[vandea05]

A note from a Linux neophyte- the readme for the Flatpak is a little sparse and I found the documentation pretty hard to follow regarding the udev rules. I'd propose updating the Flatpak readme to make the udev requirement a little more prominent and perhaps include a little more information on where to find the rules in the repo and where to put them. It probably seems really obvious from inside the ecosystem but it's quite daunting from the outside!

[jo5huajohn]

@vandea05 I'll have the README updated with the information in the next update.