Migrate to Flatpak pre-install

[danirabbit]

What Happened?

Currently we're using deb packages to pull in flatpak packages so that we have a way to manage removing or changing them

Steps to Reproduce

Check packages for:

• calculator
• camera
• capnet assist
• document viewer
• fonts
• file-roller
• maps
• music
• screenshot
• videos
• web

Expected Behavior

We should migrate these to flatpak pre-install: https://docs.flatpak.org/en/latest/flatpak-command-reference.html#flatpak-preinstall

[danirabbit]

I wonder if this should be shipped in default-settings actually

[ryonakano]

flatpak preinstall was introduced in flatpak 1.17.0¹, whereas Resolute ships flatpak 1.16.6². So we can work on this only for Ubuntu 28.04 LTS or later unless we import newer version of flatpak for OS 9 on our PPA.

Footnotes

1. https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/commit/d10e11482d42996c47bc0d4f97b513fc197a7e2b ↩

2. https://packages.ubuntu.com/en/resolute/flatpak ↩

[ryonakano]

I wonder if this should be shipped in default-settings actually

I agree with this. Having files in the os repository makes it impossible to update the .preinstall files through system updates.

Can't be merged for now as I mentioned above but I opened a PR in default-settings: elementary/default-settings#364

[ryonakano]

I confirmed flatpak 1.18.0 packaged for Stonking can be built successfully without modification on Ubuntu 26.04 LTS, so we can pull it if we want to resolve this task in OS 9.

user@ubuntu-26:~/work$ flatpak --version
Flatpak 1.18.0
user@ubuntu-26:~/work$ flatpak preinstall --help
Usage:
  flatpak preinstall [OPTION…] - Install flatpaks that are part of the operating system

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

Application Options:
  -u, --user               Work on the user installation
  --system                 Work on the system-wide installation (default)
  --installation=NAME      Work on a non-default system-wide installation
  --no-pull                Don't pull, only install from local cache
  --no-deploy              Don't deploy, only download to local cache
  --no-related             Don't install related refs
  --no-deps                Don't verify/install runtime dependencies
  --no-static-deltas       Don't use static deltas
  --include-sdk            Additionally install the SDK used to build the given refs
  --include-debug          Additionally install the debug info for the given refs and their dependencies
  -y, --assumeyes          Automatically answer yes for all questions
  --reinstall              Uninstall first if already installed
  --noninteractive         Produce minimal output and don't ask questions
  --sideload-repo=PATH     Use this local repo for sideloads
  -v, --verbose            Show debug information, -vv for more detail
  --ostree-verbose         Show OSTree debug information

user@ubuntu-26:~/work$ cat /etc/os-release 
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu 26.04 LTS"
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION_ID="26.04"
VERSION="26.04 LTS (Resolute Raccoon)"
VERSION_CODENAME=resolute
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
HOME_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/"
SUPPORT_URL="https://help.ubuntu.com/"
BUG_REPORT_URL="https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/"
PRIVACY_POLICY_URL="https://www.ubuntu.com/legal/terms-and-policies/privacy-policy"
UBUNTU_CODENAME=resolute
LOGO=ubuntu-logo
user@ubuntu-26:~/work$ 

What I did:

sudo apt install -yU sbuild mmdebstrap git-buildpackage ubuntu-dev-tools
mkdir work
cd work/
pull-lp-source flatpak stonking
sbuild -d resolute flatpak_1.18.0-1.dsc
sudo apt install ./*.deb