error: Multiple branches available ­– file save dialog fails to honor filesystem permissions

[akvadrako]

I have been trying to debug a weird issue I had with Firefox in flatpak recently. Even when I added directory permissions to my flatpak installation, the GTK file save dialog was returning portal paths (/run/user/1000/doc/.../) instead of the real paths. Eventually I figured out it seemed to be due to having two versions of Firefox installed. When trying to save I got this error message in the system log:

xdg-document-portal[247389]: error: Multiple branches available for org.mozilla.firefox, you must specify one of: org.mozilla.firefox/x86_64/beta, org.mozilla.firefox/x86_64/stable

I am able to access those paths from inside the container without using the portal, and flatpak info --show-permissions gives the expected results. Removing one of the versions of Firefox solves the issue. My understanding is that this should work correctly, so it's a portal bug.

This is on Ubuntu 22.04.1, xdg-desktop-portal 1.14.4, xdg-desktop-portal-gtk 1.14.0.

[GeorgesStavracas]

Duplicate of #886

[akvadrako]

Why do you think this is a duplicate of 886? That isn't about the "multiple branches" message.

[GeorgesStavracas]

Oops

[akvadrako]

Thanks. If I can help by providing more information or doing some debugging, let me know.

[GeorgesStavracas]

I can confirm this bug. The problem is that flatpak info needs a specific branch if the app has multiple branches available, but xdg-document-portal doesn't provide that.

[Erick555]

So instead of calling:
flatpak info --file-access=PATH APPID
xdp need to call:
flatpak info --file-access=PATH APPID//BRANCH.

❯ flatpak info --file-access=/usr/share org.mozilla.firefox
error: Multiple branches available for org.mozilla.firefox, you must specify one of: org.mozilla.firefox/x86_64/beta, org.mozilla.firefox/x86_64/stable
❯ flatpak info --file-access=/usr/share org.mozilla.firefox//stable
hidden

The branch name is available in /.flatpak-info under [Instance] section.