flatpaks not preinstalled after bootc switch

[nneto]

As in the notes in README.md on flatpaks:

• Flatpaks are downloaded from Flathub on first boot [...]
• Internet connection required after installation [...]
• Installation happens automatically after user setup completes
• First boot will take longer while Flatpaks are being installed

But in a laptop of mine, with a fresh install of Fedora Silverblue, when I sudo bootc switch to my image (on "ghcr.io/nneto/my-finpilot:stable"), the first boot after the switch does not take any longer and none of the flatpaks are installed.

Maybe I did something wrong, but I wonder if the flatpak preinstall only works when doing a fresh install directly of the OS via ISO? Could there be a way to make it work after a simple bootc switch? Will I have to resort to a recipe to manually trigger the installation of flatpaks with a ujust command?...

[castrojo]

Did you add the list of flatpaks you want in /etc/flatpak/preinstall.d?

[nneto]

Well, I didn't remove the default list... But I did test including another flatpaks and I took these screenshots in the machine with the image booted up and, as you can see, the files are there:

(the # GIMP comment is duplicated but the app name is different in each file)

I tested including GIMP in the default.preinstall file and also Zen in a new myapps.preinstall file, but they were not installed:

Not only that, but as I said before, none of the apps in the default list are being installed, for example, mission center or warehouse:

The only apps installed already came with Fedora Silverblue like firefox, calculator, connections, maps, and so on.

[nneto]

I'm no expert on this, so I built an ISO of my custom image wondering if in a fresh install that way the preinstall would work but to no avail:

EDIT: actually, after a fresh install from the ISO I built, almost no software is installed:

(FF dev edition, ghostty, gitkraken, win11-clipboard are all addition of mine in the build)
(Also, bootc and rpm-ostree shows USERNAME/REPO)

Weird.

[matildepark]

Had the same experience on a fresh Silverblue's bootc switch yesterday. Was looking for install-system-flatpaks to smooth it over but we don't have that either in the template.

edit: flatpak preinstall as a command also doesn't work, so I wonder if the patched flatpak isn't inherited here. To be clear my base image is ublue-os/silverblue-main:latest.

[nneto]

Was looking for install-system-flatpaks to smooth it over but we don't have that either in the template.

Well, the code is in common, which (as you can see in the Containerfile) is available during build inside oci/common... I believe you just have to copy the file into /ctx/custom/ujust/ (like cp /oci/common/system_files/bluefin/usr/share/ublue-os/just/system.just /ctx/custom/ujust/ before the # Consolidate Just Files line in 10-build.sh) or manuallly copy and paste the recipe code into an other file like the custom-system.just or custom-apps.just already in the template.

my base image is ublue-os/silverblue-main:latest.

I also didn't change the base image.

I wonder if the patched flatpak isn't inherited here

Yeah I don't know how that works, so I'm just waiting for someone to look into it. I guess one workaround for now before we get what is going on would be to use ujust to install the apps but that is far from the ideal.

[Xarianne]

Just wanted to add same problem here if I switch to a base ublue-os image.

[nneto]

Update: I saw the "flatpak-preinstall.service" in "common". So I included it in the 10-build.sh and enabled it.

cp /ctx/oci/common/shared/usr/lib/systemd/system/flatpak-preinstall.service /usr/lib/systemd/system/
systemctl enable flatpak-preinstall.service

When booting my image, I saw that the service failed and found this in the journalctl:

error: 'preinstall' is not a flatpak command. Did you mean 'install'?
See '/usr/bin/flatpak --help'

I'm yet to understand about the "patched flatpak" and if it's missing here somehow and how to workaround that.
AFAIK, the version of flatpak that comes installed is 1.16.x and "preinstall" is still coming on 1.17
Oh, I see, the patch is the backporting of preinstall to 1.16.1.

Then, the flatpak in ublue-os/packages was updated to 1.17.2. I don't understand how the version in silverblue-main in my image is still 1.16.x. Hmm... it seems it is not included on silverblue-main, I see bluefin swap the flatpak for the one in ublue-os COPR.

I think I will copy the code from bluefin to my build for now, see if that works, but it seems this won't be necessary anymore and all will be resolved once silverblue and other images comes with flatpak >=1.17.x

[nneto]

Yeah, so after:

• including the flatpak-preinstall.service and enabling it
• swaping the flatpak for the ublue-os version in COPR
• dnf5 install dbus-x11
• inserting /usr/bin/dbus-run-session at the beginning of ExecStart in the flatpak-preinstall.service

It worked. The flatpaks in preinstall.d are installed.

I had to install dbus-x11 (which bluefin also does) but I had to do that to insert /usr/bin/dbus-run-session in the flatpak-preinstall.service and avoid a "Cannot autolaunch D-Bus without X11 $DISPLAY" error, which has been dealt with before on ublue projects. I don't know how bluefin gets away without /usr/bin/dbus-run-session in the service.

[castrojo]

You need to use the flatpak in bluefin with the preinstall support, this is not in silverblue-main.

I'm curious as to why you're using finpilot for silverblue-main, you're probably better off with ublue-os/image-template.

EDIT: Nevermind, I think we can just poke about the next flatpak release and see if we can get that pushed up.

[castrojo]

https://github.com/ublue-os/bluefin/blob/9f69998467746659dee9adcee61629c8d12dae69/build_files/base/04-packages.sh#L181

You probably need this workaround, this is the one we use ^^^^