Flatpak question?

WetGeek

The version of Cheese in our repo is 41.0 (if I remember right) and it lacks some features that I need. The newer version in Flatpak is 3.38.0, and it does have the features i need. So I installed it, and now I'm trying to figure out how to run it. As you might guess, I haven't used Flatpak very much yet.

flatpak search cheese tells me that version 3.38.0 is available, so I installed it. flatpak list cheese tells me that org.gnome.Cheese 3.38.0 is installed on my computer. However it doesn't show up in the menu (Plasma DE) and searching with the menu doesn't locate it. flatpak run org.gnome.Cheese tells me I don't have permission to run it.

If I can install a program from Flatpak, but can't find it or run it afterwards, I'm not much impressed with Flatpak. Can anyone here please help me?

brent

sudo flatpak run package. ? orflatpak repair package ?
Should populate your menu after reboot. If it does not then it's a shortcoming in the package imho.
I've seen elevated permissions to install or run packages infrequently. I use about 3 flatpaks and I use your update script, all pretty reliably. Maybe you have the package that's an anomaly! Thought that only happened to me..

WetGeek

brent Should populate your menu after reboot.

Did that, but it didn't change anything. Apparently you're not the only one that s..t happens to.

Solarmass

I just installed Cheese flatpak:
https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.gnome.Cheese

I see it in the Budgie menu and the version is 41.1.

flatpak run org.gnome.Cheese doesn't ask for permissions for me.

WetGeek

Solarmass

Thanks, but that's the same version that's in the Solus repositories. In other words, the one that doesn't include the features I need.

I can't understand why your Flatpak experience is different from mine. For me, Flatpak contains ONLY org.gnome.Cheese 3.38.0. That's the one I installed, but I can't find it or run it.

Solarmass

WetGeek weird, try

flatpak update

and also check for the Broken packages (just in case)
https://getsol.us/articles/troubleshooting/general-troubleshooting/en/

brent

WetGeek but I can't find it or run it.

I have had a completely useless flatpak package before. Weird, I thought as I removed it. Not unprecedented. Of course it has to be the one you love and need with features you really like...
your last card to play, I think, is complete removal, reboot, reinstall. And then consider good Cheese replacments.

WetGeek

brent is complete removal, reboot, reinstall

Already been there and done that. No joy. The alternatives to Cheese that I've found are available for specific Ubuntu versions, or need to be build from source. That's more trouble than I'm willing to suffer, and leaves the updating to me.

This doesn't represent an urgent need. I just want to find out which family member is getting into my stuff after I retire for the night. Things like 4 or 5 pens disappearing, a mouse broken, and so on. There are two web cams connected to Solus machines that could solve the mystery for me. I don't want to accuse anyone without knowing for sure.

WetGeek

brent I have had a completely useless flatpak package before

Yeah. It's supposed to be the future of software management. I hope it's the distant future.

WetGeek

brent I have had a completely useless flatpak package before. Weird,

So much for Flatpak's claims of always having the latest version of everything. Their version of Cheese was the latest version a year ago.

elfprince

WetGeek Christmas gremlins? 😁

Staudey

Just inserting myself into the conversation to note that 41 is in fact much newer than 3.38, so either they removed features with the update or you'll be just as happy with the version in the Solus repository.

WetGeek

Staudey 41 is in fact much newer than 3.38

According to the gnome web site, 3.38 is the current version of Cheese, and it was released on late in 2020:

                 cheese-3.38.0.tar.xz	1.0 MiB	2020-Sep-15 11:36

Do you know when 41.0 was released? And by whom?

Staudey

WetGeek Do you know when 41.0 was released? And by whom?

See e.g. here: https://download-fallback.gnome.org/sources/cheese/41/

LATEST-IS-41.1	        1092912	2021-Nov-15 14:59
cheese-41.0.news	3924	2021-Sep-20 07:18
cheese-41.0.sha256sum	168	2021-Sep-20 07:18
cheese-41.0.tar.xz	1092568	2021-Sep-20 07:18
cheese-41.1.news	463	2021-Nov-15 14:59
cheese-41.1.sha256sum	168	2021-Nov-15 14:59
cheese-41.1.tar.xz	1092912	2021-Nov-15 14:59

Seems like Sep 20 release date for 41.0 and then Nov 25 for 41.1

Released by GNOME of course.

WetGeek

Staudey Seems like Sep 20 release date for 41.0 and then Nov 25 for 41.1

Thanks for checking that. I'm confused by the different version series. 41.0 and 3.38.0 don't sound like they're versions of the same application that are just a year apart. I did ask for 3.38 when queried GNOME, to find out how recent it was, and I should have also queried 41.0.

I couldn't believe they were recent builds of the same thing, the numbers being so different. Seemed like 3.38 should have been really ancient, or they were two different applications. Maybe one a fork of the other. That's why I asked who released it. 😄

Staudey

WetGeek Yeah, Gnome versioning got weird recently.

https://discourse.gnome.org/t/new-gnome-versioning-scheme/4235

Q: Why start at 40?
A: Because the next version would be 3.40, and it’s a nice, round number. The 3.38 release was the 40th release of GNOME, but this discussion came too late in the cycle to effectively switch, so we can say that, if you start counting at zero, the next cycle would be the 40th release of GNOME. By using 40 as the base, we acknowledge what came before, and we don’t introduce a large discontinuity in the number progression, which is somewhat the point of this change.

WetGeek

Yeah. this makes it pretty clear.

And I'm beginning to disbelieve my memory of the additional features in 3.38. I was doing a web search for software to allow me to do some in-home surveillance with one of my web cams, and I could have been confusing Cheese features with another application's features.

This surveillance project exceeded its value to me about an hour ago, so I'm going to move on now. Thanks again for helping me to figure out the oddness in the versioning. Apologies for the distraction!

brent

WetGeek

$ flatpak list
Name                               Application ID                                               Version              Branch             Installation
ungoogled-chromium                 com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium                         96.0.4664.93         stable             system
Codecs                             com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium.Codecs                                       stable             system
Freedesktop Platform               org.freedesktop.Platform                                     21.08.5              21.08              system
Mesa                               org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default                          21.2.5               21.08              system
nvidia-390-144                     org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.nvidia-390-144                                        1.4                system
openh264                           org.freedesktop.Platform.openh264                            2.1.0                2.0                system
Plata theme noir                   org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Plata-Noir                                                      3.22               system
Qogir-dark GTK theme               org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Qogir-dark                                                      3.22               system
Jitsi Meet                         org.jitsi.jitsi-meet                                         2021.12.2            stable             system
KDE Application Platform           org.kde.Platform                                                                  5.15-21.08         system
QGnomePlatform                     org.kde.PlatformTheme.QGnomePlatform                                              5.15-21.08         system
QtSNI                              org.kde.PlatformTheme.QtSNI                                                       5.15-21.08         system
QGnomePlatform-decoration          org.kde.WaylandDecoration.QGnomePlatform-decoration                               5.15-21.08         system
ksnip                              org.ksnip.ksnip                                              1.9.1                stable             system
Zoom                               us.zoom.Zoom

I have three go-to packages in all this debris that I use regularly: zoom, ungoogled, and jitsi. (the rest are just deps).
They've worked flawlessly and continue to do so. My point? Trust the flatpaks--you just ran into a lemon. Chalk it up.

kyrios

brent What are the advantages of the jitsi app compared to the web version?

brent

kyrios Hi kyrios---truth be told I've always liked/preferred standalone apps over browser-based, web-integrated apps. Personal preference; I'm sure the functionality of both modalities (is that the right word?) is equal.

brent

merry xmas geek. to anyone reading I can confirm Wetgeek is absolutely correct and this is not an isolated problem.
I was unable to launch zoom today (the web app was fine) with my family for an hour (of troubleshooting) and I did all the stuff I suggested you do plus more. Now I fully see what you are saying.
My standalone Zoom package is updated and dead, in the menu, and will not run under any method.

It's either
1) something the flatpak peeps are now doing? or
2) something different in the way the flatpak program talks to Solus?