Dear Barthalion
Thanks for your quick response.
Somehow I do not get it.
On my notebok with Debian 10.6, installation and running Firefox (flathub) works only with «sudo». Even «flatpak search » and «flatpak list» only runs with «sudo». On the other hand, «flatpak - -help» runs with and without «sudo».
Examples:
linde@burg:~$ flatpak search skype
F: Failed to parse /var/lib/flatpak/appstream/flathub/x86_64/active/appstream.xml.gz file: Fehler beim Öffnen der Datei »/var/lib/flatpak/appstream/flathub/x86_64/active/appstream.xml.gz«: Keine Berechtigung
No matches found
linde@burg:~$ flatpak list
linde@burg:~$ (It does not show up anything.)
As I understood correctly, the error-message «Fehler: Unable to load summary from remote flathub: openat(flathub.trustedkeys.gpg): Keine Berechtigung» is on my side, meaning on my Debian-system ??
I found it in /var/lib/flatpak/repo/flathub.trustedkeys.gpg .
The access-rights to this file are:
linde@burg:~$ ls -la /var/lib/flatpak/repo/flathub.trustedkeys.gpg
-rw-r----- 1 root root 2888 Okt 18 14:07 /var/lib/flatpak/repo/flathub.trustedkeys.gpg
linde@burg:~$
Does it mean, that – when installing firefox (or a flathub-pakage) from your website https://flathub.org – I should be able to enter the root-Password in a not yet existing window to have access to the gpg-file ??
Following your suggestions using «–user» , I tried the following commands:
• linde@burg:~$ flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
(without «--user», because I am already logged in as user.)
• linde@burg:~$ sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists --user flathub `https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo`
(although already logged in as user, I added in the commandline «–user».)
• root@burg:~# flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists --user flathub `https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo`
(here as root)
After each command, I opened Vivaldi-Browser → tried to install «Firefox» from your website: https://flathub.org → it resulted always in the error mentioned.
On the terminal, I tried the commands as user «linde»:
linde@burg:~$ flatpak install --user org.mozilla.firefox
Looking for matches…
Fehler: No remote refs found similar to ‘org.mozilla.firefox’
linde@burg:~$
linde@burg:~$ flatpak install --user flathub org.mozilla.firefox
Looking for matches…
Fehler: No remote refs found similar to ‘flathub’
linde@burg:~$
The same commands with «sudo» were resulting in:
linde@burg:~$ sudo flatpak install --user org.mozilla.firefox
Looking for matches…
Found similar ref(s) for ‘org.mozilla.firefox’ in remote ‘flathub’ (user).
Use this remote? [Y/n]: n
linde@burg:~$ sudo flatpak install --user flathub org.mozilla.firefox
Looking for matches…
Required runtime for org.mozilla.firefox/x86_64/stable (runtime/org.freedesktop.Platform/x86_64/19.08) found in remote flathub
Do you want to install it? [Y/n]: n
Not knowing what the difference is, I took the last command with «… --user flathub ….» to install firefox.
Running firefox as normal user shows:
linde@burg:~$ flatpak run org.mozilla.firefox
Fehler: app/org.mozilla.firefox/x86_64/master ist nicht installiert
Running it with sudo:
linde@burg:~$ sudo flatpak run org.mozilla.firefox
[sudo] Passwort für linde:
Gtk-Message: 20:51:50.046: Failed to load module “canberra-gtk-module”
Gtk-Message: 20:51:50.047: Failed to load module “canberra-gtk-module”
….
It takes about 33 seconds until firefox-window appears.
To compare it with the default installed firefox (68.12.0 esr) on my Debian 10.6:
linde@burg:~$ firefox
→ it takes about 2 seconds to open firefox. (without «sudo» !!).
Reading the following documentations I found on the search-machine (Internet):
https://ostechnix.com/how-to-install-and-use-flatpak-in-linux/https://fossbytes.com/what-is-flatpak-how-to-install-flatpak-apps-ubuntu-linux/-
https://omgubuntu.co.uk/2019/02/how-to-install-flatpak-on-ubuntu-flathub → Installation via your homepage.
- and even on your homepage:
https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.mozilla.firefox
it is never mentioned to install flatpak applications or to run, search, list them as root (sudo).
But WHY does it works on my Debian-System only as root (sudo) ???
Is it Debian-specific or just on my local Notebook ???
Furthermore, reading the article:
-
https://vitux.com/how-to-install-software-through-flatpak-on-debian-10/
section: «Install software through Flatpak using the Software Manager UI»
The example with «gedit» (or firefox or octave) searching in «Debian Software»
(installed 2 pakages: software-properties-common - version 0.96.20.2-2; and
software-properties-gtk – version 0.96.20.2-2 ) , I only get as result the software offered from debian, no results from flathub, although I have installed «gnome-software-plugin-flatpak» from Synaptic-pakagemanager. Why ??
Is there anything broken on my debian 10.6 system ??
Again: The main questions is: Why does I have to start firefox with «sudo» ? Is this the common way on debian for flathut-pakages or just on my notebook ??
What is the difference between running firefox as «normal user» and as root (sudo)? (as root: more rights, but what kind of rights and for what running a browser as root?)
And what about the security points running a browser as root?
Thanks a lot for answering, actually I do not yet get it .
With kind regards
G. Vonesch