First, thank you guys for reading, I would appreciate any help because I am stuck and new to Debian.
ISSUE:
I just came to Debian from Mint, I changed because my laptop is pretty old and rather than just replace it I decided to find a distro that I can use for both platforms because of consistency. I chose Debian 12 LXQt, the lightweight model. LXQt does not come with good software installation options so I need Flathub.
When I follow the steps on the installation page (Debian Flathub Setup | Flathub) I get no feedback when I paste option 3. It just gives me a new line. When I download something from this site and then try to run it I get “Failed to install file: not supported” as an error code.
Does anyone know why this is happening? I am certain I input the stuff from the site correctly in the terminal, I did the sudo apt upgrade command, I restarted, looked on the wiki, and have still not figured it out. I would rather not download the stuff from step 2 because I have seen people say it shouldn’t be necessary as I am not on GNOME or KDE, but I do not know how to proceed so I am hoping one of you guys can help me. I would like to say I am stuck, and while I can respect the idea of RTFM, I cannot find this posted anywhere else. If there is a solution somewhere that the community knows of a post to that place would also be helpful.
Thanks guys.
That the command to install the Flathub remote returns with no feedback is expected. That means that task was successful.
Now, about the “download something from the site” part:
How exactly did you try this? Did you load the .flatpakref file and tried to open it with the file manager?
The .flatpakref file is expected to be used with a graphical software manager, like GNOME Software. It seems like LXQt don’t provide one, so this could be why this fails.
You can use the file from the terminal, by running this command:
flatpak install --from FILE.flatpakref
Alternatively, the install button on the Flathub site has a drop-down on the side, which shows you a terminal command to install an application directly.
A file manager is the program you use to manage files and folders. So, just to avoid any confusion: I’m pretty sure you have a file manager.
Anyways, Flathub itself does not come with its own store application. The expectation is that the system provides a software manager that provides the user with the option to install and manage the Flatpaks.
GNOME, for instance, has GNOME Software, KDE has Discover and Linux Mint has its own Software Center.
These software managers serve as the store application for Flathub. They are also responsible for opening the .flatpakref for further installation.
Now, LXQt as a smaller desktop might not have its own dedicated software manager. This also explains why the .flatpakref file can’t be opened: There is no application which understands the format.
If you’re comfortable with using the terminal for installation and updates, I’d say you use that.