Xpra Client Flatpak

Flatpak packaging for the Xpra X11 forwarding client (client-only, version 6.4.3).

Status: ✅ COMPLETED

This flatpak is fully functional and successfully builds pycairo and PyGObject from source to support Xpra's C extensions.

Installation

git clone git@github.com:MrMEEE/org.xpra.Client.git
cd org.xpra.Client
flatpak-builder --user --install --ccache builddir org.xpra.Client.yaml

Usage

flatpak run org.xpra.Client --version
# xpra v6.4.3

flatpak run org.xpra.Client attach ssh://user@host/display

Build Solution

After multiple attempts, the successful approach was:

1. Build pycairo from source (meson)

• Not pip - needed for C headers
• Provides /app/include/pycairo/

2. Build PyGObject from source (meson)

• Not pip - needed for C headers
• Provides /app/include/pygobject-3.0/pygobject.h and pygobject-types.h

3. Install Python dependencies with pip

• Network-enabled pip for prebuilt wheels
• Packages: paramiko, cryptography, pyopenssl, lz4, pillow, pyopengl, netifaces, zeroconf

4. Compile Xpra with proper C flags

• CFLAGS="-I/app/include/pygobject-3.0 -I/app/include/pycairo"
• Allows Cython extensions to find PyGObject headers

5. Install multiple icon sizes

• 48x48, 128x128, 192x192 pixels
• Required for appstream validation to pass

Challenges Overcome

1. libXres missing: Added X11 Resource extension library
2. Pip-installed PyGObject lacks headers: Built from source with meson
3. pycairo build requirements: Built from source with meson (not pip)
4. C extension compilation: Added explicit CFLAGS for include paths
5. AppStream icon validation: Installed icon in multiple standard sizes (128x128 was key)

Build Attempts History

• ❌ Attempt 1: flatpak-pip-generator → blocked by maturin requirement
• ❌ Attempt 2: Network pip + manual pkg-config files → missing C headers
• ✅ Attempt 3: Meson-built pycairo/PyGObject + network pip → SUCCESS

See build logs for detailed history:

• build-meson.log - First meson attempt
• build-cflags.log - Added C flags
• build-success.log - Final successful build

Technical Details

• Runtime: org.freedesktop.Platform 25.08
• SDK: org.freedesktop.Sdk 25.08
• Python: 3.13
• Build system: Mixed (meson for PyGObject/pycairo, setup.py for Xpra, pip for deps)
• Network required: Yes (during build for pip dependencies)

Repository

https://github.com/MrMEEE/org.xpra.Client

Resources

• Xpra upstream: https://github.com/Xpra-org/xpra
• Xpra documentation: https://xpra.org/
• PyGObject: https://gnome.pages.gitlab.gnome.org/pygobject/
• pycairo: https://pycairo.readthedocs.io/