Create a Flatpak package

[vardidze-rostom]

Feature request

Hello comrades, please create a flatpak package so that your program can run on all Linux distributions.

Motivation

I like Fedora Linux, but I would like to run your program without using a VM

Your contribution

I am sure that if you create a Flatpak package, your program will be more famous!

[keybasegit]

I use arch, opensuse, fedora. Flatpak package is cross linux. Ubuntu package it's for a ubuntu and perhaps debian

[cosmic-snow]

As far as I can tell, the installer is not exactly an Ubuntu package, but I think it was compiled on an Ubuntu 22.04 desktop machine.

It packages a few libraries itself, so you might still be able to run it on other distros, although I haven't tried that myself.

Maybe give it a go and report back whether it works?

[Arbitrate3280]

It does work, just installed and am running the latest version on Fedora 38. Nonetheless, if user-friendliness is a goal of the project, and from my understanding it is, creating a flatpak package and distributing it through flathub is a great idea and would be my preferred way to get this software.

Not only will this increase discoverability, seeing as lots of distros ship with flathub enabled out of the box nowadays, and the user will be able to stumble upon it through their graphical package manager of choice, it's also friendlier because it integrates with the package management, allowing the user to update it just like they update the rest of their other apps/packages.

There's also increased compatibility through the entire linux eco-system. Nowadays the installer is working for me on Fedora 38, but just a while ago it wasn't because of some library incompatibility, this now has been fixed but with the current distribution method these problems may keep happening again down the road. Distributing it as a flatpak fixes this issue, the developers have complete control of the dependencies/libraries and can not only bundle everything they need but also update it when needed. It guarantees a stronger reliability/sense of security that the program will just work on whatever distro supports flatpak, and that's a lot of them.

So it would be really great if this was packaged as a flatpak and distributed through flathub.

Edit:
Case in point, while it does install now in Fedora the localdocs plugin can't be used because of a bug in the browse button for setting up collections, due to a missing dependency. The only workaround I found for it was for ubuntu.

[cosmic-snow]

So it would be really great if this was packaged as a flatpak and distributed through flathub.

Completely agree. I hope you didn't take my comment as being against a flatpak version of the project.

[Tim453]

I created a manifest to build a flatpak version. You can find it here.

[nonameuser-de]

Thanks a lot Tim453.
I tried it - and got always an error message
Can't parse 'com.github.gpt4all.yml': 30:68: mapping values are not allowed in this context.
Any hint to resolve it is highly appreciated.

[qnixsynapse]

I have decided to maintain a build at flathub. Already tested but we need a better appdata.xml before proceeding. I am using @Tim453 's appdata but we are missing screenshots. If anyone want to help me. Please don't hesitate to do so. Thank you.

edit: the app id should be io.gpt4all.gpt4all imo.

[niansa]

Awesome! I really want this too :-)

[jacobgonzales20]

Flat hub submission would be nice, the .run file is working on VanillaOS (Ubuntu) but doesn't show a desktop icon

[decentropy]

I could not get gpt4all installed on Ubuntu 20 LTS...

Installer ran, but what then? Am I supposed to run /bin/chat or something? It's gives:
/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.34' not found

Thanks to @Tim453 for the flatpak. That got it installed and working
However, the LocalDocs isn't working.... it only lets my choose my home directory, not another directory

[jacobgonzales20]

I could not get gpt4all installed on Ubuntu 20 LTS...

Installer ran, but what then? Am I supposed to run /bin/chat or something? It's gives: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.34' not found

Thanks to @Tim453 for the flatpak. That got it installed and working However, the LocalDocs isn't working.... it only lets my choose my home directory, not another directory

Try, right-clicking then press create executable then run it

[TheOverpassArsonist]

I agree that this should be done. Install scripts are rarely, if ever, used on linux and for good reason. They're less secure since they're uploaded indiscriminantly, more vulnerable to malicious code injection, (i.e. someone putting a virus in the install script and then spreading it around as the official installer) and lack sandboxing. Native packaging should be an option, but if resources are limited it's definitely preferable to have a universal flatpak compared to an install script.

[jacobgonzales20]

I agree that this should be done. Install scripts are rarely, if ever, used on linux and for good reason. They're less secure since they're uploaded indiscriminantly, more vulnerable to malicious code injection, (i.e. someone putting a virus in the install script and then spreading it around as the official installer) and lack sandboxing. Native packaging should be an option, but if resources are limited it's definitely preferable to have a universal flatpak compared to an install script.

Plus Flatpak on flathub = more downloads due to it being shipped by default on most distros

[Jacobthegr8]

I created a manifest to build a flatpak version. You can find it here.

Your flatpack worked for a bit but then started to crash after a day or so. I am on Zorin OS. I tried the installer but I don't have a high enough version of sql light or something. If it wasn't that, my version of python is too low. I hope a flatpak gets made for this.

[Jacobthegr8]

Flat hub submission would be nice, the .run file is working on VanillaOS (Ubuntu) but doesn't show a desktop icon

I needed to right click the icon and select "allow executing file as a program" for it to work.

[goliv04053]

Updates?

[DmitrijOkeanij]

I am working on Alt Linux, Ubuntu installer do not work. I think this will be great to make flatpack version!

[ThiloteE]

The test version of Flatpak works for some, but others get pgp signature related errors:

    [2] com.canonical.AppMenu.Registrar, org.kde.KGlobalSettings, org.kde.kconfig.notify


        ID                                                          Branch                   Op              Remote                      Download
 1. [✗] io.gpt4all.gpt4all.Locale                                   test                     i               gpt4all-origin                1.0 kB / 61.0 MB
 2. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default                         23.08                    i               flathub                     164.3 MB / 164.6 MB
 3. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default                         23.08-extra              i               flathub                      18.5 MB / 164.6 MB
 4. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.nvidia-550-78                   1.4                      i               flathub                     307.7 MB / 307.8 MB
 5. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.VAAPI.Intel                        23.08                    i               flathub                      13.3 MB / 13.4 MB
 6. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.openh264                           2.2.0                    i               flathub                     886.7 kB / 944.3 kB
 7. [✓] org.kde.Platform.Locale                                     6.7                      i               flathub                      18.0 kB / 380.7 MB
 8. [✓] org.kde.WaylandDecoration.QAdwaitaDecorations               6.7                      i               flathub                       1.2 MB / 1.2 MB
 9. [✓] org.kde.Platform                                            6.7                      i               flathub                     259.4 MB / 326.9 MB
10. [✗] io.gpt4all.gpt4all                                          test                     i               gpt4all-origin              228.0 MB / 510.2 MB

Warning: While pulling runtime/io.gpt4all.gpt4all.Locale/x86_64/test from remote gpt4all-origin: Commit 16dbe04e4f4623e06b40bf10dbbdd8bd67246bdc6e31753e4e592f844083f08a: GPG verification enabled, but no signatures found (use gpg-verify=false in remote config to disable)
Error: While pulling app/io.gpt4all.gpt4all/x86_64/test from remote gpt4all-origin: While fetching https://dl.flathub.org/build-repo/106306/objects/fc/e978a2ccf30070652a18df44c2ee21b7db061ae9951388c1e26241f368c279.filez: Server returned HTTP 404
error: Failed to install io.gpt4all.gpt4all: While pulling app/io.gpt4all.gpt4all/x86_64/test from remote gpt4all-origin: While fetching https://dl.flathub.org/build-repo/106306/objects/fc/e978a2ccf30070652a18df44c2ee21b7db061ae9951388c1e26241f368c279.filez: Server returned HTTP 404