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Realthunder's Link branch Snap packages
Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2022 11:34 am
by ToniTen
I just realized that there's a Snap for RealThunder's LinkDaily branch of FreeCAD
here. I was surprised since I saw no mention of it in either this forum, or on RT's github documentation. Is this a real thing, or was it created by a 3rd party pretending to be RT?
I mean, I've got nothing against appimages, but I like the level of automatic system integration that Snaps and Flatpacks bring.
Re: Assembly3 preview
Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2022 12:19 pm
by bambuko
ToniTen wrote: ↑Mon Jan 24, 2022 11:34 am
... Is this a real thing, or was it created by a 3rd party pretending to be RT?...
Don't know, but good find!
https://github.com/realthunder/FreeCAD_ ... 1112574529
later edit:
it's official
Re: Assembly3 preview
Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2022 3:37 pm
by ToniTen
bambuko wrote: ↑Mon Jan 24, 2022 12:19 pm
it's official
And there was much rejoicing!
I've tested it, and well, it might be me, but it doesn't seem to be working properly yet. I can't get it to access local files (the open/save file dialogs do no appear). Snaps are tricky in that they are sandboxed and need to be given explicit access to any paths in the file system that they're supposed to access (and that's the limit of my knowledge), so it might be that it's not yet set up correctly to access /home. I googled and reached
this page, and tried
Code: Select all
snap connect freecad-realthunder:home :home
but it still does not open the open file dialog
Checking terminal output, I see this
Code: Select all
FreeCAD 0.20, Libs: 2022.120R14555 (Git shallow)
Adding snap-specific PYTHONPATH to sys.path: /home/axis/snap/freecad-realthunder/common/.local/lib/python3.8/site-packages:/snap/freecad-realthunder/1/lib/python3.8/site-packages:/snap/freecad-realthunder/1/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages
Fontconfig warning: "/etc/fonts/conf.avail/53-monospace-lcd-filter.conf", line 10: Having multiple values in <test> isn't supported and may not work as expected
connect failed: No such file or directory
which might or might not be relevant.
I've reached the limits of my knowledge on the black magic required to make snaps work.
BTW, I'm on ubuntu 18.04, snapd 2.53.4.
Re: Assembly3 preview
Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2022 6:33 pm
by Kunda1
Note: connect failed: No such file or directory is unrelated. It's a separate issue.
Re: Assembly3 preview
Posted: Mon Jan 24, 2022 8:22 pm
by ppd
ToniTen wrote: ↑Mon Jan 24, 2022 3:37 pm
but it still does not open the open file dialog
BTW, I'm on ubuntu 18.04, snapd 2.53.4.
Do you have xdg-desktop-portal-gtk installed (if it's Ubuntu with Gnome)? Is it running? Qt in the snap calls out to the desktop portal to show the appropriate file dialog. If it's not present, Qt does unfortunately not fall back to its native file dialog.
Re: Assembly3 preview
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2022 8:17 am
by ToniTen
ppd wrote: ↑Mon Jan 24, 2022 8:22 pm
Do you have xdg-desktop-portal-gtk installed (if it's Ubuntu with Gnome)? Is it running? Qt in the snap calls out to the desktop portal to show the appropriate file dialog. If it's not present, Qt does unfortunately not fall back to its native file dialog.
I do have other snaps (Inkscape notably), and they work, but I don't have this package. After installing it, it works! Thanks a lot!
Re: Assembly3 preview
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2022 8:41 am
by ppd
ToniTen wrote: ↑Tue Jan 25, 2022 8:17 am
I do have other snaps (Inkscape notably), and they work, but I don't have this package. After installing it, it works! Thanks a lot!
Yes, the problem is that every application can decide whether it displays the file chooser from "within" the snap, like inkscape does (note the "strange" home folder in inkscape), or whether it calls the file chooser of the host (outside the confinement), like FreeCAD.
Calling the file chooser of the host is the recommended strategy as designed by the developers of flatpaks and snaps as it is a more seamless experience. It's a bit unfortunate that there is no warning that xdg-desktop-portal-gtk is not installed. Also, it should be installed by default; maybe it wasn't for older releases.
It's all part of the sandboxing quest of desktop Linux nowadays. You can read a bit about the motivation here:
https://github.com/flatpak/xdg-desktop- ... iderations
Re: Assembly3 preview
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2022 9:01 am
by bambuko
Is it possible to have snap and apimage (of the same version of FreeCAD) on the same machine? without causing problems
i.e. I have already apimage installed - do I have to uninstall it before I try snap version?
Re: Assembly3 preview
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2022 9:27 am
by ToniTen
ppd wrote: ↑Tue Jan 25, 2022 8:41 am
Yes, the problem is that every application can decide whether it displays the file chooser from "within" the snap, like inkscape does (note the "strange" home folder in inkscape), or whether it calls the file chooser of the host (outside the confinement), like FreeCAD.
Oh, I know about the "strange" initial directories for both snaps, and appimages. There's also the issue with the GTK file chooser not showing files with improper capitalization on the extension (.STEP vs step). I much prefer the native file chooser, but it comes with some quirks.
ppd wrote: ↑Tue Jan 25, 2022 8:41 am
Calling the file chooser of the host is the recommended strategy as designed by the developers of flatpaks and snaps as it is a more seamless experience. It's a bit unfortunate that there is no warning that xdg-desktop-portal-gtk is not installed. Also, it should be installed by default; maybe it wasn't for older releases.
I understand that this is fresh out of the oven, but maybe a message on the snapcraft page would be in order?
Oh I totally get it. The day proper sandboxing and Wayland become the norm, things will be much more secure. Don't get me wrong, for distribution provided stuff, native packages are best, but for out of main repositories stuff, or for closed source stuff, sandboxing is a must. The growing pains are going to hurt though.
Re: Assembly3 preview
Posted: Tue Jan 25, 2022 9:30 am
by ToniTen
bambuko wrote: ↑Tue Jan 25, 2022 9:01 am
Is it possible to have snap and apimage (of the same version of FreeCAD) on the same machine? without causing problems
i.e. I have already apimage installed - do I have to uninstall it before I try snap version?
The Appimage is just a file in some place in your file system, which does not update itself (you can use the built in updater though, but that will create a second file). It also won't integrate itself with the rest of your system (so unless you set it manually, no file associations, etc)
The snap will install just as a regular package would, but it will be sandboxed, will bundle the needed dependencies and will update itself silently in the background (I think you can stop this but I never bothered learning how)
Both can coexist no problem