Hey there guys I wanted to make a suggestion to add flatpak plugin support like Gnome Software has in Fedora for example but is missing in Pamac, the only way you can install them is to use the terminal flatpak search/install command to find and install them and there is a lot of plugins for different apps like OBS, Gimp and Steam for example.
These screenshots are from my friends Fedora 39 installation
Those packages, with the exception of Steam, already exist in the official repos (flatpak versions are not required):
[~]$ pacman -Si gimp
Repository : extra
Name : gimp
Version : 2.10.36-1
Description : GNU Image Manipulation Program
Architecture : x86_64
URL : https://www.gimp.org/
Licenses : GPL LGPL
Groups : None
Provides : None
Depends On : babl cairo fontconfig freetype2 gcc-libs gdk-pixbuf2 gegl glib2 glibc gtk2 harfbuzz hicolor-icon-theme iso-codes json-glib lcms2 libgexiv2 libmypaint libunwind mypaint-brushes1 pango zlib bzip2
libgudev libheif libjpeg-turbo libjxl libmng libpng librsvg libtiff libwebp libwmf libx11 libxcursor libxext libxfixes libxmu libxpm openexr openjpeg2 poppler-data poppler-glib xz
Optional Deps : alsa-lib: for MIDI event controller module
ghostscript: for PostScript support
gutenprint: for sophisticated printing only as gimp has built-in cups print support
gvfs: for HTTP/S support (and many other schemes)
Conflicts With : gimp-plugin-wavelet-decompose
Replaces : gimp-plugin-wavelet-decompose
Download Size : 20.12 MiB
Installed Size : 113.11 MiB
Packager : Christian Hesse <eworm@archlinux.org>
Build Date : Mon 06 Nov 2023 22:12:08
Validated By : MD5 Sum SHA-256 Sum Signature
[~]$ pacman -Si obs-studio
Repository : extra
Name : obs-studio
Version : 30.0.0-1
Description : Free, open source software for live streaming and recording
Architecture : x86_64
URL : https://obsproject.com
Licenses : GPL2
Groups : None
Provides : None
Depends On : ffmpeg jansson libxinerama libxkbcommon-x11 mbedtls rnnoise pciutils qt6-svg curl jack gtk-update-icon-cache pipewire libxcomposite
Optional Deps : libfdk-aac: FDK AAC codec support
libva-intel-driver: hardware encoding
libva-mesa-driver: hardware encoding
luajit: scripting support
python: scripting support
sndio: Sndio input client
v4l2loopback-dkms: virtual camera support
Conflicts With : None
Replaces : None
Download Size : 5.77 MiB
Installed Size : 21.65 MiB
Packager : Jonathan Steel <jsteel@archlinux.org>
Build Date : Mon 13 Nov 2023 04:59:37
Validated By : MD5 Sum SHA-256 Sum Signature
As to specific addons, my opinion is that the existing mechanisms are likely sufficient. If you know the addon(s) you want, one can always search for them via pamac or pacman, otherwise, the respective website of a particular application might be the best port of call.
I have seen an instance of Discover used only for addons (for KDE, I think); albeit not in Manjaro. Something like that might be a nice touch.
Pamac already has a flatpak feature. It’s just a separaate plugin for libpamac that neeeds to be installed, called libpamac-flatpak-plugin:
$ pamac search pamac flatpak
[...]
libpamac-flatpak-plugin 11.6.3-1 extra
Flatpak plugin for Pamac
libpamac-flatpak 11.4.1-1 AUR
Library for Pamac package manager based on libalpm - flatpak support enabled
libpamac-debug 11.6.3-1 extra
Detached debugging symbols for libpamac
$ pamac info libpamac-flatpak-plugin
Name : libpamac-flatpak-plugin
Version : 11.6.3-1
Description : Flatpak plugin for Pamac
URL : https://gitlab.manjaro.org/applications/libpamac
Licences : GPL3
Repository : extra
Installed Size : 71.6 kB
Groups : --
Depends On : flatpak libpamac
Optional Dependencies : --
Provides : libpamac-flatpak.so=11 pamac-flatpak-plugin
Replaces : pamac-flatpak-plugin
Conflicts With : --
Packager : Mark Wagie <mark@manjaro.org>
Build Date : Sat 02 Dec 2023 19:28:35
Validated By : MD5 Sum SHA-256 Sum Signature
And it already is in the extra repository, so you should be able to install it with:
y’all … they are talking about ‘add-ons’ for flatpak packages.
pamac does not support this feature.
Frankly … I’m not very familiar with it … and I cant find any equal in documentation, or on a source like flathub … so I wonder whats actually at play there.
Edit.
Doh, it is there on fltahub. Just had to look a bit harder (bottom tabs beginning with ‘Information’).
Example OBS link:
for regular repo packages that is great but it would be nice to have the plugins show up under the specific app to be easily found and for better presentation
This idea suggestion is mainly for flatpak in pamac but it would be good for consistency to have both
Well I understand a project like this being a lot of work for one person and they have done a very good job, it would be a nice have feature and just a suggestion
it doesn’t need to, the flatpak add-ons are already there but don’t have a graphical way in pamac to see them or install them which is why I made the suggestion to complete the flatpak support in Pamac
Why I suggest that it’s probably better handled by the individual application is that [in some instances] there could potentially be hundreds of addons available for any given application. One example was the Atom Text Editor (which has been retired), however, there are many apps that thrive on addons, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
What I’d be concerned about is the possible overhead for Pamac. Remember, it’s not just your favourite apps with addons to be considered; if this feature was incorporated into Pamac, it opens the door for every popular app with addons to also be incorporated into Pamac. I think that could be a nightmare from a management perspective; not to mention, from a one-man development perspective.
Also, any such feature should/would be for all applications with collections of addons, more than likely. Specifying that it be only for flatpak apps is rather pointless considering flatpak is only [technically] for packages not available in the official repos. Regrettably, ignorance of this seems rampant as more (newer) users choose flatpak before anything else; and often wonder why they have issues.
Note, this doesn’t mean I dislike the idea, but that it’s probably better addressed from the application level; and by the development teams that are most familiar with the addons available for their respective projects.
The Addons already exist on flathub so all that needs to be done is add support to list those add-ons and there wouldn’t be any overhead since it’s all applied from flathub. It wouldn’t be any different for repo packages because they also already exist in the repo, the only difference would be they would just show up under the application.
Also most applications don’t manage their own plugins are are usually just in the repo or flatpak but the feature itself is missing and would solve this problem and make pamac feature completely especially for flatpak packages. All the features does is lists the already existing flatpak or repo plugins for packages on package page for convenience that’s it.
I think you are thinking of this in terms of something like firefox addons … where these are more like ‘additional libraries provided by the software distribution framework’.
Its hard to make a comparison because there isnt an equivalent in pacman. Well … pamac has ‘software mode’ … so … yeah, its a bit like if the flatpak plugin was only working in ‘software mode’ - it will provide major packages but not their accessories.
No no I am literally referring to the feature Gnome Software has that Pamac is missing for flatpak packages or even repo packages and just listing those addon packages on the package exactly like Gnome software does
I need to have my account accepted and is pending, I do find it annoying that I already had a account and it got deleted for inactivity when it shouldn’t do that…
