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Enable Flatpak & AppImage Support in Ubuntu 24.04

Last updated: May 4, 2024 — 6 Comments

This simple tutorial is going to show you how to add both flatpak and AppImage package format support, while Ubuntu does not support them out-of-the-box.

Like Snap, Flatpak is an universal Linux package format runs in sandbox. Many software developers provide their app packages for Linux through Flatpak. And, AppImage is a portable Linux package format. Just download the package, and click ‘Run’ (after adding executable permission) will launch the program.

Enable Flatpak Support in Ubuntu

Ubuntu is focusing on the native deb and snap support. The developer team has officially announced that they won’t support Flatpak out-of-the-box.

However, user has the freedom of choice to use any other source sources, including Flatpak.

1. To enable Flatpak support, first press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open terminal, and run command:

sudo apt install flatpak

Type user password (no asterisk feedback) when it asks and hit Enter. In case the command does not work, run sudo apt update first to update package index.

2. (Optional) Then, you can choose to add the Flathub repository, the standard repository that contains tons of applications as Flatpak. To do so, run command:

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

When done, log out and back in to apply the variable environment change.

3. Finally, you can either go to flathub.org and install any Flatpak application, by running the flatpak install command in the down-arrow menu beside “Install” button.

Or, install a local .flatpak (or .flatpakref) file by running command:

flatpak install ~/Downloads/file_name_here.flatpak

Enable AppImage Support in Ubuntu

AppImage is a non-install package format for Linux. Like some .exe or .msi files, user can directly click run .AppImage file to launch applications. Though, the ‘allow executing file as program’ option has to be enabled first in file ‘Properties’ dialog.

Ubuntu does NOT support AppImage out-of-the-box, due to switch to fuse3, while the file format requires the classic fuse2.

So enable AppImage is also easy. Just open terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and run command to install the fuse2 library:

sudo apt install libfuse2

After that, right-click on your AppImage file and click ‘Run’ to launch the application after enabled ‘allow executing file as program’ and enjoy!

In Howtos ,
 

‘AppImage Pool’ – Software Center for Linux Apps as AppImage Packages

Last updated: February 24, 2022

Prefer running Linux apps via AppImage package format? ‘AppImage Pool’ is an app center for searching and downloading your favorite apps as AppImage.

More and more apps today publish Linux packages via universal Flatpak, Snap and AppImage. The former two are easy to install since they are well integrated in Ubuntu or other Linux. But, AppImage is a non-install portable package. It uses one file per application. Just run the file will launch the app.

To make it easy to find out and download an app as AppImage, the free libre and open-source software ‘AppImage Pool’ is created as a simple, modern AppImageHub client.

AppImage Pool

The tool uses Google’s flutter to provide a Gnome Software and Ubuntu Software look like user interface, allows user to browser, search for, and download AppImage packages. Though, it so far has sharp window borders that looks not native in GNOME.

Instead of using ‘Install‘ option, each app has a blue ‘Download‘ button. By clicking on it will pop up the dialog to choose package to download. Not only the latest, history packages are also available. And, it downloads from github directly, no extra-server involved

Downloaded packages are listed under ‘Installed‘ tab, with ability to click to launch app as well as delete buttons.

Other features include:

  • Dark / Light mode.
  • Store files by default in ‘Applications‘ folder in user home.
  • Multi download support.

How to Install AppImage Pool:

The app itself is available as AppImage package, which can be downloaded from the GitHub releases page (via Assets section):

Download AppImage Pool

It’s also available as universal Flatpak package. Ubuntu user may firstly press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal and run command to install Flatpak daemon:

sudo apt install flatpak

Then install the tool via command:

flatpak install https://dl.flathub.org/repo/appstream/io.github.prateekmedia.appimagepool.flatpakref

Uninstall AppImage Pool:

For the Flatpak package, run the command below in terminal to remove it:

flatpak uninstall --delete-data io.github.prateekmedia.appimagepool

And clear useless library via flatpak uninstall --unused.

In Howtos
 

Appnativefy – Turn Any Website into Single Executable Appimage

Last updated: February 23, 2021

Want to create web apps into the portable Appimage package format? Appnativefy is a simple tool to do the job.

Appnativefy is a simple command line tool to make executable AppImage files from any website, it uses the Nativefier API in the backend, with AppImageKIt.

Appimage is an universal Linux package format. Different to other packages, you don’t need to install it. Just make it executable and run to launch program!

How to use appnativefy:

With Appnativefy, you can run a simple command to turn a website into single executable Appimage:

appnativefy --name "TYPE_PACKAGE_NAME" --url "URL_ADDRESS"

For instance, you can make youtube.com into appimage via command:

appnativefy --name "YouTube" --url "https://youtube.com"

You can add more flags at the end of the command to enable more options, for instance:

  • --services enables to sign-in using services such as Microsoft 365 and Google.
  • --favicon forces to use the favicon of the site while making the AppImage.
  • --widevine adds Widevine support to enable playing DRM enabled content.
  • For more, run appnativefy -h

For example, run below command will create appimage for Spotify with Widevine support, sign-in services enabled, and using the favicon.

appnativefy --name "Spotify" --url "https://open.spotify.com" --services --widevine --favicon

The app will create an appnativefy folder in users home directory that contains all generated Appimage packages.

How to install Appnativefy:

The software is available as a NPM package. To install it, firstly open terminal and run command to install dependencies:

sudo apt install nodejs npm wget

Then install the tool via npm command:

sudo npm install -g appnativefy

How to Remove Appnativefy:

To remove the command line tool, simply run command:

sudo npm uninstall -g appnativefy

If you don’t use nodejs and npm, remove them to free up a few dozens of MB disk space:

sudo apt purge --auto-remove nodejs npm
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