{"id":35793,"date":"2021-11-22T16:15:38","date_gmt":"2021-11-22T16:15:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/?p=35793"},"modified":"2025-05-15T13:22:35","modified_gmt":"2025-05-15T13:22:35","slug":"flatseal-change-flatpak-app-permissions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/2021\/11\/flatseal-change-flatpak-app-permissions\/","title":{"rendered":"Flatseal &#8211; Modern GNOME App to Change Flatpak App Permissions in Linux"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatseal-icon.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-thumbnail wp-image-35794\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatseal-icon-250x250.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"250\" height=\"250\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatseal-icon-250x250.webp 250w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatseal-icon-300x300.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatseal-icon-600x600.webp 600w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatseal-icon-768x768.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatseal-icon.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 250px) 100vw, 250px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>More and more apps today publish Linux packages through Flatpak file format. Though, the run-time libraries take hundreds of megabytes disk space, many apps are really good and useful.<\/p>\n<p>If you have apps installed as Flatpak packages in Ubuntu or other Linux like me, then <a href=\"https:\/\/github.com\/tchx84\/flatseal\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Flatseal<\/a> may be useful to <i>protect your privacy<\/i> by managing permissions in both global and per app basis.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatseal-light.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-48920\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatseal-light-700x441.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"384\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatseal-light-700x441.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatseal-light-300x189.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatseal-light-768x484.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatseal-light.webp 1237w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Flatseal is a stylish GNOME app that displays <i>all the installed<\/i> Flatpak apps in the left pane. By selecting an app, it displays the basic information as well as permissions with toggle buttons. The app has an adaptive UI that works great on small screen size, e.g., Linux Phone.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatseal-narrow.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-48921\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatseal-narrow.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"482\" height=\"689\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatseal-narrow.webp 482w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatseal-narrow-210x300.webp 210w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 482px) 100vw, 482px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>With Flatseal, you may configure following permissions for your Flatpak apps:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><b>Network access.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Sound server access.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>GPU acceleration<\/b> to reduce CPU usage.<\/li>\n<li><b>System file or user file access.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Send notifications.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>System bus and session bus.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><b>Print system, smart card, webcam, bluetooth access, and more.<\/b><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Note: some options (e.g., inter-process communications and X11\/Wayland windowing system) may be required for the app to work. Switching those options off may cause function issues, though you may reset them easily afterwards.<\/p>\n<p>As some options are not easy to understand, you may press <b>F1<\/b> on keyboard to bring up the &#8216;<b>help<\/b>&#8216; window, which contains the descriptions for each toggle option. And, if permissions are removed and somehow no longer possible to reset, run command below (<i>press Ctrl+Alt+T in Ubuntu to open terminal<\/i>) to clear the changes and restart Flatseal.<\/p>\n<pre>rm ~\/.local\/share\/flatpak\/overrides\/com.github.tchx84.Flatseal<\/pre>\n<h3>How to install Flatseal in Ubuntu Linux:<\/h3>\n<p>The app itself is available to install as Flatpak package. To try it out, you must have already installed some apps as Flatpak. If not, you need to <a href=\"https:\/\/flatpak.org\/setup\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">install the daemon<\/a> first. For Ubuntu\/Debian based systems, simply open terminal and run command:<\/p>\n<pre>sudo apt install flatpak<\/pre>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/apt-flatpak-noble.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-45732\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/apt-flatpak-noble-700x501.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"437\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/apt-flatpak-noble-700x501.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/apt-flatpak-noble-300x215.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/apt-flatpak-noble-768x550.webp 768w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/apt-flatpak-noble.webp 786w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Next, install the Flatseal by running command in terminal:<\/p>\n<pre>flatpak install https:\/\/dl.flathub.org\/repo\/appstream\/com.github.tchx84.Flatseal.flatpakref<\/pre>\n<p>Or use the command below if you already added the Flathub repository:<\/p>\n<pre>flatpak install flathub com.github.tchx84.Flatseal<\/pre>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatpak-flatseal-noble.webp\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-48923\" src=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatpak-flatseal-noble-700x528.webp\" alt=\"\" width=\"610\" height=\"460\" srcset=\"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatpak-flatseal-noble-700x528.webp 700w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatpak-flatseal-noble-300x226.webp 300w, https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/flatpak-flatseal-noble.webp 706w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 610px) 100vw, 610px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>As you see in picture, the app itself is about <b>683 KB<\/b>, while run-time libraries take more than <b>700 MB<\/b>. The run-times (e.g., GNOME platform) are shared libraries though that can be used for other Flatpak apps.<\/p>\n<h3>Uninstall Flatseal:<\/h3>\n<p>To remove the app, simply run command in terminal:<\/p>\n<pre>flatpak uninstall --delete-data com.github.tchx84.Flatseal<\/pre>\n<p>Note: removing Flatseal won&#8217;t reset the permission changes you made for the flatpak apps. You have to manually clear the config files under &#8220;~\/.local\/share\/flatpak\/overrides&#8221; directory to restore them.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>More and more apps today publish Linux packages through Flatpak file format. Though, the run-time libraries take hundreds of megabytes disk space, many apps are really good and useful. If you have apps installed as Flatpak packages in Ubuntu or other Linux like me, then Flatseal may be useful to protect your privacy by managing [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":35794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1472],"class_list":["post-35793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-howtos","tag-flatpak"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35793\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ubuntuhandbook.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}