[Flatpak] Move away from debs and RPMs and instead use flatpaks and self updateable appimages.

[xplshn]

What the title says, debs and RPMs aren't needed for things such as a browser, we'd be able to reach more people using flatpak and appimages, for example, in order to install this browser in Void, I had to compile it, not really a user friendly experience

[38github]

+1 since I get errors when installing the .rpm on OpenSUSE Tumbleweed.
error: unpacking of archive failed on file /usr/share/icons/hicolor/256x256/apps/min.png;659fe83c: cpio: link failed - No data available

[NSurtsev]

We need Flatpak, Snap, AppImage + Windows Portable
Do not know other formats for Mac, but make them too.

[Tedd-Codes]

@PalmerAL wait could this work,Multi Platform Build. Electron. I dont know veer much about how Min is built but i know its electron

[Tedd-Codes]

Im going to put it on the Snap Store!

[Tedd-Codes]

Cool idea and i might be able to try to add the current version to flat-pack but it would be great!!!

[xplshn]

I recently launched a new format called .AppBundle, it works like .AppImages, but if the program you want to bundle is compiled using Musl, you can make it libc-independent, this is great, because you can have a binary that is very small and runs across all Linux-es regardless of the Libc. The only problem is that the binaries aren't mounted with fuse, but rather extracted to a temp dir. https://github.com/xplshn/pelf

[xplshn]

If you want to add the "thumbnailer" to an AppBundle, you'd do --add-binary cmd/misc/thumbgen. thumbgen is at github.com/xplshn/pelf/cmd/misc/thumbgen

And if you want to install pelfd you can do it in many ways:

1. Compile it, clone the repo, go to pelf/cmd/pelfd and run go build, then move the binary to any directory in your $PATH
2. Use go install github.com/xplshn/pelf/cmd/pelfd@master
3. Get it from bigdl, wget -qO- "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/xplshn/bigdl/master/stubdl" | sh -s -- add pelfd. This command would add pelfd to your ~/.local/bin

[xplshn]

So i could make a install script thgat would install those and the Min browser appBundle in one script. i know how to do the install min script part. Apt? Wget?

Yes, you can place a wrapper inside of your .AppBundle to handle such tasks. Check out the Examples section

But the idea of AppBundles is to be single-file executables that don't need to be installed.

[Tedd-Codes]

so i i wanted to have the appbundle have the icon thing how could i do that

[Tedd-Codes]

in a earlier post you said, The only problem is that the binaries aren't mounted with fuse, but rather extracted to a temp dir
If i use the app bundle thing do i need to do something for the fuse thing?

[xplshn]

Nope. Don't worry. Fusermount is not used because not all systems have squashfs-tools installed. This is a disadvantage compared to how AppImages work. But the advantage that this format has, is that you can make libc-independent binaries (if they were compiled from a Musl based distro).

Just read the Readme of github.com/xplshn/pelf if you aren't sure about something. It explains everything in detail.

[Tedd-Codes]

@xplshn I think the AppBundle is a awesome idea! could you make a example AppBundle with the optional packages (for icons and installing in programs folder) with the latest version on Min, if so i would like to test it out, im on a raspberry pi.

Min Files

Download Min File (for raspberry pi)

All Min Download Files (for latest verrsion)

[xplshn]

I am on Alpine Linux, which uses Musl as its libc, I am not able to run any of the releases. And I am unfamiliar with Node, when I tried to compile Min myself I ended up running out of disk space (for some reason?). Also, I am on x86_64 and don't have a Raspberry. If you are interested, try doing it yourself. It should be simple if you can already run any of the releases. You probably don't even needs scripts of any kind to generate the AppBundle.

You can uncompress the deb files and find out yourself ;)

[Tedd-Codes]

@xplshn could you walk me though the step to turn the .deb into a .appbundle. I have installed Pelf. Im not super familiar with pelf and (no offense) your doc is a little confusing.

[Tedd-Codes]

I think using the appbundle is a good idea but i still dont know how to, could you use the file attached and send me a appbundle? even if it dosnt work on your system it will work on mine.

[xplshn]

if it dosnt work on your system it will work on mine.

As I've said, you need can only create an AppImage/AppBundle if the program you are trying to package allows having its files in places other than /usr. For that you need to test and adapt min, I can't write a wrapper nor an AppRun blindly, I wanted a portable AppImage because I want to run min on Alpine Linux, but sadly the developers are only paying attention to Debian, and sometimes, RPM. A Flatpak would be great too, but a portable, MUSL based AppImage would be excellent and cover all distros if done correctly.

[Tedd-Codes]

So what file format would be BEST for apline linux

[xplshn]

The most portable would be type 2 AppImages that contain all of their dependencies inside + are executed with their ld and libc. (./ld.so ./bin/program)

[Tedd-Codes]

Ok, i am sorry i cant help you. I know nothing about linux packedges. Maybe someone else can help you. @PalmerAL I think is the creator, and im just here to help add features.