Desktop Flatpak Releases#
Flatpak is a package format that targets to support every Linux distribution. We’ve made Firefox publicly available on https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.mozilla.firefox since Firefox 74.0.
Channels used#
As of September, 2020 we build and publish two flatpaks:
- mozilla-beta flatpak that is published to the Flathub beta channel. This does not
have an UI and is used by ~1K users. It’s mainly for testing purposes
- mozilla-release flatpak that is published to the Flathub stable
channel. This is the main flatpak that users get.
The flatpak store (Flathub) comes with the concept of tracks (à la Google Play Store). Release promotion automatically uploads to these tracks:
Brand name |
Track |
Notes |
|---|---|---|
Firefox |
|
Automatically shipped
from |
Firefox beta |
|
Automatically shipped
from |
Firefox Developer Edition |
N/A |
Not supported yet |
Firefox Nightly |
N/A |
Not supported yet |
Firefox ESR |
N/A |
Not supported yet |
Changes to Flatpak via web interface#
As of September 2020, the Flatpak doesn’t have a formal UI to make changes to the flatpaks via authorized credentials. Most of the applications shipped to Flathub are done so as part of the Flathub’s CI on Github. Firefox is among the very few applications that are being shipped from our automation via Flathub’s API.
For any urgent changes, Flathub administrators have leverage and can be
contacted to help. Details on how to contact them ca be found in the
private repo within the flathub-store.txt file.
## Refresh Flathub credentials#
In order to publish to both channels, we use the flatpak
scriptworker. The procedure to push is the same for both channels.
When the token expires, one needs to refresh it. Specific instructions on how
to do that lie within the flathub-store.yml in the SOPS global releng repo.