Flatpak Download Size
I Added Flatpak Support to My Ubuntu 18.04 and I'm Confused About the Package Details It's Showing Me. for Example for Gimp Package, It Shows Me It Needs to...
I added Flatpak support to my Ubuntu 18.04 and I'm confused about the package details it's showing me.
For example for GIMP package, it shows me it needs to download 1.4 GB in order to install 213 MB of the app.
For other applications (Android Studio) it wants download more than 5 GB just for one application. This is insane in my opinion.
Is this Flatpak / Ubuntu Software Center bug or just my misunderstanding?
2 Answers
You can always have a choice between official APT repositories and third-party ones and/or PPAs. For example GIMP has a PPA.
Snaps and Flatpaks need to download big runtime parts. You should learn more about them before actually using them. And you can choice - do you want to waste disk space and network traffic to use them, or not.
Some developer applications are available in Ubuntu Make.
In your particular case - GIMP needs to download GNOME runtime (runtime/) and dependencies (check flatpak org.gimp.GIMP.json for details):
$ flatpak install The application org.gimp.GIMP depends on runtimes from: Configure this as new remote 'flathub' [y/n]: y Required runtime for (runtime/) found in remote flathub Do you want to install it? [y/n]: y Installing in system: flathub 6d1d0ebbd724 flathub d757f762489e flathub 2823e3d81b74 flathub 1fcb2c783cf6 permissions: ipc, network, x11 file access: /tmp, host, xdg-config/GIMP, xdg-config/gtk-3.0 dbus access: org.gtk.vfs, org.gtk.vfs.* tags: stable Is this ok [y/n]: n
Here there is one positive moment - this runtime may be reused by other later installed FlatPaks.
Personally I prefer PPAs over Snaps and Flatpaks and install several applications from umake (for example Arduino IDE).
For now GIMP command forcing us to download also a Manual pack, which is shows 800+MB size to download...
$ flatpak install
The remote 'flathub', referred to by 'org.gimp.GIMP' at location contains additional applications.
Should the remote be kept for future installations? [Y/n]: y
Required runtime for (runtime/) found in remote flathub
Do you want to install it? [Y/n]: y
org.gimp.GIMP permissions:
ipc network x11 dri file access [1] dbus access [2]
tags [3]
[1] /tmp, host, xdg-config/GIMP, xdg-config/gtk-3.0, xdg-run/gvfs
[2] org.freedesktop.FileManager1, org.gtk.vfs, org.gtk.vfs.*
[3] stable
ID Ветка Op Удалённый репозиторий Download
1. org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default 19.08 i flathub < 89,1 MB
2. org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.nvidia-390-138 1.4 i flathub < 48,9 MB
3. org.freedesktop.Platform.VAAPI.Intel 19.08 i flathub < 8,7 MB
4. org.freedesktop.Platform.openh264 2.0 i flathub < 1,5 MB
5. org.gimp.GIMP.Manual 2.10 i flathub < 876,5 MB
6. org.gnome.Platform.Locale 3.36 i flathub < 323,1 MB (partial)
7. org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Pop-dark 3.22 i flathub < 226,0 kB
8. org.gnome.Platform 3.36 i flathub < 326,0 MB
9. org.gimp.GIMP stable i flathub < 116,3 MB
Proceed with these changes to the system installation? [Y/n]:
I was surprised and i asked about it In GIMP IRC channel, and here is what guys told me:
... actually by default, it will in fact only install the current locale. Yet it will still show the huge 800+MB value
du -sh /home/$USER/.local/share/flatpak/runtime/
64M
I tested to install GIMP flatpak and here is the download process:
ID Ветка Op Удалённый репозиторий Download
1. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default 19.08 i flathub 88,6 MB / 89,1 MB
2. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.nvidia-390-138 1.4 i flathub 48,8 MB / 48,9 MB
3. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.VAAPI.Intel 19.08 i flathub 8,6 MB / 8,7 MB
4. [✓] org.freedesktop.Platform.openh264 2.0 i flathub 1,5 MB / 1,5 MB
5. [✓] org.gimp.GIMP.Manual 2.10 i flathub 49,0 MB / 876,5 MB
6. [✓] org.gnome.Platform.Locale 3.36 i flathub 3,7 MB / 323,1 MB
7. [✓] org.gtk.Gtk3theme.Pop-dark 3.22 i flathub 226,3 kB / 226,0 kB
8. [\] org.gnome.Platform 3.36 i flathub 17,7 MB / 326,0 MB
9. [ ] org.gimp.GIMP
Thus, it seems that flatpak does not show the actual size before download start.
Robert Thorne covers electric vehicle innovations, autonomous driving systems, global mobility trends, and automotive engineering developments.
