This material is work-in-progress ...

More documentation and testing is needed, but everything currently here should be safe to follow.
(Last edited by User4708 on 3 Jan 2023.)

Flatpak is a technology for building and distributing applications with the goal of having a universal package format for all Linux distributons, it is similar to Snap,

Setup / Installation

From: https://flatpak.org/setup/Alpine/

Note: To install Flatpak you will need to enable the Community repository, See: Repositories - Managing repositories

To install Flatpak run:

# apk add flatpak

It's recommended to run flatpak as your user, rather than as root. Therefore, add your user to the flatpak group:

# adduser <YourUsername> flatpak

Next you need to add a repository, for this guide we will use the recommended repository, Flathub.

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

Now reboot to complete setup

Note: graphical installation of Flatpak apps may not be possible with Alpine.

Usage

To get all of the available options to use with the flatpak command run: flatpak --help or flatpak -h,

Search

To search for applications run flatpak search <appplicationname>

Example:

Contents of flatpak search chromium

Name                   Description                                                        Application ID                        Version       Branch  Remotes
Chromium Web Browser   The web browser from Chromium project                              org.chromium.Chromium                 96.0.4664.93  stable  flathub
Chromium B.S.U.        Fast paced, arcade-style, top-scrolling space shooter              net.sourceforge.chromium-bsu          0.9.16.1      stable  flathub
ungoogled-chromium     A lightweight approach to removing Google web service dependency   com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium  96.0.4664.45  stable  flathub

Install

To install a package run flatpak install <applicationname>

Contents of $ flatpak install com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium

Looking for matches…

com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium permissions:
    ipc             network                 cups                   pulseaudio               wayland                       x11
    devices         file access [1]         dbus access [2]        bus ownership [3]        system dbus access [4]

    [1] /run/.heim_org.h5l.kcm-socket, home, xdg-run/pipewire-0
    [2] org.freedesktop.FileManager1, org.freedesktop.Notifications, org.freedesktop.secrets, org.gnome.SessionManager
    [3] org.mpris.MediaPlayer2.chromium.*
    [4] org.freedesktop.Avahi, org.freedesktop.UPower


        ID                                                      Branch             Op            Remote             Download
 1.     com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium.Codecs             stable             i             flathub              < 1.1 MB
 2.     com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium.Locale             stable             i             flathub            < 112.8 kB
 3.     com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium                    stable             i             flathub            < 119.0 MB

Proceed with these changes to the system installation? [Y/n]:

or if you dont know or dont want to type the exact package name:

Contents of $ flatpak install chromium

Looking for matches…
Similar refs found for ‘chromium’ in remote ‘flathub’ (system):

   1) app/net.sourceforge.chromium-bsu/x86_64/stable
   2) runtime/com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium.Codecs/x86_64/stable
   3) runtime/org.chromium.Chromium.Codecs/x86_64/stable
   4) app/org.chromium.Chromium/x86_64/stable
   5) app/com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium/x86_64/stable

Which do you want to use (0 to abort)? [0-5]:

Remove

To remove a package run: flatpak remove <applicationname>

Contents of $ flatpak remove com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium

        ID                                                     Branch           Op
 1.     com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium                   stable           r
 2.     com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium.Codecs            stable           r
 3.     com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium.Locale            stable           r

Proceed with these changes to the system installation? [Y/n]:

or if you dont know or dont want to type the exact package name:

Contents of $ flatpak remove chromium

Similar installed refs found for ‘chromium’:

   1) app/com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium/x86_64/stable (system)
   2) runtime/com.github.Eloston.UngoogledChromium.Codecs/x86_64/stable (system)
   3) All of the above

Which do you want to use (0 to abort)? [0-3]:

Developers

Flatpak - available runtimes

These are all hosted on Flathub.org.

Troubleshooting

Permission errors

If you receive errors about permissions then you may need to add your user to the flatpak group, See step two of Setup / Installation.

Note: You may need to log out and log back in or reboot for the group change(s) to take effect

Fixing audio issues

If you have a minimal setup and don't have access to audio devices you will need to set the XDG_RUNTIME_DIR variable. Save the following script in /etc/profile.d/xdg_runtime_dir.sh and re-login to have it set up properly.

if test -z "${XDG_RUNTIME_DIR}"; then
  export XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=/tmp/$(id -u)
fi

When you launch a Flatpak you will need to start pulseaudio as well:

pulseaudio --start && flatpak run com.example.Example

Flatpak