[Feature request] Flatpak support

[kekonn]

I run the flatpak version of firefox, so command -v firefox returns nothing. I tried setting the setting for the executable path to flatpak run org.mozilla.firefox but that doesn't work.

What would be required to enable this kind of support?

[TriMoon]

I have no idea how flatpak apps work but...
What does which firefox give you, when typed inside a terminal?
If that doesn't give anything, then your firefox can't be located inside the environment you are running...

[kekonn]

which firefox gives me nothing, because flatpaks usually aren't registered in the environment. They are run through the flatpak command or registered as .desktop files.

But all I need to know is, why wouldn't entering the flatpak command to run firefox as a path in the settings, work?

[matteopaolucci]

I have found the flatpak executable in:
/home/<my-home>/.local/share/flatpak/app/org.mozilla.firefox/current/active/files/lib/firefox

but after a few seconds a pop-up appears sayng:
connect ECONNREFUSED::1:6000

[JaneSmith]

No progress on this?

[rugk]

I would have thought a configuration like this could use flatpak-spawn --host to spawn a command from Firefox on the host, like this:

{
  "configurations": [
    {
      "type": "firefox",
      "request": "launch",
      "reAttach": true,
      "name": "Launch add-on",
      "addonPath": "${workspaceFolder}/src",
      "firefoxExecutable": "/usr/bin/flatpak-spawn",
      "firefoxArgs": [
        "--host firefox"
      ],
    }
  ]
}

Or this using host-spawn.:

{
  "configurations": [
    {
      "type": "firefox",
      "request": "launch",
      "reAttach": true,
      "name": "Launch add-on",
      "addonPath": "${workspaceFolder}/src",
      "firefoxExecutable": "/app/bin/host-spawn",
      "firefoxArgs": [
        "--host firefox"
      ],
    }
  ]
}

And indeed it takes longer and at least finds the executable. However, it always shows a connection error and I see no firefox being started.
Also host-spawn firefox or flatpak-spawn firefox works and shows a GUI, respectively host-spawn firefox --help (same for flatpak) shows the CLI help, so it basically works.

Can I e.g. make firefoxArgs keep the original arguments? And where is the debugging output, so I can see the error/response/actual command being crafted by the console?

As for Linux, flatpak is the future, so this should really be supported. (Note: You probably can already use request = attach and then have it manually attach with the correct configuration options/Firefox Developer Edition, but yeah, spawning it automatically would be nice.

You can enable the permission for DBUS talking with org.freedesktop.Flatpak. And as for VSCodium at least, it seems to be enabled by default.

[rugk]

So, I could make it work with some tips from ChatGPT (which mostly confirmed my ideas), and some configuration in stable Firefox (if you can install Firefox Developer Edition, I would recommend that), see #393 (comment) for details/instructions how to do it.

Then I could just use the Attach mode:

{
  "configurations": [
    {
      "type": "firefox",
      "request": "attach",
      "name": "Attach to Firefox",
      "addonPath": "${workspaceFolder}/src",
      "host": "localhost",
      "port": 33835
    }
  ]
}

Launching Firefox did not work for some reason, even though I tried the "wrapper script" trick similar to GPG is possible to be used in VSCodium/flatpak: flathub/com.vscodium.codium#105 (comment)