Flatpak: Repo that exists isn't found when installing

[mairin]

Linux distribution and version

fedora-release-28-2.noarch
kernel 4.17.3-200.fc28.x86_64

Flatpak version

flatpak.x86_64 1.0.2-1.fc28

Description of the problem

I went on a binge removing apps that were installed system-wide to reinstall them to move them to --user (running out of disk on /).

When I hit the Nuvola apps I hit a curious thing - I was able to remove them, but when I went to reinstall them, I got an error saying "Remote 'nuvola' not found" despite nuvola showing up in the list of remotes. I tried removing the nuvola remote and adding it back, but it didn't seem to make a difference.

GNOME Software is able to install the Nuvola app of interest without issue, but of course it installs it to system rather than user.

Steps to reproduce

flatpak remote-delete nuvola
flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists nuvola https://dl.tiliado.eu/flatpak/nuvola.flatpakrepo
duffy  ~  flatpak remotes
Name                         Options           
flathub                      user              
sparkleshare                 user,no-gpg-verify
org.inkscape.Inkscape-origin user,no-enumerate 
flathub                      system            
gnome                        system            
gnome-apps-nightly           system            
gnome-nightly                system            
nuvola                       system   
 duffy  ~  flatpak install --user nuvola eu.tiliado.Nuvola
error: Remote "nuvola" not found
 duffy  ~  1  flatpak install --user nuvola eu.tiliado.NuvolaAppTunein
error: Remote "nuvola" not found

[matthiasclasen]

Did you try

flatpak remote-add --user nuvola ... ?

I suspect that the remote you added and removed was on the system installation, but then you user --user when installing the app. The lists of remotes for the system and user installation are separate.

[matthiasclasen]

Admittedly, the error messages could be more helpful here

[matthiasclasen]

Ideas:

• add a --all to remote-add to add a remote to all installations at once
• offer to copy remotes from one installation to the other
• recognize this situation and ask a helpful question: I noticed that there is a flathub remote in the system installation. Did you mean "flatpak install --system" ?

[mairin]

Hi @matthiasclasen i feel silly now, I didnt realize there could be system remotes a user couldnt access! It makes sense in the reverse (a user installed remote not available to system) but I guess I think about system things being common resources so I didnt think itd be unavailable for user installs.

I had over 12 flatpaks I had to move not including the freedesktop and gnome platform ones so a command that offered to move them between system and user would be awesome!

I think the -all option would be very helpful if the user knew remotes were one or the other.

I think the last suggestion might be problematic in that the user specifically requested non default behavior with the --user flag and it would offer default behavior. So it might not be as helpful?

FWIW! Thanks for pointing out where I went wrong!!

[matthiasclasen]

No need to feel silly. The user/system split has been the most problematic part of the flatpak UX over the years. We've added some do-what-i-mean style convenience in most places, but evidently not here.