Flatpak, the widely used Linux application sandboxing and distribution framework, has officially launched its version 1.16, introducing several significant upgrades and features. This release comes after the previous version 1.14, which was released two and a half years ago.
One of the most notable enhancements in Flatpak 1.16 is the option to compile it using Meson instead of the older Autotools. The update also introduces a USB device listing feature and provides support for KDE search completion. A critical addition is the ability to create a private Wayland socket, utilizing the “security context” extension, which allows the compositor to correctly identify connections made by sandboxed applications.
This release permits the modify_ldt system call under the --allow=multiarch setting, making it possible to run certain versions of 16-bit executables within Wine. Moreover, it includes an HTTP backend variable in flatpak.pc, enabling dependent projects like GNOME Software to determine compatibility with the libflatpak library.
Additional improvements include automatic cleanup of old temporary deploy directories when an app is updated, access to evdev devices in /dev/input via a new --device=input option, and terminal emulator support for displaying Flatpak operation progress in graphical interfaces.
Flatpak 1.16 also implements a new API (flatpak_transaction_add_rebase_and_uninstall()) to better handle replacement for obsolete Flatpak applications and makes it easier to pick up extra languages configured via AccountsService. It improves how subsandboxes inherit environment variables, correcting issues with FLATPAK_GL_DRIVERS, and facilitates the removal of outdated driver versions automatically.
New environment variables have been introduced, including FLATPAK_DATA_DIR, which allows overriding the directory that Flatpak uses for configuration files, and FLATPAK_TTY_PROGRESS, which re-enables terminal progress indicators.
In terms of accessibility, Flatpak 1.16 allows applications like WebKit to connect to the AT-SPI accessibility tree in a sub-sandbox with the main process’s tree. There are also debugging enhancements, where users can view all applicable sandboxing parameters with the command flatpak run -vv $app_id.
Flatpak 1.16 is available for download from the project’s GitHub page. It is advised for users and GNU/Linux distributions to update to this version promptly.
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