Not that Cozy Linux question

[sandokanski]

I did post that question on the Cozy Linux Thread, but I now suspect the question is not cozy enough, so I'll post it here. Maybe someone who avoids coziness will know the answer.

So, I do have 2 X servers running. Main desktop is on :1. What I want is to run a game via Proton on the second one, which is :2
Is that possible at all?

My Steam is flatpak bundle. It doesn't even start on :2. Even if I type:
> export DISPLAY=:2
> flatpak run com.valvesoftware.Steam

It still runs on :1

What I want is Steam running on :1 and the game running on :2, Both running on :2 is not a solution, it was my attempt to see if SOMETHING Steam related can run on :2.

typing:
> glxgears
runs it on :2, so DISPLAY was set correctly.

[DevaVictrix]

Maybe try…
xinit flatpak run com.valvesoftware.Steam -- :2

[sandokanski]

Nope...

-----
$ xinit flatpak run com.valvesoftware.Steam -- :2

/usr/lib/xorg/Xorg.wrap: Only console users are allowed to run the X server
X connection to :2 broken (explicit kill or server shutdown).
----

There is already Xserver running on :2 there is no need to start 3rd Xserver.

[DevaVictrix]

Then try removing the lock first…

rm /tmp/.X2-lock

Maybe put both in a script.

It might be flatpak permissions though.

[sandokanski]

No change in behavior after deleting the file. Still the same error.

Flatseal allows me to look at (or change) apps permissions. Nothing on Steam app. But it obviously uses org.Freedesktop. Maybe it doesn't allow me. But i can try with the non-flatpak installation of Steam.

[sandokanski]

Yep. The non-flatpak one works exactly how I expected it to work. Steam uses :1 and adding DISPLAY=:2 in the game startup options makes it run on :2.

Flatpak one is still very stubborn. I'll have to see how to inspect/change permissions for packages like org.Freedesktop.

[DevaVictrix]

It’s because a flatpak app can’t make any changes to your system. You can override things with flatseal but it goes against the point of using flatpak in the first place. Even creating a file in /home from a flatpak app needs coding into the app itself… portals.

[sandokanski]

Eh, well. it's an open issue on xdg-desktop-portal GitHub.

Apparently someone (Highlander?) thinks there must be only one.... desktop. So it was coded this way.

[DevaVictrix]

I've been refraining from asking that question... why do you need to do this?

[REGARDS]

wuw

[sandokanski]

Fullscreen games kinda interfere with my main desktop. So I recon I'll let them be fullscreen on another desktop where they can chill all by themselves.

[D. Flame]

Originally posted by DevaVictrix:

It’s because a flatpak app can’t make any changes to your system. You can override things with flatseal but it goes against the point of using flatpak in the first place. Even creating a file in /home from a flatpak app needs coding into the app itself… portals.

I don't think Flatseal goes against the idea of flatpacks. Flatpacks are supposed to be locked down to only have the permissions that they need, to sandbox them, but a lot of times, people need or want a few more permissions than the default.

Flatseal lets you give them extra access on a granular level. It still follows the principal of least access.

[DevaVictrix]

I've been building an app I'm writing recently with flatpak and from what I've experienced flatseal is a way of adding permissions that weren't set by the developer in the .build file. A lot of the time those permissions shouldn't be set in the build file by the developer anyway. There are ways around things using portals. I cheated by adding permissions to my build because I felt I had to but since realised it wasn't necessary... took 3 days though!

There's a lot of settings in flatseal and flatpak and I've only needed to look into them slightly (I avoid flatpak as much as possible) so maybe there is a use-case but ultimately your app should be built in a way you don't need to alter it with flatseal, imo. It should also be built in a way such that a lot of those settings shouldn't be added to the .build file either but I'm 99.9% sure there will be a reason for some developers.

It is least access still, definitely, but changing things shouldn't be needed. 'shouldn't' in italics!

[D. Flame]

Originally posted by DevaVictrix:

I've been building an app I'm writing recently with flatpak and from what I've experienced flatseal is a way of adding permissions that weren't set by the developer in the .build file. A lot of the time those permissions shouldn't be set in the build file by the developer anyway. There are ways around things using portals. I cheated by adding permissions to my build because I felt I had to but since realised it wasn't necessary... took 3 days though!

There's a lot of settings in flatseal and flatpak and I've only needed to look into them slightly (I avoid flatpak as much as possible) so maybe there is a use-case but ultimately your app should be built in a way you don't need to alter it with flatseal, imo. It should also be built in a way such that a lot of those settings shouldn't be added to the .build file either but I'm 99.9% sure there will be a reason for some developers.

It is least access still, definitely, but changing things shouldn't be needed. 'shouldn't' in italics!

Not really. Like typically, Steam has no reason to touch other drives. So with that in mind, it is more secure for Steam's flatpack to be denied permissions to them, but a small subsec of players prefer installing games on a secondary drive. In their case, they need to give Steam permissions to other drives with flatseal.

That follows the principal of least access. Most people don't need it, so there permission isn't there by default, and they people that do need it can obtain access. It's like cyber security 101.

[egs]

flatpak is likely to wipe environment variables, so you're likely need to override some for the package or set some parameter to pass this specific variable if possible.

[sandokanski]

Originally posted by egs:

flatpak is likely to wipe environment variables, so you're likely need to override some for the package or set some parameter to pass this specific variable if possible.

I don't want to run Steam on display :2, Just the game.
It works fine with the .deb package. It would be nice if it did work with the flatpak version, but apparently that's an open problem on GitHub since 2021. So, I don't know if it would be fixed ever.