Print-to-file from Firefox flatpak

I do a lot of print-to-file from the web using Firefox on the Silverblue 32 desktop and am currently testing the flatpak versions of Firefox (Fedora or Flathub). However print-to-file (PDF) from the flatpaks is working intermittently and I was wondering if anyone else had seen this.

I see this issue on Firefox 79 (Fedora remote) and Firefox 80 (Flathub remote). Using Flatseal I have enabled user and host filesystems, and the cups socket. To test, I bring up the print dialog in Firefox, select a file target in my local filesystem - for example my users downloads folder, and print. This sometimes works, and a PDF with the name given is created in the location selected. However most of the time the output file is sent to the tmp file system of the Firefox container, with a junk filename.

1 Like

You are not alone.
Same here.

Sorry to hear that @felipehw. I think Mozilla maintain the Flatpak on Flathub so we can see how that goes. For me, printing is the main reason I still have to reply the pre-installed RPM version of Firefox in Silverblue.

As an update, Firefox version 83.0 of the flathub flatpak still has this issue.

An additional wrinkle I noticed recently is that if you run this flatpak on the Kinoite KDE desktop, this issue does not occur. I have updated the Mozilla bug with this info and Mozilla have recently updated the bugs status to “effected”.

If it works in the Fedora flatpak and doesn’t in the Flathub flatpak, it’s most likely a problem in the underlying runtime. We don’t carry any downstream patch in the Fedora Firefox that would have an impact on this.

I agree - same logic for the KDE environment working, indicates something in the utilization of the supporting Gnome runtimes.
FYI - Mozilla have updated their status for this bug and we may get a fix. :smiley: :crossed_fingers:

It was not Mozilla, but Jan Horak, a Firefox developer from out team after I told him about the problem. :grinning:

Awsome - thanks @eischmann (for the second time today :grinning:) for giving this issue a nudge in the right direction.