I notice while doing a manual flatpak update 14 of the 20 packages updated were Nvidia drivers. They seem to be getting larger in size as each new version is released. Most are greater than 300MB’s.
Do I remove these old versions using the usual method, one at a time? Will it break the system by removing them?
Will using a command like this for each of them be okay? flatpak uninstall org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.nvidia-520-56-06?
Is there a way to remove all but the current driver with one command?
Why is it that the Nvidia drivers were installed using rpm-ostree, but flatpak is keeping them updated? Are there two different sets of drivers on the system?
Those are the runtime environments for flatpak apps that may use the nvidia drivers. I find it doubtful that anything is using drivers older than the 515 version, but it may be so, depending upon which flatpak apps you may have installed.
I think that when you remove one it will tell you if there is an app that requires that flatpak so it should be safe to start from the oldest of those and remove them one at a time as you get progressively closer to the current environment.
I may note that when I started a flatpak update it actually is installing the 525.78.01 version which was not previously there.
I also note that your list shows the GL32 versions and only 2 of the GL versions. Do you by chance have steam or any other flatpak app installed that would require those 32 bit versions.?
So what’s really happening here, is the rpm-ostree NVIDIA drivers are only being used by the CoreOS, and the Flatpaks are using their own NVIDIA driver? And each can retain a different version of the driver, causing the installation to swell to over 1 GB of NVIDIA drivers? I’m starting to think all this isolation is ridiculous. Using Flatpak, I mean. All this redundancy is getting out of hand.
I remember the old SCO Unix days, where the system was stable, and secure as could be, before the internet, and it just worked.
Now, today I’m supposed to accept 14 versions of the same video driver on my system, taking up almost 1 GB of space. That means a 78 MB package needs a 348 MB driver to function isolated on its on? What kind of damage can a music or video package do, that’s so bad it needs 500 MB of support, so my other packages don’t know what song I’m listening to?
That command flatpak uninstall --unused should not remove anything necessary. The latest version of the nvidia pak should be the only one needed since that is likely the drivers you have installed.
I just removed 4 versions with my update and installed the newest.
Unlike dnf or rpm-ostree a flatpak update only upgrades the already installed paks and installs newer ones (though it did remove 2 of 31 for me). The uninstall seems needed to remove all the unused ones.
Well, I’m going to remove all, but the current one, and I’ll see what happens. When I do a flatpak repair, it should install only what’s necessary, I hope.
What’s funny, these flatpak are so isolated now, we have to go out of our way to make the ones that need to interact with one another. Take the Shotwell package, it has a nice feature that will create a desktop-slideshow as a background using any of your photos, the flatpak can’t function even though they created a xdg-desktop channel for it to function, it still doesn’t. So I had to layer it using rpm-ostree. Then the desktop-slideshow works.
It seems only two of the old drivers were uninstalled:
ID Branch Op
1. [-] org.chromium.Chromium.Locale stable r
2. [-] org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.nvidia-520-56-06 1.4 r
3. [-] org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.nvidia-525-60-11 1.4 r
4. [-] org.freedesktop.Platform 21.08 r
5. [-] org.freedesktop.Platform.Locale 21.08 r
6. [-] org.kde.PlatformTheme.QGnomePlatform 5.15-21.08 r
7. [-] org.kde.PlatformTheme.QGnomePlatform 6.4 r
8. [-] org.kde.PlatformTheme.QtSNI 5.15-21.08 r
9. [-] org.kde.WaylandDecoration.QGnomePlatform-decoration 5.15-21.08 r
10. [-] org.kde.WaylandDecoration.QGnomePlatform-decoration 6.4 r
Uninstall complete.
I try and run a pure GNOME GTK system and remove any and everything KDE and Qt.
What does flatpak uninstall --unused return now?
What does flatpak list return now?
If you have something that requires those GL32 packages then the uninstall command should not touch them.
You can try removing them one at a time starting with the oldest and if they are required it should tell you what and why it will not uninstall the particular one named.
02:14:32 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall --unused
These runtimes in installation 'system' are pinned and won't be removed; see flatpak-pin(1):
runtime/com.valvesoftware.Steam.CompatibilityTool.Proton/x86_64/stable
runtime/org.fedoraproject.Platform/x86_64/f35
runtime/org.freedesktop.Platform.openh264/x86_64/2.3.1
Nothing unused to uninstall
03:34:31 james@HP-Z840 ~ →
03:46:25 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv --app org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-495-44
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
error: No installed refs found for ‘org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-495-44’
03:47:34 james@HP-Z840 ~ →
03:46:25 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv --app org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-495-44
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
error: No installed refs found for ‘org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-495-44’
03:47:34 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv --app org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-495-46
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
error: No installed refs found for ‘org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-495-46’
03:48:54 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv --app org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-510-47-03
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
error: No installed refs found for ‘org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-510-47-03’
03:49:25 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv --app org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-510-60-02
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
error: No installed refs found for ‘org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-510-60-02’
03:49:42 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv --app org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-510-68-02
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
error: No installed refs found for ‘org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-510-68-02’
03:50:17 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv --app org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-515-65-01
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
error: No installed refs found for ‘org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-515-65-01’
03:50:31 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv --app org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-515-76
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
error: No installed refs found for ‘org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-515-76’
03:50:44 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv --app org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-520-56-06
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
error: No installed refs found for ‘org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-520-56-06’
03:51:01 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv --app org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-525-60-11
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
error: No installed refs found for ‘org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-525-60-11’
03:51:17 james@HP-Z840 ~ →
Try it without the --app. That may be an error since the platform driver was not directly installed. I don’t have a system where I can test that command.
04:11:58 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-495-44
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
Info: applications using the extension org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-495-44 branch 1.4:
com.valvesoftware.Steam
Really remove? [y/n]: n
04:12:28 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-495-46
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
Info: applications using the extension org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-495-46 branch 1.4:
com.valvesoftware.Steam
Really remove? [y/n]: n
04:12:41 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-510-47-03
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
Info: applications using the extension org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-510-47-03 branch 1.4:
com.valvesoftware.Steam
Really remove? [y/n]: n
04:13:07 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-510-68-02
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
Info: applications using the extension org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-510-68-02 branch 1.4:
com.valvesoftware.Steam
Really remove? [y/n]: n
04:13:41 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-515-65-01
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
Info: applications using the extension org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-515-65-01 branch 1.4:
com.valvesoftware.Steam
Really remove? [y/n]: n
04:14:05 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-515-76
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
Info: applications using the extension org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-515-76 branch 1.4:
com.valvesoftware.Steam
Really remove? [y/n]: n
04:14:25 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-520-56-06
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
Info: applications using the extension org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-520-56-06 branch 1.4:
com.valvesoftware.Steam
Really remove? [y/n]: n
04:15:08 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-525-60-11
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
Info: applications using the extension org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-525-60-11 branch 1.4:
com.valvesoftware.Steam
Really remove? [y/n]: n
04:15:32 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-510-60-02
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
Info: applications using the extension org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-510-60-02 branch 1.4:
com.valvesoftware.Steam
Really remove? [y/n]: n
04:16:02 james@HP-Z840 ~ → flatpak uninstall -vv org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-520-56-06
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Opening system flatpak installation at path /var/lib/flatpak
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /var/home/james/.local/share/flatpak
Info: applications using the extension org.freedesktop.Platform.GL32.nvidia-520-56-06 branch 1.4:
com.valvesoftware.Steam
Really remove? [y/n]: n
04:16:47 james@HP-Z840 ~ →
I disagree. They were initially called for by steam and are still linked as such, but steam now uses the one for the currently installed driver so the older ones could be removed.
That does clearly show why they are not ‘unused’, but in this case since the actual drivers are long gone can still be removed.
How did you install steam.?
Flatpak or RPM?
I installed steam on my system as an RPM from rpmfusion and it did not pull in those GL32 packages for nvidia.
Just recently I removed 4 similar packages (older versions) that claimed they were linked to 4 different apps. Removing them did not break any of the apps since the current versioned one was already installed.
