I need to pass some flags to run Google Chrome. However its .desktop file has Exec=flatpak instead of Exec=google-chrome. It does mention command=/app/bin/chrome, but I don’t see where the /app directory is?
/app is located inside the flatpak container, so you won’t see it using dolphin or the host terminal. When installing something using discover it is installed as a flatpak on kinoite.
Adding flags to the chrome flatpak is possible by creating a config file with the flags located in ~/.var/app/com.google.Chrome/config/chrome-flags.conf. This is better than editing the .desktop file because it doesn’t get overwritten by updates. Navigate to this path using dolphin and create a new chrome-flags.conf. Then add your flags to this file with every flag on a new line. Here is my chrome-flags.conf file as example:
--enable-features=TouchpadOverscrollHistoryNavigation
--disable-features=WaylandFractionalScaleV1
--ozone-platform=wayland
Then restart chrome to apply the flags. Note that the sandox of the chrome/chromium flatpak isn’t proven to be secure by the chrome team, so you might want to consider installing the rpm instead.
2 Likes
Thanks for the detailed info. And it’s helpful to learn about the sandbox issue. Is there a list of apps that is recommended to be installed using rpm-ostree instead of flatpak?
For as far as I am aware only the chromium based browsers. Electron apps use the same unverified sandbox modifications but it isn’t really a problem there because an app doesn’t need to isolate websites from each other. Isolating the app from the host is something flatpak can do fine when the permissions are properly set.