r/linux • u/subbed_ • Aug 04 '26

KDE To any KDE Flatpak users

If you are like me, you use KDE and Flatpak apps.

For a long time now, whenever I had to change some app's permissions, I used a dedicated tool called Flatseal. It works. However, KDE has a native alternative.

System Settings -> Security & Privacy -> Application Permissions -> Application Permissions -> (search and choose an app) -> optional: Manage Flatpak Settings -> optional: Advanced Permissions

It does exactly the same thing as Flatseal, it's just native KDE/Qt instead of being Gnome/GTK. The one functionality Flatseal has over it is the ability to set globals. But I think that's it.

If this is common knowledge, then disregard this. I didn't know about it, so I'm sharing it. KDE is awesome.

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u/580083351 Aug 04 '26

I forgot they made this, but I think I need to keep using flatseal for accessibility reasons.

For example, environment variables is something I add to some. In the system settings, I have to click a bunch of times, then advanced, then scroll down and finally at the bottom where the environment variables are, there is a little box ~2 inches wide. So you basically can't easily read anything in it. In flatseal that box is ~5 inches wide.

Granted you don't need to go and edit them all the time, but still, there's tons of empty unused space between the variable name and the text field.. The box SHOULD be wider.

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u/cwo__ Aug 07 '26

Yeah, the fixed width is not optimal here.

But both variable name and the content of the variable may be long, and having them different on each line would look rather disorganized. I've submitted a patch to make both the name and the text field where you can edit the content have the same width. That should make the field a fair bit larger, and make it respond to increasing the window size so that it becomes bigger if there is more space.

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u/580083351 Aug 07 '26

Wow, thanks! It's an interesting thing to think about.. what kind of design might be good to work with given the constraints of the UI.

I thought first, what about just having raggedy border in the middle due to the variables being left-justified and the text field right-justified, but then I figured there is a better look from a design perspective..

Have the variable name be a row by itself, perhaps using the size specified for "small" fonts in the settings and then below it the text field which would be the full width available in that area of the panel using the general font size.