Flatpak update failures (e.g. "needs a later flatpak version") are shown as pending updates instead of errors

Open
#1,082 0 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
55/100
Issue type
Bug
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Quiet
Tech stack
linux, python
Domain
desktop

Research direction

Start by reproducing the failed Flatpak update with the command-line error described in the issue, then trace how mintUpdate handles failed Flatpak updates and presents pending items. Done means the GUI surfaces the actual Flatpak error or exit reason instead of silently listing the app as pending again.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

FEATURE REQUEST

When a Flatpak app update fails (for example because the installed flatpak client is older than what the app requires, error: "X needs a later flatpak version"), flatpak update on the command line reports this clearly. However, mintUpdate's GUI shows no error at all — the app simply reappears as "update available" on every subsequent check/reboot, with no indication of why the update never applies.

For experienced users this is diagnosable via terminal. For non-technical users (which Mint explicitly targets) this is unsolvable and undermines trust in the update indicator.

Suggested improvement: surface the actual flatpak error/exit reason in the GUI (tooltip, notification, or Update Manager log tab) instead of just re-listing the item as pending.

Dominant language
Python
Stars
425
Forks
190
PR merge metrics
No merged PRs in 30d

Contributor guide

No contributing guide indexed for this repository

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

More from linuxmint/mintupdate

All issues in linuxmint/mintupdate

Similar issues

More Python issues

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.