I’ve been running KDE Linux for a couple of weeks with good results. I want to install 1password and have done so with a flatpak, but the flatpak version has limitations, (no system authentication, e.g.) so I tried to install it in my home folder. I get the following message which I do not fully understand.
[marcm@FW16kde ~]$ cd .config/1password-8.11.10.x64/
[marcm@FW16kde 1password-8.11.10.x64]$ sudo ./after-install.sh
[sudo] password for marcm:
install: cannot create regular file ‘/usr/share/polkit-1/actions/com.1password.1Password.policy’: Read-only fi
le system
[marcm@FW16kde 1password-8.11.10.x64]$
Is access to this file restricted in the alpha version or does this mean the user is restricted to software in Discover, flatpaks, snaps and appimages? If so, is there anyway to allow user app installation that is isolated to the user’s space and does not attempt to change sysem files and libraries?
In any case KDE Linux is an immutable distribution which means that /usr is read-only. You can’t put files in there.
An app manually installed in your home directory should preferably use ~/.local/share/ or if it is insistent for system resources you can still put stuff in /usr/local/ as long as you have your PATH set up to include it. I’m not sure about 1password since I don’t use it but it would be worth a shot to put what it wants in one of the local directories instead (might have to alter the script) or search how to install it on an immutable distro if there’s any special considerations it needs.
/usr and everything under it is immutable in KDE Linux; you can’t change it or install things into it.
There’s one option here: use a systemd extension to overlay your files on top of the immutable /usr. Keep in mind that this is technical and risky; you could break things.
We have some documentation for how to do this at KDE Linux - KDE Community Wiki. However that assumes that you’ll be installing the files to a location in your home folder somewhere, and then they’ll appear in the overlay on top of /usr. If you need to actually install things into /usr directly (i.e. because an installation script wants to put things there) then you’ll have to create the systemd overlay in mutable mode. I actually don’t know how to do that, though I know it’s possible.
If you want to proceed, this will be an adventure. Good luck! Let us know how it goes. If you manage to get it all working, it could be a good thing to document for others at KDE Linux - KDE Community Wiki.
Thanks for all the replies. I created an opt folder in my home directory and installed it there. I looked at the post intallation script and it looked as if I could ignore most of it (it’s trying to determine if the implementation uses .deb or .rpm files. I created a shortcut to run it out of my opt folder and it seems to be working. I haven’t tried to integrate it with the FireFox add-on yet so I am not sure if it is a better way to go than the flatpak, but I’ll play with it and see if this is a way to install user apps in an immutable distro.
Sadly, it is not a workaround for 1Password. Fingerprint login does not work and there is no communication with the firefox extension. I appreciate the advantages of an immutable distro, but losing long-standing application features is very dissapointing. The developers should consider allowing some form of isolated system installation for apps like 1Password.
Good luck! Let us know how it goes. If you manage to get it all working, it could be a good thing to document for others at