SIL Linux Flatpak FieldWorks installation

SIL FieldWorks has been available for Linux via apt/deb software packages for Ubuntu and Wasta through version 20.04. For later versions of Ubuntu and Wasta-Linux, FieldWorks 9.0 is available via Flatpak packages. FieldWorks 9.1 is not available at this time.

The instructions below show how to enable access to the Flatpak FieldWorks package, uninstall FieldWorks apt/deb packages, and install the Flatpak FieldWorks package. Flatpak FieldWorks may work on other Linux distributions but is primarily tested on Ubuntu and Wasta.

Set up Flatpak in Ubuntu

Skip this if you are running Wasta, which already is set up for Flatpak.

How do I know if I am running Wasta or Ubuntu?

Wasta or Ubuntu?

To determine if you are using Wasta or Ubuntu, do the following.

Click Activities or Menu and launch Terminal.
Type cat /etc/wasta-release and press Enter.

If you see a few lines of output mentioning Wasta Linux, such as the following, you are running Wasta Linux and Flatpak is already set up.

$ cat /etc/wasta-release
ID=Wasta-Linux
VERSION=18.04
RELEASE=18.04
CODENAME=bionic
DESCRIPTION="Wasta-Linux 18.04.2"
BASE_ID=ubuntu
BASE_VERSION=18.04
BASE_RELEASE=18.04
BASE_CODENAME=bionic

If you see message cat: /etc/wasta-release: No such file or directory, you are not running Wasta Linux.

Ubuntu or Debian or Mint or ...?

To confirm that you are running Ubuntu and not another distribution of Linux, do the following.

Click Activities or Menu and launch Terminal.
Type lsb_release -a and press Enter

If you see a few lines of output mentioning Ubuntu, such as the following, you are running Ubuntu Linux. Note that Wasta will also identify itself as Ubuntu from this second test in the same way.

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS
Release:        18.04
Codename:       bionic

Add Flatpak to Ubuntu by doing the following.

Click Activities and launch Terminal. For each of the following commands, click the copy icon to copy the command to your clipboard, right-click in your Terminal window, click Paste, and press Enter. When prompted, type your password and press Enter.

These commands will install Flatpak and enable access to the Flathub software repository.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install flatpak

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Log out or reboot, to help your system see and use Flatpak (such as showing installed Flatpak software in your programs list).

Your system is now configured to access Flatpak packages. But you still need to install the FieldWorks Flatpak package, and uninstall the FieldWorks apt/deb packages, if applicable.

Uninstall FieldWorks apt/deb packages

If FieldWorks is already installed from packages.sil.org as an apt/deb package, uninstall it. ^Why?

If FieldWorks remains installed from both apt/deb and Flatpak, there will be multiple icons for FieldWorks in the programs list, one of which will attempt to launch FieldWorks from the apt/deb package and fail. Also, when using Flatpak FieldWorks, it will be running in a less tested system environment.

In Wasta

Uninstall FieldWorks 9.0 or 9.1 in Wasta-Linux by doing the following.

Launch Software Manager.

In Software Manager, search by entering fieldworks
In the list of software, click Fieldworks-enc-converters.

Click Remove. Click Continue. Enter your password when prompted.

Alternatively, the command line instructions for Ubuntu will also work in Wasta.

In Ubuntu

Uninstall FieldWorks 9.0 or 9.1 in Ubuntu by doing the following.

Click Activities and launch Terminal. For the following command, click the copy icon to copy the command to your clipboard, right-click in your Terminal window, click Paste, and press Enter. When prompted, type your password and press Enter.

This command will uninstall the FieldWorks apt/deb packages.

sudo apt remove fieldworks-enc-converters