Flatpak in 23.05 # error: The name org.freedesktop.Flatpak.SystemHelper was not provided by any .service files

Help
1
  • system: "x86_64-linux"
  • host os: Linux 6.1.34, NixOS, 23.05 (Stoat), 23.05.1092.c7ff1b9b956
  • multi-user?: yes
  • sandbox: yes
  • version: nix-env (Nix) 2.13.3
  • channels(root): "nixgl, nixos-23.05, nixos-hardware"
  • channels(usera): ""
  • nixpkgs: /nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos

https://nixos.wiki/wiki/Flatpak

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
error: The name org.freedesktop.Flatpak.SystemHelper was not provided by any .service files

flatpak remotes
error: While opening repository /var/lib/flatpak/repo: opening repo: opendir(/var/lib/flatpak/repo): No such file or directory
2

Well how does your config look like?

I’ve set up mine like this and it still works on 23.05:

3 
services.flatpak.enable = true;
users.users.a = { packages = with pkgs; [ flatpak gnome.gnome-software ]; };

  xdg = {
    portal = {

    enable = true ;
    xdgOpenUsePortal = true ;
    extraPortals = ( with pkgs;  [
      libsForQt5.xdg-desktop-portal-kde
      xdg-desktop-portal
      xdg-desktop-portal-gtk
     ] ) ; 
    };
  };

(it was working fine before the upgrade to 23.05 in 22.11)

4

Yeah looks good to me, maybe systemctl status flatpak-system-helper.service shows something?

Or maybe flatpak repair helps:

5 
flatpak --version
Flatpak 1.14.4

systemctl status flatpak-system-helper.service
Unit flatpak-system-helper.service could not be found.
6

Something is quite broken on your end you should see this:

~ ❯ systemctl status flatpak-system-helper.service
○ flatpak-system-helper.service - flatpak system helper
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/flatpak-system-helper.service; linked; preset: enabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)
~ ❯

Maybe try to comment out the config, rebuild, add the config again and rebuild again?
Other than that I’m out of ideas.

7

Having the same issue. The full error report is:

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

Note that the directories 

'/var/lib/flatpak/exports/share'
'/home/zmrocze/.local/share/flatpak/exports/share'

are not in the search path set by the XDG_DATA_DIRS environment variable, so
applications installed by Flatpak may not appear on your desktop until the
session is restarted.

error: The name org.freedesktop.Flatpak.SystemHelper was not provided by any .service files

and similarly no systemd service

❯ systemctl status flatpak-system-helper.service
Unit flatpak-system-helper.service could not be found.

omg…

8

looks like going into 23.05 or earlier some service was added to flatpak/removed from nixos module and that service is now not spawned by systemd