I am trying to install Sober using the methods on the site. Using the recommended installation command (flatpak install --user https://sober.vinegarhq.org/sober.flatpakref) results in a 403 error. Most other users have been able to install it without a problem. Strangely, I was able to easily install it on another distro on the same computer. Another user in the Sober Discord server was able to verify that this issue also only happened on their NixOS install and worked fine on EndeavourOS.
Does anybody have any ideas as to what this issue could be?
403? That’s forbidden. Sounds like a networking issue. Can I see the error, please?
Not OP, however I am encountering the same error. The full error is, however, not very helpful:
flatpak install --user https://sober.vinegarhq.org/sober.flatpakref
error: Can't load uri https://sober.vinegarhq.org/sober.flatpakref: Server returned status 403
Downloading the .flatpakref on their website and using that returns a different error:
flatpak install --user sober.flatpakref
error: No such ref 'app/org.vinegarhq.Sober/x86_64/master' in remote sober-origin
The sober github also has 2 github issues with the same error messages, but they’re both closed and not very helpful:
https://github.com/vinegarhq/sober/issues/110
https://github.com/vinegarhq/sober/issues/70
Yeah, I haven’t found a way to get flatpak to output any more helpful info.
The error from installing the flatpakref is essentially caused by the same thing. It’s adding the repo through the file, then seemingly hitting a 403 when trying to access the repo.
Yep, here’s some detailed output.
nu ➜ flatpak install -vv --user https://sober.vinegarhq.org/sober.flatpakref
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /home/quasi/.local/share/flatpak
F: Loading https://sober.vinegarhq.org/sober.flatpakref using curl
error: Can't load uri https://sober.vinegarhq.org/sober.flatpakref: Server returned status 403
nu ➜ flatpak install -vv --user ./Sober.flatpakref
F: Opening user flatpak installation at path /home/quasi/.local/share/flatpak
F: No installations directory in /etc/flatpak/installations.d. Skipping
F: Loading https://dl.flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo using curl
F: Received 4040 bytes
The remote 'sober', referred to by 'org.vinegarhq.Sober' at location https://sober.vinegarhq.org/repo/ contains additional applications.
Should the remote be kept for future installations? [Y/n]:
F: Imported 1 GPG key to remote "sober"
F: Clearing cached summaries for remote sober
F: Fetching summary index file for remote ‘sober’
F: Loading https://sober.vinegarhq.org/repo/summary.idx using curl
F: Fetching summary file for remote ‘sober’
F: Failed to download optional summary: GPG verification enabled, but no summary found (check that the configured URL in remote config is correct)
F: Transaction: install sober:app/org.vinegarhq.Sober/x86_64/master[*]
error: No such ref 'app/org.vinegarhq.Sober/x86_64/master' in remote sober
It does appear to be simply a network error, but I’m unsure how it could be happening. I’ve tested the install through VMs of multiple distros without problem, and the issue seems to be specifically effecting NixOS users.
Sounds like a fingerprinting issue where NixOS happens to get on the wrong side of Cloudflare.
I was thinking about that. When I have some time I’ll try to look at the request and see what it looks like compared to other distros. Maybe I could contact Cloudflare support, but I don’t have high hopes 
Is there any solution to this?
You could probably launch an arch linux live iso, quickly download flatpak from pacman, pull the files, then copy them over to your drive and manually build a derivation using those files.