| Reading time: | 10 min |
| Last updated: | 20 Apr 2026 |
| Reading time: |
| 10 min |
| Last updated: |
| 20 Apr 2026 |
This guide shows you how to install and use the tool with the most common configuration. For advanced options and complete reference information, see the official documentation. Some install guides also include optional next steps to help you explore related workflows or integrations.
Flatpak is a framework for distributing Linux applications. It provides distribution-agnostic packaging and a sandboxed runtime, so the same application bundle runs on Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, and openSUSE without repackaging. Flathub is the primary community-maintained repository of Flatpak applications, many of which publish native Arm builds.
Each Flatpak application runs inside an isolated environment built on three Linux kernel features: namespaces, secure computing mode (seccomp), and control groups (cgroups). Namespaces give the application its own view of the filesystem, network, and process tree. Seccomp filters restrict the system calls the application can make. Together, these mechanisms prevent an application from reading files outside its sandbox or interfering with other processes on the host.
The sandbox is implemented by
bubblewrap
, a low-level sandboxing tool that Flatpak calls at launch time. Applications declare the permissions they need, such as access to the home directory, the network, or audio devices, in a manifest. You can inspect and override these permissions using flatpak override.
A Flatpak application is distributed as an OSTree commit, a content-addressed filesystem tree stored in a local repository. When you install an application, Flatpak fetches only the changed objects from the remote, similar to how Git fetches commits. This makes updates efficient even for large applications.
Applications either bundle their own libraries directly or declare runtime dependencies, such as org.freedesktop.Platform or org.gnome.Platform. The runtime provides a consistent base set of libraries, such as libc and GTK. Multiple applications can share these libraries on disk, reducing total storage. The application and its runtime are kept separate from the host system libraries, which means you don’t need to resolve conflicts.
For Arm developers, the key advantage is that Flatpak applications can publish separate builds for x86_64 and aarch64 under the same application ID. Flatpak selects the correct architecture automatically at install time.
Linux package managers such as apt, dnf, and pacman are tightly coupled to the distribution release cycle. An application packaged for Ubuntu 24.04 may lag the upstream version, and some applications aren’t packaged for every Linux distribution. Flatpak addresses this by letting upstream developers publish and maintain their own builds directly on Flathub. This allows you to get the current release of an application on any supported Linux distribution.
A Flatpak application bundles its own libraries or pins a specific runtime version. As a result, installing or updating a Flatpak application can’t conflict with host system libraries or break other packages. A distro upgrade won’t silently change the libraries an application links against. This also means you can run two different applications that require incompatible versions of the same library side by side without issues.
The following instructions cover installing Flatpak on Arm Linux (aarch64), adding the Flathub remote, and verifying the installation by installing and running VSCodium.
Confirm your system is running a 64-bit Arm Linux distribution:
uname -m
The output is similar to:
aarch64
The installation steps depend on your Linux distribution.
Update your package lists and install Flatpak:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install -y flatpak
Install Flatpak using DNF:
sudo dnf install -y flatpak
Sync the package database and install Flatpak:
sudo pacman -S --noconfirm flatpak
Refresh the repository metadata and install Flatpak:
sudo zypper refresh
sudo zypper install -y flatpak
After installing, log out and log back in to ensure that the desktop integration works correctly.
Confirm Flatpak is available and check the version:
flatpak --version
The output is similar to:
Flatpak 1.16.1
Add the Flathub repository as a remote source:
sudo flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo
Confirm the remote was added:
flatpak remotes
The output should include a line for flathub:
Name Options
flathub system
VSCodium is the telemetry-free build of VS Code that’s available on Flathub with a native Arm build. This makes it a useful application to test Flatpak with.
Install VSCodium with the --assumeyes flag, which automatically answers yes to any prompts during installation:
flatpak install --assumeyes flathub com.vscodium.codium
Confirm the VSCodium installation and check the architecture:
flatpak info com.vscodium.codium
The output includes the runtime architecture:
VSCodium - Telemetry-less code editing
ID: com.vscodium.codium
Ref: app/com.vscodium.codium/aarch64/stable
Arch: aarch64
Branch: stable
Version: 1.112.01907
License: MIT
Origin: flathub
Collection: org.flathub.Stable
Installation: system
Installed: 500.4 MB
Runtime: org.freedesktop.Sdk/aarch64/25.08
Sdk: org.freedesktop.Sdk/aarch64/25.08
Commit: 941b853cf7e254f628e79549ff39b2940faeb11a0c022485507ee83af7d1ffb9
Parent: 8bf491c5bb50857418982dea2cf3a78ca127e888f8055332cf11650ab7472b99
Subject: fix: :fire: Remove urls to fix all the appstream validationwarnings (92763b676197)
Date: 2026-03-30 05:03:53 +0000
The Arch: aarch64 line in the output confirms that you installed a native Arm build.
To run VSCodium on a project in your current directory, run:
flatpak run com.vscodium.codium . &
You can create an alias to make starting a project easier:
alias codium='flatpak run com.vscodium.codium'
To run VSCodium using the alias, run:
codium . &
By using Flatpak to install and run VSCodium successfully, you’ve verified that the Flatpak installation was a success.
You can now use Flatpak to install Arm-native applications. Flatpak makes it straightforward to discover which applications support aarch64. Visit the Flathub app browser and filter by architecture to find applications with native Arm builds. You can also search from the command line after adding the Flathub remote:
flatpak remote-ls --app --arch=aarch64 flathub
The command lists every application on Flathub that publishes a native aarch64 build. Use grep to narrow results by name or category.
You can use the following commands to troubleshoot issues with Flatpak.
If a Flatpak installation becomes corrupted or incomplete, run the following command to check your local Flatpak installation and fix any inconsistencies:
flatpak repair
To keep all installed Flatpak applications and runtimes up-to-date, run:
flatpak update
If you need to inspect the sandbox permissions granted to a Flatpak application, run:
flatpak info --show-permissions com.vscodium.codium
The example command returns the sandbox permissions granted to VSCodium installed in the previous step. To adapt the command for your use case, replace com.vscodium.codium with your application’s identifier.
Opening an interactive shell inside a Flatpak application’s sandbox is useful for debugging permission or runtime issues. To do so, run:
flatpak run --command=bash com.vscodium.codium
The example command opens a shell in VSCodium’s sandbox. To adapt the command for your use case, replace com.vscodium.codium with your application’s identifier.
Not all applications include bash in their sandbox, so this command may not work for every Flatpak application. In such cases, your shell prompt may not look any different, but you are in the sandbox.
To confirm that the shell is open, run:
ls /app
cat /etc/os-release
The output is similar to:
bin lib manifest-base-1.json manifest.json share tools
NAME="Freedesktop SDK"
VERSION="25.08 (Flatpak runtime)"
VERSION_ID=25.08
ID=org.freedesktop.platform
PRETTY_NAME="Freedesktop SDK 25.08 (Flatpak runtime)"
BUG_REPORT_URL=https://gitlab.com/freedesktop-sdk/freedesktop-sdk/issues
The /app directory contains the application runtime files. The os-release file shows the Flatpak runtime rather than the host OS.
To uninstall VSCodium, run:
flatpak uninstall --assumeyes com.vscodium.codium
To remove the Flathub remote, run:
sudo flatpak remote-delete flathub
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