The desktop interfaces

Common desktop interfaces

Several interfaces exist related to running desktop applications:

  • desktop (snapd 2.28): access to basic graphical resources (eg, GNOME, Plasma, etc)
  • desktop-legacy (snapd 2.28): access to legacy graphical resources (eg, a11y, ibus, fcitx, etc)
  • wayland (snapd 2.28): access to the wayland compositor
  • unity7: access to X, Unity services, a11y, input methods (ibus, fcitx, etc) and other legacy desktop methods
  • x11: access to the X server

The careful reader may notice overlap between some of these interfaces. Historically, snapd was going to add interfaces for each desktop environment as they were enabled in Snap, but later it was decided to clean this up. In addition to the cleanup, we wanted a path to transition away from the insecure X server and Desktop Environments with the outdated session trust model to the future where Wayland replaces X and desktop services are designed with the contemporary untrusted-app trust model. Essentially the cleanup consisted of:

  • grouping all contemporary Desktop Environment default policy into a new desktop interface. Contemporary DE’s are defined to include those that can run without X (and with wayland or mir) with the security policy allowing access to common, safe services
  • grouping security policy for unsafe services into the new desktop-legacy interface. As the Linux desktop matures and the unsafe services are replaced or made safe, the new safe accesses will be added to the desktop interface
  • the unity7 interface remains for compatibility for typical, non-Wayland capable DEs
  • the x11 and wayland (and mir) interfaces are broken out from the desktop interface so developers may specify the environments where the application is expected to work

Importantly, with the above changes, existing snaps continue to work. Developers wanting to work with newer DEs add these newer interfaces to their plugs as their apps support them.

Other desktop interfaces

Many other optional interfaces exist depending on what the app needs:

While developers might choose to use any of the above interfaces as needed, it should be noted that many are so-called ‘transitional’ interfaces. For example, gsettings allows read/write access to all settings and home allows read/write access to all non-hidden user data. Like with the common services in desktop-legacy, as these other services are made safe or new ones designed to replace them, they will be added to the desktop interface. XDG desktop portals, for example provide safe APIs for opening files and printing.

Example usage for common desktop interfaces

Traditional desktop app (desktop snaps before snapd 2.28)

As a developer, before snapd 2.28, the snap’s yaml for a typical desktop application might include:

name: foo
...
apps:
  foo:
    plugs:
    - unity7

On systems with snapd 2.28+, existing and new apps can continue to only plugs unity7 and be expected to work everywhere they would on systems with 2.27 or earlier.

Wayland-only desktop app

As a developer, the snap’s yaml for a desktop app that only works with GNOME Shell/Plasma and Wayland might include:

name: foo
...
apps:
  foo:
    plugs:
    - desktop
    - desktop-legacy
    - wayland

Wayland desktop app with X fallback

As a developer, the snap’s yaml for a desktop app that only works with GNOME Shell/Plasma with either X or Wayland might include:

name: foo
...
apps:
  foo:
    plugs:
    - desktop
    - desktop-legacy
    - wayland
    - x11

Desktop app that can run anywhere

While the Linux desktop is transitioning away from X-based toolkits to ones built on top of Wayland compositors, many application developers may want to choose all the DEs where the application may run. Newer GTK, Qt and other toolkits are capable of running on systems that run X or Wayland or in different DEs like GNOME Shell, Plasma or Unity.

Therefore, as a developer, the snap’s yaml for a desktop app that works on a wide range of DEs might include:

name: foo
...
apps:
  foo:
    plugs:
    - desktop
    - desktop-legacy
    - wayland
    - unity7

Example usage with other interfaces

GNOME-based editor

As a developer, the snap’s yaml for a GNOME-based editor that works on a wide range of DEs, needs access for printing and needs access to files in the user’s home directory might include:

name: foo
...
slots:
  foo-svc:
    interface: dbus
    bus: session
    name: org.gnome.foo
...
apps:
  foo:
    plugs:
    - desktop
    - desktop-legacy
    - wayland
    - unity7
    - cups-control
    - gsettings
    - home
    slots:
    - foo-svc

Media player

As a developer, the snap’s yaml for a desktop app that plays audio and video, works on a wide range of DEs, needs access to files in the user’s home directory, uses the network for fetching media art and can be controlled via MPRIS might include:

name: foo
...
apps:
  foo:
    plugs:
    - desktop
    - desktop-legacy
    - wayland
    - unity7
    - home
    - network
    - opengl
    - audio-playback
    slots:
    - mpris

Electron app

As a developer, the snap’s yaml for an Electron desktop app that works on a wide range of DEs might include:

name: foo
...
apps:
  foo:
    plugs:
    - desktop
    - desktop-legacy
    - wayland
    - unity7
    - alsa
    - avahi-observe
    - browser-support
    - camera
    - cups-control
    - gsettings
    - home
    - network
    - opengl
    - audio-playback
    - screen-inhibit-control
    - upower-observe

For the interfaces listed above that were not already discussed, see https://github.com/snapcore/snapd/wiki/Interfaces.

Extra information

Graphical applications also require additional libraries and environment configuration to function correctly inside a snap. Snapcraft has various tools to help you with that. Read the snapping desktop applications documentation for more information about these tools. Please feel free to ask questions in the forum or on Rocketchat if you are having trouble.

The snappy-debug tool can help identify interfaces your snap needs. See the forum for details.

References

Last updated 4 years ago.

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