RO filesystem limitations

[pazos]

Mostly https://github.com/flathub/rocks.koreader.KOReader/blob/master/rocks.koreader.KOReader.yml#L16

/media/ and /run/media/ are probably ok as ro media.

Broken features with ro home:

• All common File Manager actions (rename, move, delete...)
• All specific code that relies on file's timestamp
• Metadata can't be written to sidecar directories (.name-of-document.sdr/)

• Major features like Wikipedia to epub, Wallabag or RSS feeds, among many others, that fetch content and produce files.

  As in the android version we can be honest and request rw permissions on the manifest (if that's possible, dunno flatpak). People should be aware of the permissions and be able to reject them by not using the app. That's a win-win :)

pinging @proletarius101

[proletarius101]

Major features like Wikipedia to epub, Wallabag or RSS feeds, among many others, that fetch content and produce files.

They are not saved to the application storage (XDG_DATA_DIRS)? It doesn't need any permission to store files there

[proletarius101]

I guess the issue is that, when opening/saving a file, the xdg open dialog is not used? Otherwise the permission is granted automatically

[proletarius101]

The best I can do is adding rw permission to some directories (e g. Downloads, Documents). It's too risky to grant a broad rw home permission...

[pazos]

Hi, thanks for your time :)

The best I can do is adding rw permission to some directories (e g. Downloads, Documents). It's too risky to grant a broad rw home permission...

Unfortunately that doesn't fix the issue. The app requires/expects full rw permissions.

Pretty much like syncthing

The warning the synching app is providing on the flathub page is, IMHO, easier to understand for the user than the warning of the current KO version.

It is a shame since the flatpak version would work fine otherwise. So if you're not willing to grant the permissions the app requires please change the metadata to state it is a very limited app (like, using the name KOReader (sandboxed))

But I would suggest to add proper support for the filesystem. It would be way better and KOReader would work as expected and intented, like in any other platform we currently support.

[proletarius101]

Pretty much like syncthing

Given the precedence, that makes sense to me. Please don't hesitate to make a PR to add the --filesystem=host permission. But it's upon Flathub moderator's approval.

[pazos]

Given the precedence, that makes sense to me. Please don't hesitate to make a PR to add the --filesystem=host permission. But it's upon Flathub moderator's approval.

[proletarius101]

To clarify, any modifications to permissions, even those initiated by me, will be subject to the scrutiny of a moderator prior to merging the PR.

[pazos]

Sorry, the body of my comment is missing :p

Given the precedence, that makes sense to me. Please don't hesitate to make a PR to add the --filesystem=host permission. But it's upon Flathub moderator's approval.

Great! Thank you very much :)

I see no problem with moderators doing their job :).

I'm going to open a couple separate tickets to keep track of other areas of improvement.

Thanks again!