GNOME 3.36 - Builder: Clone - Build - Run

Dear noob, first you copy the Github repository. Then you open Builder that you have installed from Flathub. Click on clone repository, and copy paste Akira link. Choose the location you want to save it. And click Clone Repository Inside build folder, you will find the Flatpak install manifest. Most GNOME apps have that. It uses 3.34 runtime, and that means you also need the 3.34 SDK. Probably you don’t have that, but Builder will automatically download it for you.

01:10 - Akira also pulls elementary SDK, that includes Granite library and elementary icons and themes. The next thing Builder will do, is to pull and build all the dependencies automatically for you. Like Goo Canvas. And finally we have the Akira module from master. Actually? You only need that manifest without the source code for building it. Next just open the build panel, and hit build. Builder will discover the Flatpak manifest and will take care everything for you. When it is done, you can click on the play button to run Akira. You see? Everything’s so easy! However the app isn’t installed yet. To install it, you need to export a bundle. If you had another device, a Pinephone for example, you could build and export for ARM architecture and directly deploy the app to your phone! In fact, that’s easier than Android! Export was supposed to automatically open the file manager, but it just bugged.

02:16 - So please let me copy the location, and open it on Files. Here is the OSTree file structure, and one thing you need to know, is that none file will be randomly installed and mess your Linux system. Also Builder keeps everything in cache, so the next build will be faster. But we want to go a directory up, and get inside staging that our Flatpak bundle is. Now, lets get adventurous and try to install it with GNOME Software! It will ask for a password because it is going to install it system wide, and the bundle isn’t part of a verified store.

03:09 - GNOME Software will do what does best, and that’s nothing! So let me cancel this, and install the bundle from a terminal. Flatpak install and the name of the bundle. And it will ask for a password again. And we have some more stuff to update! That ensures everyone’s using the exact same frameworks, so we all have the same experience. All done, and now we can run Akira from Shell! And for getting updates from master, we need to pull and repeat. .