New launcher linux packaging formats

General Feedback & Requests
,
1

Is the new epic games launcher on linux planned to be packaged as a flatpak and/or a deb and dnf repo instead of an appimage?

If not please package it as one of the following options.

  1. native deb and dnf repo. Create 2 repositories to host the launcher. one can be added to debian/ubuntu based distros and one can be added to fedora based distros

  2. flatpak. Get the new epic games launcher onto flathub.org if it is on there almost every linux distro should be able to install it

3. both

2

I really like the simplicity and small size of the Appimage, but I don’t like that it has access to everywhere on my filesystem, so I created a bubblewrap script to sandbox the launcher:

This script is for Fedora KDE 44, but will likely work for most distros out there. Put the Epic Games Launcher Appimage into your home/Games folder, or edit the script accordingly.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euxo pipefail

#  Users home folder as the location is used many times
uHome="$HOME"
# path to the app I wish to run
APPIMAGE="$uHome/Games/EpicGamesLauncher-x86_64.AppImage"

# Make sure the needed directories exist, create them if not present:
mkdir -p "$uHome/.cache/com.epicgames.eglv2" "$uHome/.config/Epic" "$uHome/.local/share/com.epicgames.eglv2" "$uHome/.cache/mesa_shader_cache/"
# the huge brwap command - I think this is all of the folders that EGL requires, until it is updated anyway!!!
bwrap \
  --proc /proc \
  --dev-bind /dev /dev \
  --bind /run/user/$(id -u){,} \
  --bind /run/dbus{,} \
  --tmpfs /tmp \
  --ro-bind-try /usr{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /lib{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /lib64{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /bin{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /sbin{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /sys{,} \
  \
  --dir /etc \
  --ro-bind-try /run/systemd/resolve/stub-resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf \
  --ro-bind-try /etc/crypto-policies/back-ends/opensslcnf.config{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /etc/ca-certificates{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /etc/fonts/{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /etc/glvnd/egl_vendor.d{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /etc/host.conf{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /etc/hosts{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /etc/ld.so.cache{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /etc/localtime{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /etc/machine-id{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /etc/nsswitch.conf{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /etc/os-release{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /etc/pki{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /etc/selinux/config{,} \
  --ro-bind-try /etc/ssl{,} \
  \
  --bind-try "/mnt/more/games/Epic"{,} \
  \
  --bind "$uHome/Games"{,} \
  --bind "$uHome/.cache/com.epicgames.eglv2"{,} \
  --bind "$uHome/.local/share/com.epicgames.eglv2"{,} \
  --bind "$uHome/.cache/mesa_shader_cache/"{,} \
  --bind "$uHome/.config/Epic"{,} \
  \
  --bind-try "$uHome/.cache/fontconfig"{,} \
  --bind-try "$uHome/.config/autostart"{,} \
  --bind-try "$uHome/.config/fontconfig"{,} \
  --bind-try "$uHome/.config/glib-2.0"{,} \
  --bind-try "$uHome/.config/gtk-3.0"{,} \
  --bind-try "$uHome/.config/mimeapps.list"{,} \
  --bind-try "$uHome/.config/kdeglobals"{,} \
  --bind-try "$uHome/.config/pulse"{,} \
  --bind-try "$uHome/.local/share/applications"{,} \
  --bind-try "$uHome/.local/share/icons"{,} \
  --bind-try "$uHome/.local/share/vulkan"{,} \
  --bind-try "$uHome/Desktop"{,} \
  --bind-try "/opt/brave.com/brave"{,} \
  "$APPIMAGE" --appimage-extract-and-run "$@"

I put this sh file beside the launcher appimage then created a shortcut for it.
Make sure to name your launcher ~/.local/share/applications/EpicGamesLauncher.desktop
and also include the line:
StartupWMClass=EpicGamesLauncher

so that you get the icon in your task manager.
I don’t know whether it would be worth putting this script up on my github or not. hat do you think?