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Flatpak version does not follow user preferences for terminal colors #1724
Description
What Happened?
The color palette in the terminal pane differs from the native Terminal app and is generally less readable.
Steps to Reproduce
Run Flatpak and look at terminal pane.
Expected Behavior
The terminal pane should use the same colors as the Terminal app (when running on elementaryos at least) or failing that use readable colors.
OS Version
8.x (Circe)
OS Architecture
amd64 (on most hardwares)
Session Type
Secure Session (Wayland, This is the default)
Software Version
Latest release (I have run all updates)
Log Output
Hardware Info
No response
Activity
danirabbit commentedon May 25, 2026
This is expected. Apps can't reach into each other preferences in the sandbox
jeremypw commentedon May 25, 2026
@danirabbit I thought it might be possible to use the Settings portal but terminal palette is not one of the standardised settings exposed in the freedesktop spec it seems. Presumably it could be exposed in the elementaryos implementation but maybe you don't want to do that. Otherwise the palette(s) would need to be hard-coded into the app I guess. At least it should be possible to respect dark/light and normal/high-contrast preferences using the standard portal.
Dipanshusinghh commentedon May 28, 2026
@danirabbit makes sense re: sandbox limitations. Would a fallback approach work — hard-coding elementary's dark/light palettes and switching via the XDG Settings portal? That stays within sandbox bounds and at least gets color consistency for the common cases. Happy to take a stab at it if that direction seems reasonable.
jeremypw commentedon May 28, 2026
Hi @Dipanshusinghh, There are quite a number of issues to do with using Code as a Flatpak - I am not sure this is the highest priority. Code has had a manifest and will build in a Flatpak for quite some time but little work has actually been done to make it practical to use Code in a Flatpak to manage, build and install code. There are several IDEs as flatpak in the Appcenter (fram flathub) so it must be possible but I am not sure how to do it while maintaining sandboxing. We also need to make sure that terminal can do useful things as well as having the right colors.
I've added this to the Code: Ship as Flatpak project which was created a while ago but I haven't got round to add specific issues to. You are welcome to address this but if you can have a think about what other issues need addressing in Flatpak Code that would be excellent.
jeremypw commentedon May 28, 2026
Note elementary/terminal#917 - this starts to make Terminal usable in Flatpak form but needs further work. Probably need to start afresh because of the conflicts that have arisen. The basic technique is to spawn processes on the host system to bypass the sandbox.
Dipanshusinghh commentedon May 28, 2026
@jeremypw
Thanks for the context! I wil go through the "Ship as Flatpak" project first to understand the bigger picture before diving in
jeremypw commentedon May 28, 2026
There are only a couple of issues added to that project so far. I'll try using Code as Flatpak more to see what the limitations are and raise further issues as required.