FlameRobin Files

FlameRobin 26.9.7 Release Notes

FlameRobin v26.9.7 is about installing FlameRobin on Linux. There is now a tarball that runs on any x86_64 distribution, an installer inside it, a one-line curl | bash installer, a stricter and cleaner .deb, and a new Linux install guide. The application itself is unchanged from 26.9.6.

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Highlights & Key Improvements

1. One-line Installer for Any Distribution

On Fedora, Arch, openSUSE, or any other x86_64 distribution with glibc 2.39 or later:

:::bash
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mariuz/flamerobin/master/install.sh | bash

This installs the latest release for the current user, without root. Then start FlameRobin from the application menu, or run flamerobin.

The script:

1. checks that the system is x86_64 Linux with glibc 2.39 or later, and says which distributions qualify if it is not;
2. downloads flamerobin-VERSION-linux-x64.tar.gz from this releases page and verifies it against the published .sha256, refusing to install on a mismatch;
3. runs the installer inside the tarball (below), which does the actual install and writes the uninstaller.

It works with curl or wget. Variants:

:::bash
# a specific release
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mariuz/flamerobin/master/install.sh | bash -s 26.9.7

# for all users, into /opt/flamerobin-26.9.7 with the command in /usr/local/bin
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mariuz/flamerobin/master/install.sh | sudo bash -s -- --system

# into a directory of your choice
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/mariuz/flamerobin/master/install.sh | bash -s -- --prefix ~/apps/flamerobin

Running it again updates to the latest release (or the one you pass) in place.

2. Linux Tarball: flamerobin-26.9.7-linux-x64.tar.gz

The same build as the .deb — FlameRobin, its own Firebird 5 client and the Firebird embedded engine — packed so that it can be extracted anywhere and run as is:

:::bash
tar xzf flamerobin-26.9.7-linux-x64.tar.gz
./flamerobin-26.9.7-linux-x64/flamerobin

FlameRobin normally finds its templates at the path it was built for (/opt/flamerobin). The flamerobin launcher at the top of the tree resolves its own location — following symlinks, so it can be linked into ~/.local/bin — and points FlameRobin (FR_HOME) and the dynamic loader at the extracted tree. The bundled Firebird client already resolves its plugins, intl and firebird.msg relative to itself, so embedded mode works from the tarball exactly as from the .deb.

file	purpose
flamerobin	the launcher
install.sh	installs the tree (see below)
install-desktop-entry.sh	adds a menu entry for running it in place, without installing
README.txt	how to run and install it, and what it needs
bin/, lib/, share/	FlameRobin and its libraries
plugins/firebird/, intl/, firebird.conf	the Firebird client, embedded engine and configuration

To check the download by hand: sha256sum -c flamerobin-26.9.7-linux-x64.tar.gz.sha256.

3. install.sh Inside the Tarball

:::bash
./flamerobin-26.9.7-linux-x64/install.sh                  # current user
sudo ./flamerobin-26.9.7-linux-x64/install.sh --system    # all users
./flamerobin-26.9.7-linux-x64/install.sh --prefix DIR     # anywhere

	current user (default)	all users (--system)
FlameRobin	~/.local/opt/flamerobin	/opt/flamerobin-26.9.7
flamerobin command	~/.local/bin	/usr/local/bin
menu entry and icons	~/.local/share	/usr/local/share
root needed	no	yes

• Uninstall is exact. Every file the installer creates is recorded, and the uninstall.sh it writes into the installation removes exactly those — ~/.local/opt/flamerobin/uninstall.sh.
• It never clobbers. It refuses to install over a directory, flamerobin command or menu entry it did not create — such as the .deb's. The system install goes to /opt/flamerobin-VERSION precisely because /opt/flamerobin belongs to the .deb.
• Reinstalling replaces an earlier tarball install in the same place.
• It checks the system libraries FlameRobin needs — GTK 3, WebKitGTK 4.1 and libsecret — and prints the apt/dnf command when any is missing.

The release workflow installs every tarball into a scratch directory and uninstalls it again before publishing it.

4. .deb: Honest Requirements and a Clean Uninstall

Requirements. The .deb is built on Ubuntu 24.04, and its binaries need glibc 2.39 and the C++ library of GCC 13. Its Depends: line did not say so, so apt happily installed it on Ubuntu 22.04 or Debian 12, where FlameRobin then could not start. It now depends on libc6 (>= 2.39) and libstdc++6 (>= 13), and apt refuses it up front:

:::text
The following packages have unmet dependencies:
 flamerobin : Depends: libc6 (>= 2.39) but <your version> is to be installed

Uninstall. The package's postinst creates the flamerobin command, a menu entry and icons outside /opt/flamerobin, and nothing removed them. A new postrm does, on apt remove and apt purge — only while the command still points at FlameRobin, and never on upgrade.

	Ubuntu 22.04 / Debian 12	Ubuntu 24.04+ / Debian 13+	other glibc 2.39+ distributions
.deb	refused by apt	✅	—
tarball / one-line installer	refused (glibc too old)	✅	✅
snap / Flatpak	✅ (no embedded engine)	✅ (no embedded engine)	✅ (no embedded engine)

5. Installing on Debian and Ubuntu

FlameRobin has no apt repository yet, so the .deb is installed from this page:

:::bash
curl -fLO "$(curl -fsSL https://api.github.com/repos/mariuz/flamerobin/releases/latest | grep -o 'https://[^"]*/flamerobin-[0-9.]*\.deb' | head -n 1)"
sudo apt install ./flamerobin-*.deb

A signed apt repository, so that updates arrive with apt upgrade, is now on the roadmap.

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Documentation

• New: docs/install_linux.md (github.com) — requirements, installing, updating, uninstalling and troubleshooting, for the .deb on Debian/Ubuntu and for the install script on other distributions, including the library packages for Fedora, openSUSE, Arch and Debian.
• README.md (github.com) — a short Installing on Linux section with both commands.
• docs/firebird_embedded.md (github.com) — the package table now lists the tarball.
• ROADMAP.md (github.com) — new item: signed apt repository for Debian and Ubuntu.

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Upgrading

• From the .deb: install the 26.9.7 .deb as usual. Packages before 26.9.7 leave the command, menu entry and icons behind when removed; docs/install_linux.md (github.com) has the commands to clean them up.
• Switching from the .deb to the tarball: remove the .deb first (sudo apt remove flamerobin); the installer will not overwrite its flamerobin command.
• Settings in ~/.flamerobin are shared by every FlameRobin installation and are never touched by installing or uninstalling.

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Known Issues

• #724 — Dependencies of a Table shows "Feature not yet implemented" for one user; it could not be reproduced on Linux and more details have been requested.

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Full Commit Log since v26.9.6

• 62bf9efe Release v26.9.7: Linux tarball, one-line installer and install docs
• 79e46a72 Roadmap: signed apt repository for Debian and Ubuntu
• f89520c1 Add a curl | bash Linux installer and Linux install documentation
• 0760dff3 Add install.sh to the Linux .tar.gz
• fb7d1660 Add a relocatable Linux x86_64 .tar.gz to the release assets