org. freedesktop.Platform 23.08 is no longer receiving fixes and security updates

[BMiZEL]

What Happened?

while running 'flatpak update' following messages appear:

_"Info: (pinned) runtime org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default branch 23.08 is end-of-life, with reason:
org. freedesktop.Platforn 23.08 is no longer receiving fixes and security updates. Please update to a supported runtime version"

This is a persistent issue since several months and it appears that security issues do not receive priority and serious attention in Elementary OS.

To frustrate things further, the developers 'pinned' these runtimes and one cannot remove them:

"These runtimes in installation 'system' are pinned and won't be removed; see flatpak-pin(1):
runtime/org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default/x86_64/23.08
runtime/org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default/x86_64/24.08"

Steps to Reproduce

run 'flatpak update'

run 'flatpak uninstall --unused'

Expected Behavior

timeously attend to and fix security issues

OS Version

8.x (Circe)

OS Architecture

amd64 (on most hardwares)

Session Type

Secure Session (Wayland, This is the default), Classic Session (X11)

Software Version

Latest release (I have run all updates)

Log Output

Hardware Info

No response

[danirabbit]

From what I can see here, none of our apps rely on freedesktop platform 23.08. It looks like everything is using 24.08 on our end. So more likely one of the apps you've installed relies on platform 23.08

system pinned, just means that the app that relies on this runtime has been installed system-wide and not specifically for your user. If you've been installing flatpak apps via Terminal instead of via AppCenter, they've likely been installed system-wide.

If you try to run flatpak remove org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default from your terminal and select 23.08 it should let you know which packages depend on that runtime

[BMiZEL]

It's for no Apps I've installed, it says "system".

Name Application ID Version Branch Origin Installation
Mesa org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default 25.0.7 23.08 flathub system

As you've confirmed that it's not relevant to Elementary OS 8.1, I've gone ahead and force removed it with:

'flatpak remove runtime/org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default/x86_64/23.08'

Thanks for the assistance.

[teamcons]

It's for no Apps I've installed, it says "system".

system here means it is installed system-wide. As in other user accounts would also see them as installed.

please do not accuse the elementary OS team for things not done by the elementary OS team

[BMiZEL]

@teamcons
That's an absolute affront and cheek! How dare you tell me I installed Mesa, while I never did and have no clue what it's even for. While using 'flathub remove --unused' it even tried to uninstall it, as none of my apps use it, along a bunch of other Elementary OS stuff. As far as I am concerned, it is shipped with the distro!

So recommend you stick your troll-nose elsewhere or provide suitable evidence!

[tintou]

Mesa is the name of the Graphics driver, it could have come with any software really. Nice to see that the old version is now removed on your system.

[BMiZEL]

I actually did some more digging and 'Lumo' AI comes up with following answer:

**_"Yes, elementaryOS 8.1 does use org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default as part of its Flatpak runtime configuration.

Based on the search results, elementaryOS 8.1 is pre-configured to pull the standard Freedesktop Platform runtime from Flathub, which includes:

Main runtime: org.freedesktop.Platform
Graphics runtime: org.freedesktop.Platform.GL.default (matching version)
SDK: org.freedesktop.Sdk
Locale extensions: Various locale and debug extensions

Additionally, elementaryOS ships its own io.elementary.Platform runtime alongside the generic Freedesktop platform, allowing Flatpak applications to target either."_**