# Release GPlates as Snap or Flatpak for Linux

**URL:** https://discourse.gplates.org/t/release-gplates-as-snap-or-flatpak-for-linux/696
**Category:** Suggestions
**Created:** [16 June 2023 02:38 UTC](https://discourse.gplates.org/t/release-gplates-as-snap-or-flatpak-for-linux/696 "2023-06-16T02:38:12Z")
**Posts on this page:** 1
**Showing post:** 2

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### Author: ![john.cannon](https://discourse.gplates.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/3e96dc/32.png) [@john.cannon](https://discourse.gplates.org/u/john.cannon)
#### Post date: [19 June 2023 10:48 UTC](https://discourse.gplates.org/t/release-gplates-as-snap-or-flatpak-for-linux/696/2 "2023-06-19T10:48:02Z")

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> [@Eldalinarwie](#):
>
> The .deb package no longer meets dependencies in Ubuntu 23.04

Here’s a [Debian package to try on Ubuntu **23.04**](https://cloudstor.aarnet.edu.au/plus/s/ojsYNOyUYE3evNp) (let me know if it works and I’ll add one to the GPlates 2.3 public release downloads).

However you’ll need to start GPlates from the terminal using…

```auto
QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb gplates

```

If you start it by typing just `gplates` then the GPlates viewport will get corrupted (ie, no globe is visible). And you’ll see the error message “Error: Unknown error”.

It has to do with Wayland (which is a replacement for the X11 window system). Specifying `QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb` forces GPlates to use X11 instead. I tracked it down to a failure to initialise OpenGL (via the GLEW library).

By the way, an alternative to specifying `QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb` is to [disable Wayland](https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-enable-disable-wayland-on-ubuntu-22-04-desktop). That also works.

I think typing just `gplates` worked on the older Ubuntu **22.04** because it wasn’t using Wayland for some reason (as indicated by… `"Warning: Ignoring XDG_SESSION_TYPE=wayland on Gnome. Use QT_QPA_PLATFORM=wayland to run on Wayland anyway."` …after running `gplates`).

The next GPlates release will use Vulkan instead of OpenGL. So I think the above is a suitable workaround for Ubuntu **23.04** considering we’re no longer using OpenGL going forward (and there are various issues getting GPlates to work properly with OpenGL under Wayland, such as [here](https://github.com/nigels-com/glew/issues/172) and [here](https://projects.blender.org/blender/blender/issues/90676)).

> [@Eldalinarwie](#):
>
> release this as a Flatpak

Yes I think this is a good idea, and will look into it for future releases (we had a quick discussion here: [about Flatpak vs Snap vs AppImage](https://discourse.gplates.org/t/compilation-error-with-boost-1-77/452/10)).

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