The Flatpak 1.16.2 update has been released as the latest stable version of the Linux app sandboxing framework. This maintenance release introduces support for the Video Acceleration API on Intel Xe GPUs and addresses several bugs. It arrives more than seven months after the previous update.
Flatpak 1.16.2 marks the first maintenance update in the 1.16 series, released on December 17, 2025. Developers aimed to enhance stability and functionality for users of this popular tool for sandboxing and distributing Linux applications.
Key improvements include enabling the Video Acceleration API (VA-API) extension specifically for Intel Xe GPUs, which should improve video processing in sandboxed environments. The update also adds support for the “reinstall” option during bundle installations, allows cancellation of cURL downloads, and enables the use of sudo for user changes.
Bug fixes form a significant part of this release. It resolves an issue where the home directory could become accessible if a faulty version of the GNU C Library (Glibc) is present, the app accesses a standard XDG directory, and that directory is unavailable on the system. Additionally, problems with the flatpak mask and flatpak pin commands have been corrected by reloading repository configurations after changes made via the system helper. The flatpak build command now provides an empty /run/host/font-dirs.xml file, and various bugs in OCI support have been addressed.
Other enhancements involve updating the flatpak-kill command to avoid sending SIGKILL signals to all processes in the current group, improving documentation, bolstering testing and continuous integration processes, and fixing memory leaks and crashes.
Flatpak 1.16.2 is available for download from the project's GitHub page, though updating through distribution software repositories is recommended. Developers urge users and distributions to adopt this version promptly.
Looking ahead, work continues on Flatpak 1.18, expected in the first quarter of 2026. Planned features encompass forwarding directories to sandboxed apps as command-line arguments, sideloading from OCI repositories and archives, support for flatpak+https URIs in installations, conditional permissions, basic OS information in the Flatpak-Os-Info header, and exporting the host's root directory at /run/host/root within the sandbox.
