SUMMARY Currently, if an app is installed both in the system and as a Flatpak, and the IDs match (as they should), Kickoff only shows one entry for the app (for Flatpak). This can lead to some confusing issues: https://invent.kde.org/kde-linux/kde-linux/-/issues/291#note_1297628 This can happen without the user's intention, e.g. when KDE Linux moves Flatpak apps into the base image. STEPS TO REPRODUCE 1. Have Dolphin installed both in the system and from Flathub. 2. Launch Kickoff and look for Dolphin (e.g. in the “System” section). OBSERVED RESULT You will only find one Dolphin icon, concealing the problem. EXPECTED RESULT Kickoff should show both, potentially even adding " (Flatpak)" to the sandboxed version to disambiguate without KMenuEdit. SOFTWARE/OS VERSIONS KDE Linux 2025-09-13 KDE Plasma Version: 6.4.80 KDE Frameworks Version: 6.19 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
It's an issue; but solving this at a kickoff level would be wrong. There's no spec-compliant way to separate a dolphin in flatpak and the system, from a dolphin that the user has edited explicitly in kmenuedit and deliberately shadowed. We would be in heuristics, which ends up backfiring a lot of the time. Having discover know about cases where apps are already installed (via some sort of appstream metadata of the base system) might be possible.
Changing to wishlist since this is a feature request, not a bug, technically.
It's tricky. If we want it done systemwide, we need to edit the .desktop files. But which piece of software would be responsible for that? If we didn't do that, we'd need to patch every app that can handle .desktop files, which means 3rd-party apps wouldn't benefiot even if we got all the KDE ones.
Just noting that this would also benefit apps like Spotify that, when you try to install the flatpak, install both a flatpak and a snap version. The menus have the same icon for both.