When I try to establish a connection to SQL Server in Navicat (Flatpak Version), I get an error message saying "SQL Server ODBC Driver is required." What should I do?

Apply OS: Linux

Apply Product: Navicat BI, Navict BI Viewer (Flatpak Version)

The Microsoft ODBC Driver for SQL Server (version 17 or 18) is required to establish direct connections to Microsoft SQL Server instances.

Why am I seeing this error?

Applications distributed via Flatpak run inside a secure container sandbox to protect your host system.

By default, the Flatpak sandbox is completely isolated from your host system's library paths (such as /opt/microsoft or /usr/lib64). When you install the Microsoft ODBC Driver on your host computer using your package manager (apt or dnf), the driver is placed in these restricted paths, making it entirely invisible to the sandboxed application.

To allow the Flatpak application to connect, you must run our configuration script. The script copies the driver files into a dedicated sandbox-accessible directory under your home configuration partition ($HOME/.config/navicat/ODBC/mssql) and registers a specialized Flatpak driver section in your system configurations.

Step 1: Install the Microsoft ODBC Driver on the Host System

Before running the configurator, you must install the official Microsoft SQL Server ODBC driver on your host Linux operating system.

For Ubuntu / Debian:

sudo su
curl [https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc](https://packages.microsoft.com/keys/microsoft.asc) | sudo tee /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/microsoft.asc
# Add the correct repository for your Ubuntu version (e.g., 22.04)
curl [https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/22.04/prod.list](https://packages.microsoft.com/config/ubuntu/22.04/prod.list) | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mssql-release.list
sudo apt-get update
ACCEPT_EULA=Y sudo apt-get install -y msodbcsql18 mssql-tools18 unixodbc-dev

For RHEL / Fedora / CentOS:

sudo su
# Register Microsoft's RHEL repository
curl [https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/8/prod.repo](https://packages.microsoft.com/config/rhel/8/prod.repo) | sudo tee /etc/yum.repos.d/mssql-release.repo
# Clear utf16 conflicts if any exist
sudo yum remove unixODBC-utf16 unixODBC-utf16-devel
ACCEPT_EULA=Y sudo yum install -y msodbcsql18 mssql-tools18 unixODBC-devel

Step 2: Configure the Flatpak Sandboxed Driver Bridge

Once the driver is installed on the host, use the following configuration script to clone and map the driver configuration so the Flatpak app can safely load it.

1. Download the Script

Download the Microsoft ODBC configure script from the link below: https://dn.navicat.com/drivers/configure_linux_mssql_odbc.sh

2. Make the Script Executable

Open your terminal window, navigate to the folder where you saved the shell file, and grant it execution permissions:

chmod +x configure_linux_mssql_odbc.sh

3. Run the Script with Sudo

Run the script. It will prompt you for your root password to safely update the system-wide /etc/odbcinst.ini file:

sudo ./configure_linux_mssql_odbc.sh

Step 3: Verify the Connection

Restart Navicat and test the connection.