Public bug reported: [ Impact ]
* Without this change, firefox users on jammy who rely on the WebExtensions portal for firefox add-ons that need a native executable to function correctly will experience breakage when the latest version of the firefox native messaging patch is landed upstream in the near future. https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D140803 An instance of such breakage already happened earlier this year when we refreshed the firefox native messaging patch we carry in the firefox snap to the latest revision under review in Mozilla Phabricator and inadvertently broke native messaging for users of firefox snap on jammy. https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/firefox-122-snap-temporary-native-messaging-breakage-for-ubuntu-22-04-users-fixed-since/41940 * The newer changes to the WebExtensions portal are being backported because jammy and noble are the current primary targets for the effort of enabling native messaging in the firefox snap, and once the firefox implementation lands in the firefox snap, we want this to continue working seamlessly and as expected. Moreover, with both the firefox-side and portal-side patches being nearly ready for merge in the corresponding upstreams, it makes sense to ship an up-to-date version of the portal patch in jammy and noble to provide a uniform platform for the firefox-side patch across these two LTS releases, helping ease the maintenance burden and lessen the difference between them from this aspect should the need to debug and fix potential issues in firefox or in the portal arise later in the future. * The impact of updating xdg-desktop-portal in jammy from 1.14.4 to 1.14.6 should be minimal and positive, given that they are purely bug fix micro releases: https://github.com/flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal/releases/tag/1.14.5 https://github.com/flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal/releases/tag/1.14.6 * Updating the WebExtensions portal in xdg-desktop-portal before updating the firefox-side implementation in the firefox snap is fine and covered as part of the test plan. [ Test Plan ] * To test and verify the native messaging portal works as expected, we can test the extensions.gnome.org browser integration before and after updating our installed xdg-desktop-portal package: - in a fully up-to-date Ubuntu VM, install the chrome-gnome-shell deb package - if it exists, delete ~/.local/share/flatpak/db/webextensions and reboot to ensure a pristine state - run the firefox snap and browse to https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/addon/gnome-shell-integration/ and click the "Add to Firefox" blue button - accept the firefox prompt to install the extension - you will soon be prompted by GNOME Shell (with a modal dialog) to allow firefox to use the WebExtensions portal to start the native connector, click "Allow" - browse to https://extensions.gnome.org/local/ - see that firefox is able to talk to the native connector and display a list of the currently installed GNOME Shell extensions Note: the WebExtensions portal can also be tested using other firefox browser extensions that use native messaging, such as https://keepassxc.org * To test and verify that the firefox snap's native messaging portal support continues to work as intended after the portal is updated in xdg-desktop-portal, download and install the test snap from https://launchpad.net/~bandali/+snap/firefox-snap-nm-cur-old-patch (even though the main firefox snap distributed via the snap store currently ships an older revision of the firefox-side patch for compatibility for jammy users, a build of the firefox snap from the above link can be downloaded and installed to ensure that the current older firefox-side implementation is used): - in a fully up-to-date Ubuntu VM, download the newest test firefox snap from the above link and install it by running a command like 'sudo snap install --dangerous filename.snap' in the terminal - follow the steps of the above test case and verify that native messaging continues to work as intended in the firefox snap. * We continue running the upstream xdg-desktop-portal test suite to help ensure there is no breakage in other portals. * Additionally, this refresh of the patch brings in new tests for the WebExtensions portal from our upstream PR under review into jammy, helping provide assurance that the WebExtensions portal we ship in jammy behaves identically to those shipped in newer releases, and establishes a baseline for potential future updates if we need to do further SRUs for xdg-desktop-portal. [ Where problems could occur ] * For jammy, there should be little risk updating xdg-desktop-portal from 1.14.4 to 1.14.6, since both 1.14.5 and 1.14.6 are bug fix microreleases as mentioned above, therefore there should be little to no risk for the other existing portals shipped by the package. * Given that this port of the newer changes from our upstream PR back to jammy includes several new commits, it is possible that one of them may inadvertently introduce a bug. However, we believe this risk is low, given that the PR changes were made with backward compatibility in mind to minimize the likelihood of breakage for existing users. Additionally, the 'risk' of certain breakage once the firefox-side patch is merged upstream far outweighs the risk of refreshing the portal-side patch to bring it up-to-date with the latest revision under review for merging into upstream. [ Other Info ] * SRUing the latest revision under review of our WebExtensions portal into jammy (and noble) will allow to us finally safely land the firefox-side implementation in upstream Firefox, helping avoid bitrot of the patch we carry against the firefox snap and easing the maintenance burden of the firefox snap and the native messaging portal support itself as part of the upstream codebase. ** Affects: xdg-desktop-portal (Ubuntu) Importance: High Assignee: Amin Bandali (bandali) Status: New ** Affects: xdg-desktop-portal (Ubuntu Jammy) Importance: High Assignee: Amin Bandali (bandali) Status: New ** Affects: xdg-desktop-portal (Ubuntu Noble) Importance: High Assignee: Amin Bandali (bandali) Status: New ** Affects: xdg-desktop-portal (Ubuntu Oracular) Importance: High Assignee: Amin Bandali (bandali) Status: New ** Also affects: xdg-desktop-portal (Ubuntu Noble) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Also affects: xdg-desktop-portal (Ubuntu Oracular) Importance: High Assignee: Amin Bandali (bandali) Status: New ** Also affects: xdg-desktop-portal (Ubuntu Jammy) Importance: Undecided Status: New ** Changed in: xdg-desktop-portal (Ubuntu Noble) Importance: Undecided => High ** Changed in: xdg-desktop-portal (Ubuntu Jammy) Importance: Undecided => High ** Changed in: xdg-desktop-portal (Ubuntu Noble) Assignee: (unassigned) => Amin Bandali (bandali) ** Changed in: xdg-desktop-portal (Ubuntu Jammy) Assignee: (unassigned) => Amin Bandali (bandali) -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/2077587 Title: Refresh WebExtensions portal patch To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xdg-desktop-portal/+bug/2077587/+subscriptions -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list [email protected] https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs
