GNOME Bugzilla – Bug 781851
Attempting to update extensions through Epiphany fails and messes everything up
Last modified: 2021-07-05 14:10:18 UTC
I am running Arch, and through Chrome, Chromium and Firefox all works fine in terms of the GNOME Extensions site. However, if one is to use Epiphany then there is one hell of an issue with updating extensions. So if I went here https://extensions.gnome.org/local/ in Epiphany and tried to update an extension with little green up arrow, then for a few of them it might work, but sooner rather than later I would just get a big white on red "ERROR" message where the buttons would normally be. At which point, if I had tried to update extensions which were disabled at the time of me trying to update them, they would become enabled and be stuck on that mode until I restarted my machine. It also appears to break a lot of things with gnome-shell, though what it does each time appears rather random. This issue was present in GNOME 3.22, but certainly got worse with everything in the AO breaking with 3.24. If I try to disable or enable any of the affected extensions using the gnome-tweak-tool then I am unable to move the slider and there is a little "error loading extension" (gnome-tweak-tool_Extension_Errors.png) next to each one, I am also unable to get the "Remove" button to work. I have also attached some screenshots of the kinds of strange things that occur when I do this. You will also notice the "Applications" and "Places" (Applications_Places_Menus_Showing.png) menus being present, those extensions are some of those that weren't on originally, but then got jammed on when I tried to update them even though I never actually tried to turn them on. If I then restart my system I can disable and even remove them, but not until a full restart is performed. Not even restarting gnome-shell seems to work. I have also noticed that after I start seeing "ERROR" on the website that I get the same or just the update arrow reappears a few seconds after clicking it with all the other extensions and thus am unable to update them. This is all rather annoying. Note: Any strange big white boxes or black boxes in the screenshots are just me hiding personal information etc.
Created attachment 350567 [details] Strange_AO_1.png
Created attachment 350568 [details] Strange_AO_2.png
Created attachment 350569 [details] Strange_AO_3.png
Created attachment 350570 [details] Applications_Places_Menus_Showing.png
Created attachment 350571 [details] gnome-tweak-tool_Extensions_Errors.png
Arch Bug Tracker downstream report: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/53857
Reassigning to gnome-shell, which provides the browser plugin that controls this. I'm not even going to look at this or pretend to support it; the gnome-shell plugin is such a buggy mess that I just don't care anymore.
Downstream LP report showing this issue doesn't just affect myself: https://bugs.launchpad.net/gnome-shell/+bug/1686796
I previously said that this was only an issue in Epiphany, well, it turns out also to be an issue with Firefox, and probably Chromium, though I haven't been able to test it out there yet. The only real difference between the Firefox and Epiphany experience is that with Firefox I got no "ERROR" message on the site and the extensions did actually seemingly update properly, but it turned them all on and wouldn't allow me to disable them. It also messed the AO up and made the extensions not function properly.
Note: * Epiphany uses gnome-shell's NPAPI plugin. If you have any problems, bugs need to be filed against gnome-shell. * Firefox and Chrome use the chrome-gnome-shell WebExtension. If you have problems with these browsers, bugs need to be filed against chrome-gnome-shell. So you need at least one additional bug report here.
Right, I shall leave this as the Epiphany one then and file a new report on chrome-gnome-shell. Do I file bugs against chrome-gnome-shell on this bug tracker or is there another one?
I guess that judging by your last sentence I file the report here?
Yeah, there is a chrome-gnome-shell component on this Bugzilla. Thanks for filing a separate bug as I do think it's important to treat track such issues separately.
Right, I have filled a the other report here: bug #781969
(In reply to Michael Catanzaro from comment #7) > I'm not even going to look at this or pretend to support it; the > gnome-shell plugin is such a buggy mess that I just don't care anymore. To be honest: I'm desperately waiting for Software's extension support to be ready for prime-time, so we can kill off the plugin. It really really should happen this cycle ...
Florian, how this should be handled in Software? As I understand this is not an issue with NPAPI plugin or chrome-gnome-shell. This is an issue with extensions upgrade process (eg. unloading -> upgrading -> loading). Some extensions could not be properly reloaded, other just incompatible with recent Shell.
(In reply to Yuri Konotopov from comment #16) > As I understand this is not an issue with NPAPI plugin or chrome-gnome-shell. > This is an issue with extensions upgrade process (eg. unloading -> upgrading > -> loading). Oh, quite possible. The patches I attached to bug 781728 may help to some extent (if the error actually happens during reload), though it will always be possible for extension bugs to mess up the shell ...
How come the last thing that can be set in the "GNOME version" field is 3.25/3.26? Should it really have 3.28 in there as well? Or is this something to do with the mass migration to Gitlab? Are we just no longer supporting the later versions on this site?
GNOME is going to shut down bugzilla.gnome.org in favor of gitlab.gnome.org. As part of that, we are mass-closing older open tickets in bugzilla.gnome.org which have not seen updates for a longer time (resources are unfortunately quite limited so not every ticket can get handled). If you can still reproduce the situation described in this ticket in a recent and supported software version, then please follow https://wiki.gnome.org/GettingInTouch/BugReportingGuidelines and create a new ticket at https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/issues/ Thank you for your understanding and your help.