[gnome-flashback] Broken parts of GNOME Flashback with GNOME 3.12

[Balló György <ballogyor gmail com>]

Hi,

2014-08-26 13:36 GMT+02:00 Alberts Muktupāvels <alberts muktupavels gmail com>:
> Have you tried to use my work with GNOME 3.10+? You need to use gnome-panel
> and gnome-applets from 'wip/gnome-3.10+' branches plus gnome-flashback.
>
> In what way it is not compatible with 3.8?

I tried your branches today. The end session dialog works fine
(thanks!), but GNOME Flashback still has the following problems with
GNOME 3.12.2:

metacity
--------

1. Incompatibility with gnome-settings-daemon's cursor plugin >= 3.10

Currently the mouse cursor is invisible, because GSD's cursor plugin
expects that the cursor is initialised by the window manager. Related
commit:
https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-settings-daemon/commit/?id=bef5cd776266873285ee1d1004332fbbc3ec1b91

I guess we need something from the MetaCursorTracker code in mutter,
but I'm not sure:
https://git.gnome.org/browse/mutter/log/?qt=grep&q=MetaCursorTracker


gnome-panel
-----------

2. gnome-panel is still unable to register with the session manager.
You added back the StartupNotify line in your branch, but in fact,
it's still broken, so the following commit should be reverted again:
https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-panel/commit/?h=wip/gnome-3.10%2b&id=c42b5514d97151731825bf2d7fc8b98d9fa205bb

3. Clicking on the Clock applet causes an immediate crash


gnome-applets
-------------

4. The Weather applet crashes randomly when I open its preferences, or
when I type my location, „Budapest”.

5. The Invest applet is broken, unable to add it to the panel, no error message.

6. The scrollkeeper part of the configure file should be removed, as
it's not needed a long time ago:
https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-applets/tree/configure.ac?h=wip/gnome-3.10%2b#n348

gnome-flashback
---------------

7. Incompatibility with gnome-settings-daemon's media keys plugin >= 3.8

Currently the media keys (along with many other keyboard shortcuts)
don't work, because GSD's media keys plugin expects that the keyboard
events are grabbed by the shell. Related bugzilla tasks:
gnome-settings-daemon: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=693016
gnome-shell: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=643111

But even if we implement the above, the OSD is not visible on events
(e.g. when set the volume level), because it's also relying on the
shell now. Related bugzilla tasks:

gnome-settings-daemon: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=695021
gnome-shell: https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=613543

Therefore we either need to implement these D-Bus interfaces within
gnome-flashback, or we need to fork somehow GSD's media keys plugin.

8. The background disappears on VT switch. Switching with Ctrl+Alt+F12
then back causes black background. When I move the windows, the
background becomes visible again behind them.

9. The background is missing with mutter. Just run 'mutter --replace',
and you will see an ugly lightgreen background instead of the selected
background image.

10. Missing volume control systray icon

The GNOME fallback mode had a nice volume control applet, which was
provided by gnome-control-center. So the following code should be
added back to the gnome-flashback project:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=682861
https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-control-center/commit/?id=94506721aa1fd463ff92f23ef0bf7cf50813a260

11. Missing automount helper

The GNOME fallback mode had a mount helper application, which was
provided by gnome-settings-daemon. So the following code should be
added back to the gnome-flashback project:
https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=682859
https://git.gnome.org/browse/gnome-settings-daemon/commit/?id=77a29fde9204a80ad3960fc6d50a733261fbfbfe

12. Missing other components

The GNOME fallback mode had the following additional project, which
are now unmaintained:
- gnome-screensaver
- notification-daemon
- polkit-gnome

I think that all of them should be launched on login (as it was
happened in fallback mode), either by adding them as required
components to the session file (therefore the user cannot easily
replace them), or by implementing a configurable launcher within
gnome-flashback.


I hope that we could solve all of these problems soon.

--
György Balló
Arch Linux Trusted User