Nixpkgs: Tracking GNOME 3.38 update in September

[jtojnar]

The GNOME 3.38 release is planned for September 16, 2020.

Things we need to consider:

• gjs packaging will need extra patches for SpiderMonkey: https://mail.gnome.org/archives/distributor-list/2020-August/msg00000.html

cc @NixOS/gnome

[hedning]

Haven't got a head start this time around as I've been busy with work.

[hedning]

Did the bare minimum necessary to get gnome-shell running: https://github.com/hedning/nixpkgs/tree/gnome-3.38

Mostly useful for the spidermonkey bump as it was somewhat time consuming (required a bunch of new dependencies).

[pbogdan]

Not sure how useful it is but here are some notes on some obvious breakages / issues I spotted so far (without actually checking any release notes thoroughly):

• packages needing libhandy-1 (non-exhaustive) (https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/92204)

  • gnome-clocks
  • gnome-maps
  • gnome-screenshot
  • epiphany

• gdm

  • switched to meson

• gnome-initial-setup

  • switched from yelp to gnome-tour

• gedit

  • needs a development version of tepl
    
    
    
    • development version of tepl switched to meson
    
    

• gnome-terminal

  • needs a development version of vte

• geary

  • bundles its own copy of libhandy

• gnome-usage

  • meson.build:22:2: ERROR: Git program not found.

• gnome-boxes

  • new dependencies - libhandy and gtksourceview-4

• gnome-todo

  • patches need updating

• epiphany

  • needs libhandy-1 as per above
  • also needs libportal and a dev version of webkitgtk :-/

[worldofpeace]

I've updated libhandy in https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/92204. We should be sure to move that change into the forthcoming PR.

[worldofpeace]

switched from yelp to gnome-tour

I packaged gnome-tour already, so it will just have to be updated :+1:

[pbogdan]

switched from yelp to gnome-tour

I packaged gnome-tour already, so it will just have to be updated

Looking at my changes (it's been a while) it will need librsvg to render the pictures for the walk-through.

Also just a heads up I had to commit some sins (https://github.com/pbogdan/nixpkgs/commit/2cac0a1ab4f5709b2d403c3c0e24c9e2c1ceeaa7 https://github.com/pbogdan/nixpkgs/commit/be86a1a63a8029a39eaa4d47684a98398b84ddb9) to actually get a working GNOME session at the time. Likely just my own lack of knowledge / ignorance but gdm and gnome-session updates may need a careful review (I haven't actually updated my branch to the latest beta sources).

[hedning]

Hmm, not sure what's up with GDM, though 3.38 is released now, which fixes an issue (https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gdm/-/issues/555), that could be related. Else it might be worth checking setting initial-vt=1 fixes the problem.

There's a typo (missing @) in a gnome-session patch, so that might be causing some issues (potentially for both GDM and the session):
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/b46981417ed816104b4633426924ecf39078c83a/pkgs/desktops/gnome-3/core/gnome-session/fix-paths.patch#L39

[pbogdan]

Grr... Thanks for catching this, will try and fix this up tomorrow and re-test.

[doronbehar]

https://www.gnome.org/news/2020/09/gnome-3-38-released/

[doronbehar]

https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/pull/98216

[pbogdan]

This reminds me:

Grr... Thanks for catching this, will try and fix this up tomorrow and re-test.

Fixing up the patch didn't seem to help nor did changing initial-vt, and didn't seem to help with gnome-session either.
It could be all moot though as I haven't been keeping up with upstream updates for a good while.

[pbogdan]

Managed to figure out how to get rid my gdm / gnome-session hacks so thankfully it turns out they aren't necessary.

Just another few notes after updating to 3.38:

• nautilus and gnome-music both need tracker{,-miners}-3, this includes both libraries and the runtime services
  
  
  
  • gnome-music also needs tracker-3 grilo plugin, and grilo-plugins can't build tracker-2 and tracker-3 plugins at the same time
  
  
  • not everything upgraded to tracker-3 so this may require both versions (including NixOS modules) + another build of grilo-plugins (though I can't say I looked into this too deeply)
  
  

[jtojnar]

I would default to Tracker 3 everywhere and keep tracker 2 for stuff that did not update as suggested in https://discourse.gnome.org/t/gnome-3-38-uses-tracker-3-by-default-but-one-core-app-still-uses-tracker-2/4191

[pbogdan]

Sorry for the scattered notes but one more which I didn't mention

• gnome-settings-daemon (perhaps others)
  
  
  
  • needs to be patched to find gnome-session-ctl from gnome-session, ATM it expects it under its own libexecdir
  
  

[worldofpeace]

Sorry for the scattered notes but one more which I didn't mention

* gnome-settings-daemon (perhaps others)

  * needs to be patched to find `gnome-session-ctl` from `gnome-session`, ATM it expects it under its own libexecdir

We can PR to add something that's already in gnome-control-center

core/gnome-control-center/default.nix
154:    "-Dgnome_session_libexecdir=${gnome-session}/libexec"

[worldofpeace]

Heh, I guess that only existed in 3.34 https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-control-center/-/blob/3.34.0/meson_options.txt#L3, so we need to drop that flag in gnome-control-center. Though basically the same code could be used.

[worldofpeace]

PR'd https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-settings-daemon/-/merge_requests/202

[pbogdan]

Speaking of patches gdm will probably need something similar to https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/blob/684d691c6e9d49d3aab96f4053d011c225aa75bf/pkgs/desktops/gnome-3/core/rygel/add-option-for-installation-sysconfdir.patch after conversion to meson. I have an ugly hack for now but ideally it needs separation between sysconfdirs configured for the build and installation.

[jtojnar]

GNOME 3.38 has been merged to master so now is the time to update extensions.