1245926 - disable GTK3 in Thunderbird 45

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Thunderbird :: OS Integration, defect)

Description

[Kent James (:rkent)]

With bug 1245476 giving up on gtk3 for FF45, we should probably do the same thing in TB. But let's discuss it rather than just asking me to blindly port the FF changes.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

I asked about  proceeding with beta 45b1 with updates throttled or without watershed...

bhearsum	wsmwk: ... if it's going to be the last beta prior to enabling gtk3, i strongly recommend shipping it with the new information in the update url
bhearsum	otherwise you'll have to ship a hotfix with that before enabling gtk3
bhearsum	no opinion here when it comes to throttling

Comment 2

[Kent James (:rkent)]

It would be great if one of our Linux devs could prepare the needed patches for this, rather than me who is less knowledgeable. Magnus?

AFAIU we have not shipped a beta yet with gtk3 enabled, right? If so, that probably means we should not enable updates for the current 45.0b1 because that is going to create new uncertainties.

bhearsum's remarks start with "if it's going to be the last beta prior to enabling gtk3" which is false, which means I don't see how the rest of his remarks are relevant.

It would also be great to get confirmation from Thunderbird devs that disabling gtk3 for beta45 is in fact the correct thing to do.

Comment 3

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

(In reply to Kent James (:rkent) from comment #2)
> AFAIU we have not shipped a beta yet with gtk3 enabled, right? If so, that
> probably means we should not enable updates for the current 45.0b1 because
> that is going to create new uncertainties.

b1 with gtk3 enabled is available for download. https://archive.mozilla.org/pub/thunderbird/releases/45.0b1/
But we have not enabled updates. 

 
> bhearsum's remarks start with "if it's going to be the last beta prior to
> enabling gtk3" which is false, which means I don't see how the rest of his
> remarks are relevant.

I believe he means "the last beta prior to enabling gtk3 for updates"


> It would also be great to get confirmation from Thunderbird devs that
> disabling gtk3 for beta45 is in fact the correct thing to do.

There's is actually NO question we want to disable gtk3 for what we ultimately ship as 45 beta. The question is what to do about b1, since we decided for a variety of reasons to finish it off with gtk3 enabled. 

I believe we want to do a b2 with gtk3 disabled, and not enable b1 for updates. The question then is, is a balrog watershed needed for b2?

Comment 4

[Joe Sabash [:JoeS1]]

Well the balrog watershed is necessary because offering a GTK3 update to a user with <GTK3.4 will break TB

From Firefox prereq:
Firefox will not run at all without the following libraries or packages:

    GTK+ 3.4 or higher

I just wonder what advantages , if any GTK3 offers

Comment 5

[Landry Breuil (:gaston)]

(In reply to Joe Sabash [:JoeS1] from comment #4)
> Well the balrog watershed is necessary because offering a GTK3 update to a
> user with <GTK3.4 will break TB
> 
> From Firefox prereq:
> Firefox will not run at all without the following libraries or packages:
> 
>     GTK+ 3.4 or higher

I really wonder how many users:
- install a mozilla-provided binary instead of their distro's package
- among those, have a weird (still maintained) distro shipping such an outdated gtk3

Gtk 3.4 was released in march 2012...

Wasnt there metrics collected on gtk3 version through telemetry ?

> I just wonder what advantages , if any GTK3 offers

It's just more modern/integrated in today's desktop environments. Fwiw, i've been using tb beta w/gtk3 for the past 6 months or so without serious issues.

Comment 6

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Yes sounds like we want to disable it.

Comment 7

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Attachment: bug1245926_disable_tb_gtk3.patch

Untested, but this should be it.

Comment 8

[aleth [:aleth]]

Comment on attachment 8717573 [details] [diff] [review]
bug1245926_disable_tb_gtk3.patch

Review of attachment 8717573 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

What about linux64/releng.manifest?

Comment 9

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Attachment: bug1245926_disable_tb_gtk3.patch

Whops

Comment 10

[aleth [:aleth]]

Comment on attachment 8717582 [details] [diff] [review]
bug1245926_disable_tb_gtk3.patch

Review of attachment 8717582 [details] [diff] [review]:
-----------------------------------------------------------------

Thanks!

Comment 11

[aleth [:aleth]]

Does not apply on c-b.

Comment 12

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Attachment: bug1245926_disable_tb_gtk3.patch

Had an outdated c-b tree...

Comment 13

[Kent James (:rkent)]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/comm-beta/rev/d80d60260baa