1772125 - GeoClue back-end confusingly denies permission requests if system location services are off

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Core :: DOM: Geolocation, defect)

Description

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio]]

On my machine, going to https://wikishootme.toolforge.org/ and clicking "Allow" on the prompt shows "User denied the request for Geolocation.".

Bisecting it it points to bug 1769664. It might be a local issue (user not in the right group or something? need to dig), but still we should fall back to MLS rather than throwing a permission denied error around.

Comment 1

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio]]

[Tracking Requested - why for this release]: Functionality regression on Linux, at least on some configurations.

Comment 2

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio]]

[Parent 108088: Main Thread]: E/GeoclueLocation Failed to start client: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.AccessDenied: Geolocation disabled for UID 1000

Comment 3

[Maciej S. Szmigiero]

Does running /usr/lib/geoclue-2.0/demos/where-am-i or /usr/libexec/geoclue-2.0/demos/where-am-i show the location correctly on your system?

If not then you most likely don't have a Geoclue authorization agent running.

If the above do work then you might be hitting an issue present in some older Geoclue versions (before 2.6.0; I think only 2.5.[6-7] are affected) - if that's the case then the second geolocation request should work normally (only the very first after the Firefox startup will be denied).

Comment 4

[Maciej S. Szmigiero]

Geolocation disabled for UID 1000

Check also system settings if geolocation isn't explicitly disabled there.

https://help.gnome.org/users/gnome-help/stable/privacy-location.html.en

Comment 5

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio]]

Attachment: Bug 1772125 - Implement MLS fallback for GeoclueLocationProvider. r=maciejsszmigiero

Even tho it is a configuration error, it is extremely confusing to click
"Allow" in Firefox and get a "denied access" error.

Instead fall back to MLS once we error, like other location providers
do.

Comment 6

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio]]

Right, so I agree this is a configuration error on my side, but still seems like we should do better. On other platforms when the system provider fails we fall back to MLS (in fact we race with it).

Instead of that I opted to immediately fallback to MLS on error in comment 5, which is easier to reason about, IMHO, but lmk if you disagree :)

Comment 7

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio]]

Yeah, I had location services off in the gnome settings, which explains this.

Comment 8

[Maciej S. Szmigiero]

I get your point that, for example, Windows Location provider also falls back to MLS if a user has geolocation services disabled system-wide.

Can I play with this issue and the proposed patch this weekend or is it more urgent?
I especially want to see what happens on transient errors, whether the reported location will make wild jumps between the Geoclue-provided and the MLS-provided position.

Comment 9

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio]]

It's fine, we're early in the beta cycle. As long as we get this fixed on beta on time, seems fine to me. I appreciate your careful review :)

Comment 10

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

The Bugbug bot thinks this bug is a defect, but please change it back in case of error.

Comment 11

[BugBot [:suhaib / :marco/ :calixte]]

Set release status flags based on info from the regressing bug 1769664

Comment 12

[Pulsebot]

Pushed by [e-mail]:
https://hg.mozilla.org/integration/autoland/rev/533ad0ead234
Implement MLS fallback for GeoclueLocationProvider. r=maciejsszmigiero

Comment 13

[Narcis Beleuzu [:NarcisB]]

https://hg.mozilla.org/mozilla-central/rev/533ad0ead234

Comment 14

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc]

Can we get this uplifted to beta as this is a 102 feature? Thanks

Comment 15

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio]]

Comment on attachment 9279095 [details]
Bug 1772125 - Implement MLS fallback for GeoclueLocationProvider. r=maciejsszmigiero

Beta/Release Uplift Approval Request

• User impact if declined: Linux geolocation fails if location services are disabled at the OS level.
• Is this code covered by automated tests?: Yes
• Has the fix been verified in Nightly?: Yes
• Needs manual test from QE?: Yes
• If yes, steps to reproduce: comment 0 for example
• List of other uplifts needed: none
• Risk to taking this patch: Low
• Why is the change risky/not risky? (and alternatives if risky): Relatively straight-forward fallback code for this new feature to keep using MLS if disabled.
• String changes made/needed: none
• Is Android affected?: No

Comment 16

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc]

Comment on attachment 9279095 [details]
Bug 1772125 - Implement MLS fallback for GeoclueLocationProvider. r=maciejsszmigiero

Approved for 102 beta 5, thanks.

Comment 17

[Pascal Chevrel:pascalc]

https://hg.mozilla.org/releases/mozilla-beta/rev/d9b6aee4a336

Comment 18

[Monica Chiorean]

I was not able to reproduce the issue on Ubuntu 20.4 using build 102.0a1(20220512094957). I have the location settings off and while loading site https://wikishootme.toolforge.org/ I get two prompts and after click on "Allow" for both I get the map. Am I using the correct build and OS in order to reproduce it? Thank you.

Comment 19

[Emilio Cobos Álvarez [:emilio]]

What do you you see in the terminal if you run with MOZ_LOG=GeoclueLocation:5? Most likely you don't have Geoclue installed or something? Not sure, I don't use Ubuntu myself.

Comment 20

[Maciej S. Szmigiero]

It's probably better to try reproducing this issue on Fedora, since Ubuntu may have a different shell and shell-related plumbing.

Comment 21

[Monica Chiorean]

(In reply to Emilio Cobos Álvarez (:emilio) from comment #19)

What do you you see in the terminal if you run with MOZ_LOG=GeoclueLocation:5? Most likely you don't have Geoclue installed or something? Not sure, I don't use Ubuntu myself.

I do not get anything. I have installed Geoclue but still nothing displayed if running the command.

Comment 22

[Monica Chiorean]

I was able to reproduce the issue on Fedora Linux 36 using build 102.0b1(20220530132252) after first 'Allow', I get "User denied the request for Geolocation.".
Verified as fixed on Fedora Linux 36 using build 102.0b5(20220607212916) and Nightly 103.0a1(20220608214824).