[Bug 1902915] Re: (Snap) Cannot add an attachment to the message

[Sebastien Bacher]

Thanks the reply.

> Maybe I'm missing something. It's a snap, can you explain why I need
to install a debian package to get it working.

The software is self contained in the snap but it does rely on the
system to provide a standard environment. The same way than the snap
doesn't include a desktop environment or a display server, if you tried
to start it on ubuntu server you would get an error that it can't open a
display.

The portals are installed by default and a Recommends from the desktop
for some cycles. Making them a depends of snapd would be wrong because
they are only useful for some desktop software though.

There is space for improvement there though, you are probably not the
only one that are going to end up with a system where important
components are missing for a reason or another. I'm going to reassign to
snapd suggesting that it should at least display some informative
warning in those cases, perhaps offer to install the require component.

** Package changed: thunderbird (Ubuntu) => snapd (Ubuntu)

** Changed in: snapd (Ubuntu)
       Status: Incomplete => New

** Summary changed:

- (Snap) Cannot add an attachment to the message
+ snapd doesn't ensure portals are available even when they are needed

** Description changed:

- When writing a new mail, I cannot add an attachment to the message.
- 
- Steps to reproduce.
- 1 - Click write
- 2 - Click attach
+ * Steps to reproduce
+ - install the thunderbird snap
+ - remove xdg-desktop-portal-gtk
+ - start thunderbird
+ - write an email
+ - click on attach
  
  Expected: A file choose dialog should appear.
  Actual : Nothing is shown.
+ 
+ The snap relies on the portal to be available and is failing because
+ it's not. Could snapd somewhow display some warnings explaining the
+ issue or better offer to install the portals when needed?
+ 
+ ------------------
  
  $lsb_release -rd
  Description:	Ubuntu 20.04.1 LTS
  Release:	20.04
  
  $snap info thunderbird
  name:      thunderbird
  summary:   Mozilla Thunderbird email application
  publisher: Canonical✓
  store-url: https://snapcraft.io/thunderbird
  contact:   https://launchpad.net/distros/ubuntu/+source/thunderbird
  license:   unset
  description: |
-   Thunderbird is a free and open source email, newsfeed, chat, and calendaring client, that’s easy
-   to set up and customize. One of the core principles of Thunderbird is the use and promotion of
-   open standards - this focus is a rejection of our world of closed platforms and services that
-   can’t communicate with each other. We want our users to have freedom and choice in how they
-   communicate.
+   Thunderbird is a free and open source email, newsfeed, chat, and calendaring client, that’s easy
+   to set up and customize. One of the core principles of Thunderbird is the use and promotion of
+   open standards - this focus is a rejection of our world of closed platforms and services that
+   can’t communicate with each other. We want our users to have freedom and choice in how they
+   communicate.
  commands:
-   - thunderbird
+   - thunderbird
  snap-id:      k1Ml1O9GzSO2QftV0ZlWSbUfQ78nN460
  tracking:     latest/stable
  refresh-date: yesterday at 23:37 CET
  channels:
-   latest/stable:    78.4.0 2020-11-03 (92) 69MB -
-   latest/candidate: ↑                           
-   latest/beta:      ↑                           
-   latest/edge:      78.4.0 2020-11-03 (92) 69MB -
+   latest/stable:    78.4.0 2020-11-03 (92) 69MB -
+   latest/candidate: ↑
+   latest/beta:      ↑
+   latest/edge:      78.4.0 2020-11-03 (92) 69MB -
  installed:          78.4.0            (92) 69MB -

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https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/1902915

Title:
  snapd doesn't ensure portals are available even when they are needed

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