[21.11] Can't Compose Email in Evolution (WebKitGtk issue)

[blitz]

Describe the bug

Since the webkitgtk update in #167920, Evolution is broken. The window for composing emails is not showing any content anymore:

Reverting #167920 fixes the issue for me. Unfortunately, this was a security update. Now the problem is that either Evolution is insecure or non-functional...

There is an upstream issue here.

Steps To Reproduce

Steps to reproduce the behavior:

1. Open evolution and try to compose an email

Expected behavior

Composing an email in Evolution works.

Screenshots

evolution-bug.mp4

Additional context

Upstream issue: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/evolution/-/issues/1869

Notify maintainers

@NixOS/gnome

Metadata

Please run nix-shell -p nix-info --run "nix-info -m" and paste the result.

 - system: `"x86_64-linux"`
 - host os: `Linux 5.17.1, NixOS, 21.11 (Porcupine)`
 - multi-user?: `yes`
 - sandbox: `yes`
 - version: `nix-env (Nix) 2.4`
 - channels(root): `"nixos-21.11.337040.a62ce97f92b, nixos-hardware, nixos-unstable-22.05pre369117.ff9efb0724d, tuxedo"`
 - nixpkgs: `/nix/var/nix/profiles/per-user/root/channels/nixos`

[jtojnar]

I am unable to reproduce when running evolution from 5db9253:

Could you perhaps try to run G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=all evolution in the command line and see if anything sticks out?

And maybe also https://trac.webkit.org/wiki/WebKitGTK/Debugging#Loggingsupport.

[jtojnar]

Oh, this is on 21.11, could you try to update to 3.42.4 first?

[hmenke]

I can confirm this issue on NixOS 21.11. Actually, just typing in the window does work, but you can't see what you're typing. Also composing in an another editor using the External Editor plugin works fine as a temporary workaround.

[blitz]

Oh, this is on 21.11, could you try to update to 3.42.4 first?

I've updated to 3.42.4 and the issue persists. Downgrading webkitgtk resolves the issue. :(

[blitz]

Could you perhaps try to run G_MESSAGES_DEBUG=all evolution in the command line and see if anything sticks out?

I see nothing related to the broken message window, unfortunately.

[blitz]

@jtojnar

I am unable to reproduce when running evolution from 5db9253

This looks like a commit on master. Recent release-21.11 should trigger the bug.

[jtojnar]

It might also be the compositing issue again, could you try the fix from #32580 (comment), running it with env WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 evolution.

[blitz]

@jtojnar You are my personal hero today! This works. Will add this to the upstream ticket in Evolution.

The weird thing is that I don't have an nvidia GPU like people in the referenced issue, but boring Intel iGPU.

What is the path forward here? Wrapping evolution to always set this environment variable?

[jtojnar]

Proper fix would probably need to be done in webkitgtk.

[hmenke]

I made a copy of org.gnome.Evolution.desktop in ~/.local/share/applications/ and replaced all Exec=... lines with Exec=env WEBKIT_DISABLE_COMPOSITING_MODE=1 .... Quick and dirty workaround.

[blitz]

Given that this happens on the release branch, I would propose to just disable compositing in webkitgtk by default. It seems that this was enabled by the webkitgtk update.

[blitz]

@hmenke Can you test #169058?

[hmenke]

Oof, rebuilding WebKit 😒 Let's see if that's possible in reasonable time.

[blitz]

With #169170 merged, I think we can close this. :)

[jtojnar]

42.1 disables the HW acceleration https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/evolution/-/commit/eb62ccaa28bbbca7668913ce7d8056a6d75f9b05