Bug 2121096

(In reply to Yanko Kaneti from comment #0)
> Description of problem:
> After the webkit2gtk4.1 update to 2.37.90 the evolution mail body is empty

That's not accurate, or at least it's not what I see. There are the message headers and the message text is very thin, vertically.

The WebKitGTK+ broke frame-flattenning. Evolution relies on it, it defines 10px iframe hight, expecting WebKitGTK to make it as tall as needed.

You are right. The text is there and with a right size but 10px high viewport is not enough to see anything..

The same issue in Fedora 37:
webkit2gtk4.1-2.37.90-1.fc37.aarch64
webkit2gtk5.0-2.37.90-1.fc37.aarch64
Can't read messages in Evolution.

Created attachment 1908566 [details]
frame-flatteing remove revert

It looks like frame-flattening was removed intentionally https://github.com/WebKit/WebKit/commit/37224f042c178a094cc2287dee595345bc89f687

As an experiment I've tested this patch which reverts the change on top of 2.37.90 and it at least helps evo/mailer work as before

> It looks like frame-flattening was removed intentionally 

Good find!

OK, I don't think this code is coming back, so reassigning to Evolution to try to find another way to do this.

Can we put it back at least temporarily? It's kind of a pain for everyone who uses Evo to have to downgrade webkitgtk...

It's probably better to find another solution. A patch that big won't apply for very long. But if Milan requests it, then yes, we can try that temporarily.

FWIW I think frame flattening was only intended to be used on iOS. I didn't realize it was supported in desktop builds. It seems there is public API unfortunately, WebKitSettings:enable-frame-flattening, that was not deprecated and presumably does not work anymore.

(In reply to Adam Williamson from comment #7)
> Can we put it back at least temporarily? It's kind of a pain for everyone
> who uses Evo to have to downgrade webkitgtk...

I can't even downgrade due to dependency conflicts. I have to use flatpak as a workaround, which doesn't bring in all of my previous settings.

Okay, let's face it. The frame-flattening is removed now. Then there's a plan to drop more public API which Evolution relies heavily on, in the near(er) future. Is it time to look for a different web engine, which will be able to show HTML content in the message preview? Are there any options at all?

I'll see what I can do with the frame flattening now.

Thanks, Milan, I know this must suck :| I'd like to help but my C coding is not at that level.

I can't off the top of my head think of any alternatives which would be less painful than adapting to webkit changes, either :|

I asked them [1] to revert the change, but I have no hope.

The GNOME hard code freeze starts in two days and I'm not able to change the core functionality of the mail preview without breaking user experience heavily.

Michael, supposing the WebKit upstream will not revert it for the 2.38.0, is it possible to carry the change in the WebKitGTK upstream only, at least in the 2.38.x series? I'm not talking about Fedora package, I'm talking about WebKitGTK upstream - all distros should have it. That could give me more time to adapt the Evolution.

[1] https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=242883#c8

I believe we have consensus revert this on the WebKitGTK 2.38 branch. We'll probably use the patch that Yanko provided (thanks!).

But it will really be gone in 2.40, so please do continue to investigate how to adapt Evolution. Sorry about that. :/

(In reply to Michael Catanzaro from comment #13)
> I believe we have consensus revert this on the WebKitGTK 2.38 branch. We'll
> probably use the patch that Yanko provided (thanks!).

Done. Yanko's patch applied cleanly, so I just used that.

Thanks, I appreciate it. I will look on the options to avoid using the frame-flattening for the next major evolution version series (3.48.x) within the linked upstream bug.

2.37.91 should (hopefully) fix this issue. I will kick off builds soon.

FEDORA-2022-fff66108a5 has been submitted as an update to Fedora 37. https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2022-fff66108a5

Hi Milan, in addition to fixing this bug, the new update should also fix printing with the bubblewrap sandbox enabled. Maybe try enabling it in F37 and see if anything breaks? It will be a huge security improvement for Evolution users.

2.37.91 fixed the issue, thank you.

FEDORA-2022-fff66108a5 has been pushed to the Fedora 37 testing repository.
Soon you'll be able to install the update with the following command:
`sudo dnf upgrade --enablerepo=updates-testing --refresh --advisory=FEDORA-2022-fff66108a5`
You can provide feedback for this update here: https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2022-fff66108a5

See also https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/QA:Updates_Testing for more information on how to test updates.

(In reply to Michael Catanzaro from comment #18)
> Maybe try enabling it in F37 and see if anything breaks? It will be a huge security improvement for Evolution users.

I'm afraid it's a huge change for the Fedora 37. Let's investigate the possibility for the 3.48.x aka Fedora 38 (unless I forget of it meanwhile).

FEDORA-2022-fff66108a5 has been pushed to the Fedora 37 stable repository.
If problem still persists, please make note of it in this bug report.