Hi, in Fedora 34, nm-connection-editor has removed NotShowIn=GNOME from its desktop files in order to allow users to "install" it as an application and actually launch it. Problem is we don't want network-manager-applet to be installed by default. And we don't want it to appear after upgrades from Fedora 33 either. But nm-connection-editor is guaranteed to be installed, because it's a dependency of anaconda. So what can we do? Solution: create a network-manager-applet-desktop (or similarly-named) subpackage that contains only the appdata and desktop files. This subpackage will allow "installing" it as an application. Note that the appdata and desktop files must stay packaged together. This request replaces bug #1919312.
Created attachment 1754499 [details] dist-git patch applies on top of ebcde84a78a4fb2d08799e19c471c19eff48ae24
(In reply to Thomas Haller from comment #1) > Created attachment 1754499 [details] > dist-git patch This would be it. But I think this is a bad solution. If Fedora WG does not want to show nm-c-e on GNOME, then I can just downstream patch `NotShowIn=GNOME;` and carry that patch indefinitely. At least that doesn't break behavior on other spins (xfce). And then I guess I would also do that on RHEL9 (bug 1715143)? And just never fix this on Fedora/RHEL? I mean, you cannot show it and not show it at the same time. It needs a choice, and then NotShowIn= can be accordingly. At least we changed it upstream... Michael, WDYT?
the advantage of the nm-connection-editor-desktop package, is that the icon will be shown for exactly those users that install the package (good). the disadvantage is that initially nobody has this package installed (e.g. on distro upgrade) and the icon would first disappear from all desktop environments (and the user had to know to install nm-c-e-desktop). Another (smaller) disadvantage is the ugliness... the advantage of the patching "NotShowIn=GNOME;" solution is that there is no change in behavior. that is also the disavantage, because you cannot get the icon in GNOME. Another (smaller) disadvantage is the need to carry a downstream patch indefinitely.
We don't like NotShowIn= because (a) it hides apps and effectively prevents users from launching them, (b) it's very confusing if the user switches between multiple desktops and the app appears or disappears, and also (c) it causes problems like this. When it's used in a package that was ever installed by default, like nm-connection-editor, it becomes effectively impossible to remove unless we're OK with the app appearing for all users during upgrades. (And nm-connection-editor won't be approved for that, since it's redundant with GNOME's own network settings.) So personally, I think the subpackage approach is the least-bad option. But if you want to patch the NotShowIn=GNOME back in downstream, that's fine too. Your choice. I would link to this bug so future developers know why we decided to patch it back in.
It seems desirable to allow GNOME users to have the icon for nm-c-e; so the split-package solutions sounds good to me even if means that users now have to know they need to install the new package. + Summary: The desktop file ro nm-connection-editor s/ro/for/ ?
ok, sounds good. Done.
https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2021-8712929215 (note that there is still "NotShowIn=GNOME", because there was no applet release recently)
> (note that there is still "NotShowIn=GNOME", because there was no applet > release recently) In the meantime, new upstream release 1.20.0 was done ([1]). That one dropped NotShowIn=GNOME. It's in Fedora with network-manager-applet-1.20.0-4.fc34 ([2]). (yes, I messed up the version number of the Fedora package :( ) [1] https://download.gnome.org/sources/network-manager-applet/1.20/ [2] https://bodhi.fedoraproject.org/updates/FEDORA-2021-a188f1d2fd