Fail to download PDF

[Altonss]

On latest version 7.25.0, the Gnome file-picker doesn't show the files and folder of the home directory when trying to download a file.
Nonetheless, after clicking on save no error is displaying, what should indicate a successful download. But the downloaded file (tested with a PDF file) cannot be found.
Before this version (AFAIK), the downloads where behaving fine.

[Altonss]

I get the security motivations of #438, removing all file access permission.
But this means from what I understand, that most users won't be able to download a single file and will not know how to fix this. I think this is a serious usability problem! A least, access to xdg-downloads should be granted by default (I had to manually grant access to it through flatseal... not a very easy fix for most users).
cc @bermeitinger-b

[bermeitinger-b]

Through the portals, it should be possible without explicitly allowing specific folders.

[Altonss]

Through the portals, it should be possible without explicitly allowing specific folders.

Oh then something might be broken with the portals? I struggle to find good documentation about those portals. I don't see any specific portal in the args in org.signal.Signal.yaml... so I'm guessing it should work fine without any arg, out of the box?

[bermeitinger-b]

I guess something broke, I can reproduce. Attaching and downloading files does not work. Seems like it doesn't use the portals.

If I try, for example, with LibreWolf, which has similar permissions, it does actually use the portal. So, I doubt it's a host problem. Seems like Electron is doing something wrong here.

[pm4rcin]

It's a regression of this version definitely since it has worked fine before.

[bermeitinger-b]

It works with the previous version. I'll revert.

[bermeitinger-b]

I guess it's a regression from within the 32.1.x version of Electron. 32.0.y worked fine.

Let's hope they fix this. Am not motivated enough to bisect Electron inside Signal inside Flatpak. That's not gonna happen.

[xduugu]

Given that apparently it's no regression, but the intended behavior, will you, @bermeitinger-b, merge the signal updates again? I currently use #762 with --filesystem=xdg-download and I guess, because electron now depends on an unreleased version of the file chooser portal, adding filesystem access is the way to go as it will take a long time until the future xdg-desktop-portal release is packaged for all the "stable" distributions.

[bermeitinger-b]

Looks like it's inevitable to make the Flatpak users angry once more.

[dimitris-personal]

Looks like it's inevitable to make the Flatpak users angry once more.

True, but less bad than 3 releases behind and counting...

[bermeitinger-b]

Now, it's 4.

At this point, I'd rather open all of host instead of the myriad of xdg-* folders which we had already at some point.

[Altonss]

myriad of xdg-* folders

xdg-downloads folder could be enough as a temporary solution, no?

[bermeitinger-b]

Sure, but typically people attach photos, so xdg-pictures should also be included, and videos, and people don't stick to the rules and store their pictures anywhere, so they will end up here asking why they can't attach certain files.
(I'm one of these, sometimes I dare to send a file from my /tmp directory.)

This is why the portals are so nice. But they decided they don't want us to have nice things. I vote for host file system access, maybe with a warning to use Flatseal if they don't trust Signal 🤷

[xduugu]

xdg-downloads folder could be enough as a temporary solution, no?

I guess temporary will be a long time, at least until the next ubuntu lts release.

This is why the portals are so nice. But they decided they don't want us to have nice things. I vote for host file system access, maybe with a warning to use Flatseal if they don't trust Signal 🤷

The average user will probably expect at least --filesystem=home. Everybody who cares about the filesystem access will disable it anyway, so host or home access imo does not make much of a difference.

[bermeitinger-b]

Thanks for your opinion! See #766

[pm4rcin]

Also for desktop users giving home or host doesn't make any difference from security standpoint since people have their precious files somewhere in home so host isn't that useful IMO. And because both break the sandbox I'd go for host even though I dislike it very much but until electron devs reconsider their decision it's necessary for most people.

[bermeitinger-b]

Added with #766

[carsoncall]

Hey, I just came here to say thank you for your consideration. I appreciate the little touches, like the warning you added to let me know that the permissions were changed. I feel very seen when I see that other people take the time to ensure that the user is aware of what their software is doing on their system. @bermeitinger-b

[sukahiroaki]

Just pointing out that XDG Desktop Portal 1.19 has just been released (which would be recent enough for getting back to the proper behaviour). Not sure you want to use it though given that it is a development version. Still good to see that we are on a path to get a proper fix in the hopefully not too distant future

https://github.com/flatpak/xdg-desktop-portal/releases/tag/1.19.0