Done: Sync gnome-user-share from Debian

Desktop
1

A month ago, I made a proposal on the ubuntu-desktop mailing list, but the Ubuntu Desktop Team is using this Community Hub more this cycle so I am moving the discussion here.

Expanded proposal copied from the mailing list

Posted November 6

  1. Are we ok with dropping gnome-user-share from the default Ubuntu
    desktop install and syncing it from Debian?
    Bug #1714821 “Sync gnome-user-share 3.18.3-2 (main) from Debian ...” : Bugs : gnome-user-share package : Ubuntu

3.b. Or we could consider continuing to install gnome-user-share by
default. This would mean also installing apache2-bin (not actually a
functional web server) and libapache2-mod-dnssd (a fairly minimal
library but needs a MIR). It would enable the Settings > Sharing panel
to actually have content on Wayland (a Personal File Sharing
subpanel). On Xorg, there is also a Screen Sharing subpanel.

In Ubuntu 17.04 (Unity), open the Public folder in your home
directory. Click the Preferences button in the infobar. This is the
GUI from gnome-user-share. It provides Bluetooth receiving support and
the ability to share files on the network using webdav. Except we
don’t install the webdav support by default so the option is grayed
out with a message that the required packages aren’t installed without
saying what packages are missing or a button to click to install them.

The latest version of gnome-user-share has no GUI and doesn’t provide
the Bluetooth receiving support (that support is handled by the
gnome-bluetooth library now). But if gnome-user-share is installed in
GNOME, there is a Personal File Sharing subpanel in Settings > Sharing
that replaces the old GUI.

By syncing gnome-user-share to universe, we would enable its remaining
feature (network file sharing) to work since it would have the
required dependencies. But there would be no way to configure
gnome-user-share from the Unity desktop. The only other flavor to ship
Nautilus is Ubuntu Budgie which currently also includes
gnome-control-center so it is not affected. MATE offers caja with
mate-user-share. Perhaps that could work for Unity?

gnome-user-share is now in universe because I dropped the recommends
on it from gnome-control-center. The webdav feature requires
apache2-bin and libapache2-mod-dnssd. The Apache binary is so minimal
it can’t actually run a web server. libapache2-mod-dnssd is a small
library that would need a MIR.

I would like to see gnome-user-share installed by default because
otherwise the Settings > Sharing panel is very empty.

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2

Excerpts from replies posted to the mailing list

On Mon, Nov 6, 2017 at 5:30 AM, @laney wrote:

On Mon, Nov 06, 2017 at 09:50:43AM +0100, @seb128 wrote:

Right, I think we should either install what is needed to make it work
out of the box or change gnome-control-center to list the entry when
gnome-user-share is missing and install the needed packages on demand.
The best option is probably to pre-install if security/MIR teams are
fine with that.

Adding the depdendencies seems like the best way to me too, if indeed
they don’t expose anything to the network by default. Is anyone willing
to file the MIR(s)?

3

On Mon, Nov 6, 2017 at 1:27 AM, @khurshid-alam wrote:

I would prefer to continue with older version of it for 18.04 LTS as
integrates with nautilus and the functionality it provides simply outweighs
the cost (few kb of extra libraries and a MIR).

MATE offers caja with mate-user-share. Perhaps that could work for Unity?

mate-user-share can’t work with Nautilus.

On Unity, if I go to gcc-> sharing, it can’t detect the network connected.
Is it something related to
usd/gsd or gnome-shell? On Budgie it works well.

Thanks.

4

MIR for mod-dnssd (the only universe dep needed) as https://launchpad.net/bugs/1731065

I did an NMU to modernize the mod-dnssd packaging too.

I think the remaining questions are:

  • Do we want to wait for the MIR to be approved before syncing?
  • Do we want to wait for someone to add Unity support to mate-user-share before syncing?
5

On November 6, @seb128 wrote:

But there would be no way to configure gnome-user-share from the Unity desktop.

Well, we said our focus would be to do what is right for the default
desktop and lower technical debt, which means not olding back on updates
only because of Unity. That feature is also not essential, I would say
it’s fine to update and add that to the list on
Unity/NotDefaultIssues - Ubuntu Wiki

I have added gnome-user-share to that list now.

6

Thanks for doing the MIR report Jeremy. Since you went ahead earlier in the cycle and remove the gnome-control-center recommends and got gnome-user-share in universe it should be fine to sync it now.

7

I have synced gnome-user-share now.

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