[SRU] PWA don't launch as applications, just another chromium window

[zwn]

Impact
------

When converting from deb to snap package of chromium, progressive web applications (PWAs) launch just as another window of chromium and are not recognized as separate application by the window manager (for example when switching using Super+Tab) or dock (grouped under chromium windows).

This strikes users as a regression (as it is).

Test case
---------

*Install the package.
*Log in to Ubuntu desktop.
*Start Chromium.
*Go to a site that offers PWA to install, e.g. earth.google.com.
*In the right end of the address bar, click the icon to install the PWA.
*The PWA opens in a separate window.
In this first launch it may be that the PWA is not yet recognized as a different application by the Gnome Shell, if this is the case, close the PWA and open it again.
*Verify that the PWA behaves as a stand-alone program, namely insofar as it:
++can be found by pressing Super and then typing its name (e.g. 'earth' if you installed Google Earth).
++launches when thereby clicking that launcher.
++does not share Chromium's tab group in the alt-tab switcher.
++does not share Chromium's launcher icon in the dock (i.e. the launcher bar that by default is flush to the left edge of the screen).

Regression potential
--------------------

Regressions may arise as incorrect window grouping in the alt-tab switcher or in the dock for desktop applications.

[Frederik Feichtmeier (feichtmeier)]

I am also affected by this bug. This is my personal last barrier to switch over to chromium from chrome. As I make heavy use of PWAs for example for microsoft and google products plus community projects like exalidraw.

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

Can give an example for testing?

[zwn (zwn)]

My use case is https://chat.google.com/. It offers to install itself (button in the url bar). When I click it, it opens as top level window without the url bar, but still grouped under the chromium windows - it does not get its own button on the taskbar and Super+Tab does not recognize the chat window as its own application. In both cases the deb version created the feel that the chat is its own thing, separate from chromium.

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

Thanks for providing a reproduction case.

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

I can verify that in Bionic (with the deb) the application shows in
Gnome's task bar as a separate application, not grouped under Chromium,
and that in Lunar (with the snap) it shows in Gnome's task bar grouped
under the Chromium button.

However,

1. Wmctrl shows that the window classes and names are consistent,

--> Lunar <--
0x01c00003 0 chromium.Chromium
0x01c00011 0 crx_mdpkiolbdkhdjpekf.Chromium

--> Bionic <--
0x01c00003 0 chromium-browser.Chromium-browser
0x01c00019 0 crx_mdpkiolbdkhdjpekf.Chromium-browser

2. The bug is absent from both Unity and Icewm (see attachments).

So I think this is a regression in Gnome Shell from Ubuntu 20.04 vs
Ubuntu 18.04.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

The problem is https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/how-to-expose-desktop-files-created-by-snaps-to-the-de.

Probably duplicate of the there mentioned LP:1732482.

I can confirm it is not a problem from Chromium PPA.

[zwn (zwn)]

I am aware of the problem with desktop files & snaps. Therefore I am launching the installed app directly from Chromium page available at chrome://apps to circumvent the problem (of not being able to pick up the desktop file). That makes me believe that this is not a duplicate of the linked bug since desktop files are not part of the reproducible test case.

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

Thanks for the response, zwm.

The desktop file is necessary for Gnome Shell to categorize the PWA as a different application — in its own tab group — instead of just another Chromium window.

This bug is therefore a particular consequence of Chromium, as a snapped application, not being able create its own desktop files in the canonical paths.

Do you agree with the reasoning?

[zwn (zwn)]

> The desktop file is necessary for Gnome Shell to categorize the PWA as a different application — in its own tab group — instead of just another Chromium window.

Since I am not familiar with the way how Gnome Shell decides which windows belong together and you don't explain how it is done, it is really hard for me to agree or disagree with anything.

In the comment #5 you mention window classes as a way to do this feat. The desktop file seems like a possible way to launch Chromium with a specific window class which makes it a separate application. Is this a correct deduction?

Is the desktop file the only way to do this? I was under the impression that using "chrome://apps" page as a launcher would be a different way how to launch a new Chromium with the required window class. If this is not the way then the launcher is broken - or at least creates a misplaced expectations (but that would be a different bug). If the launcher is not broken and sets everything correctly, then this bug is not a duplicate of bug #1732482.

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

I'm posting what I've learned so far but there is still much to figure.

> In the comment #5 you mention window classes as a way to do this feat. The desktop file seems like a possible way to launch Chromium with a specific window class which makes it a separate application. Is this a correct deduction?

I messed up when transcribing the output for comment #5. I'm editing it to fix it. Bottom line is: The classes are the same in Bionic/deb as well (as the attached image shows), nonetheless the PWA does fall into a different tab group.

Still in Bionic/deb, if I change StartupWMClass (regardless of matching --app-id) in the desktop file though, then the unwanted behavior (PWA grouped under Chromium) is observed if the application is opened from inside Chromium, whereas trying the launcher itself fails to open the PWA and only opens normal Chromium. So it just knows and needs to be launched with the registered app-id, and Gnome Shell will expect that as its class.

Back to the snap world, same observations apply, except that snap cannot write to the a canonical XDG_DATA_DIR ($HOME/.local/share/applications) and thus Gnome Shell is oblivious.

But if I try

  cp ~/snap/chromium/current/*/*.desktop ~/.local/share/applications

then I **can open the PWA from the dock and it behaves as a separate application indeed**, but not if opened from inside Chromium, and their classes do diverge in the success case:

--->
$ wmctrl -lx #Opened from dock item, different classes
0x01a00020 0 xterm.XTerm canonical xterm
0x01c00003 0 chromium.Chromium canonical Neuer Tab - Chromium
0x02800003 0 crx_mdpkiolbdkhdjpekfbkbmhigcaggjagi.Chromium-browser canonical Google Chat - Chat
$ wmctrl -lx #Opened from inside Chromium, same classes
0x01a00020 0 xterm.XTerm canonical xterm
0x01c00003 0 chromium.Chromium canonical Neuer Tab - Chromium
0x01c00015 0 crx_mdpkiolbdkhdjpekfbkbmhigcaggjagi.Chromium canonical Google Chat - Chat
<---

Also, as noted elsewhere, the path to the executable registered in the desktop file points unfortunately to the unsandboxed binary, namely /snap/chromium/2497/usr/lib/chromium-browser/chrome.

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

With the help of 3v1n0 it's confirmed that this is Mutter interpretation of a sandboxed application.

Whether this is a bug is then a matter of opinion and actually complicated[1].

You may need to convince Gnome maintainers about it or use another desktop environment.

[1] https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/-/merge_requests/84

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

> But if I try
>
> cp ~/snap/chromium/current/*/*.desktop ~/.local/share/applications
>
> then I **can open the PWA from the dock and it behaves as a separate application indeed**, but not if opened from inside Chromium,

Even that small consolation suffered a regression in newer Mutter (testing in 24.10).

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

I think we can just carry a small patch downstream to special-case the Chromium snap.

Can any of you in 24.10 please confirm the fix by installing gnome-shell from this PPA? https://launchpad.net/~nteodosio/+archive/ubuntu/pwa/

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

If you are in a different series of Ubuntu and are interested in the proposed fix, tell me and I'll build for that release.

[Jan Visser (starquake)]

> If you are in a different series of Ubuntu and are interested in the proposed fix, tell me and I'll build for that release.

Yes please. I'm on 24.04 and would love this fix!

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

I submitted a build for 24.04 in that PPA, will be there by the end of the day
if nothing goes wrong.

[Jan Visser (starquake)]

> Can any of you in 24.10 please confirm the fix by installing gnome-shell from this PPA? https://launchpad.net/~nteodosio/+archive/ubuntu/pwa/

I can confirm the fix works for 24.04! Thanks!

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

Glad to hear that, thank you for testing!

[Jan Visser (starquake)]

No problem! Would I be right to assume that this fix will be included in 24.04 at some point?

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

If it is accepted in 24.10 — and I'm reasonably confident it will —, I'll
afterwards file a backport for 24.04.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-shell - 47.0-1ubuntu1

---------------
gnome-shell (47.0-1ubuntu1) oracular; urgency=medium

  * Merge with Debian. Remaining changes:
    - Add Build-Depends: terser (for authd)
    - Add Depends: ubuntu-wallpapers
    - Add Recommends:
      + ubuntu-session (| gnome-session) to have the Ubuntu session available
      + xserver-xorg-legacy
      + yaru-theme-gnome-shell for the default Ubuntu theming
    - Move from Recommends to Suggests: chrome-gnome-shell
    - debian/gnome-shell-common.alternatives: Install tweaked GDM theme
    - Add debian/ubuntu-session-mods/ubuntu.json & install it with
      gnome-shell-common
    - Add many patches
  * Remove patch applied in new release
  * Refresh patches
  * Update gnome-browser-connector binary package name

gnome-shell (47.0-1) experimental; urgency=medium

  [ Jeremy Bícha ]
  * New upstream release
  * Bump minimum mutter and gnome-settings-daemon

  [ Daniel van Vugt ]
  * Add shell-app-Warn-instead-of-crashing-if-disposed-before-sta.patch
    to avoid crashing the shell if an app misbehaves coincidentally close
    to a garbage collection run (LP: #2037055)

gnome-shell (47~rc-3ubuntu2) oracular; urgency=medium

  [ Marco Trevisan (Treviño) ]
  * d/p/ubuntu-authd: Define the service name just once
  * d/p/pwa: Fix handling of non-sandboxed apps, or invalid apps.

  [ Nathan Pratta Teodosio ]
  * Add chromium-snap-pwa.patch:
    Fixes tab and dock grouping of progressive web applications
    for the Chromium snap (LP: #2007652).

 -- Jeremy Bícha <email address hidden> Mon, 16 Sep 2024 07:49:10 -0400

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

Debdiff for 24.04: https://salsa.debian.org/gnome-team/gnome-shell/-/merge_requests/79.diff

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

Debdiff for 22.04: https://salsa.debian.org/gnome-team/gnome-shell/-/merge_requests/80.diff

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

Debdiff for 20.04: https://salsa.debian.org/gnome-team/gnome-shell/-/merge_requests/81.diff

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

It's unclear to me if we want focal fixed given that jammy and noble were sponsored a month ago, but focal not, please update the state accordingly back to Triaged or Won't Fix

[Robie Basak (racb)]

SRU review for Noble: in progress.

The upload references 17 bugs and since they all follow the regular SRU process, there's no "tracking bug" as such where I can comment on the review as a whole. This is a shortcoming in our current workflow. I decided to arbitrarily choose the lowest numbered bug to comment generally as a workaround, which is this one. But to avoid clutter for an exceptionally large SRU with various workflow issues that need ironing out, I'm doing the entire (lengthy) review in a Google Doc instead, and just linking to that from here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1Tmopo83MVPjefk5aiuZ8ntZgT9t0IenHfdeNuN7IVoc/edit

If others need to comment on this SRU review generally and can't communicate out of band or in the Google Doc, I suggest doing it here.

[Julian Andres Klode (juliank)]

I'm unsubscribing ubuntu-sponsors as it's unclear we want to do focal and desktop can handle that internally if they choose to.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Hello zwn, or anyone else affected,

Accepted gnome-shell into focal-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/3.36.9-0ubuntu0.20.04.5 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-focal to verification-done-focal. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-focal. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Ubuntu SRU Bot (ubuntu-sru-bot)]

All autopkgtests for the newly accepted gnome-shell (3.36.9-0ubuntu0.20.04.5) for focal have finished running.
The following regressions have been reported in tests triggered by the package:

update-notifier/unknown (armhf)

Please visit the excuses page listed below and investigate the failures, proceeding afterwards as per the StableReleaseUpdates policy regarding autopkgtest regressions [1].

https://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/proposed-migration/focal/update_excuses.html#gnome-shell

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Autopkgtest_Regressions

Thank you!

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Hello zwn, or anyone else affected,

Accepted gnome-shell into noble-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/46.0-0ubuntu6~24.04.6 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-noble to verification-done-noble. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-noble. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

so there's a jammy upload that bumps the version from -0ubuntu2.2 to -0ubuntu3, so why not keep incrementing .N since it's already used?

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

This .N (as in -0ubuntuM.N) was added in security uploads. Those were not committed into the VCS[1] before I opened my merge request[2] so I was never confronted with the question.

But even then, I fail to see why it would make any difference, so I would ask "why not?"

[1] https://salsa.debian.org/gnome-team/gnome-shell
[2]https://salsa.debian.org/gnome-team/gnome-shell/-/merge_requests/80

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

In 24.04 virtual machine, I installed gnome-shell=46.0-0ubuntu6~24.04.6 and gnome-shell-common=46.0-0ubuntu6~24.04.6.

I logged back in, started the Chromium snap, went to earth.google.com and clicked the button that eventually showed in the address bar to install it.

The PWA opens in a separate window, as expected not yet recognized as a different application, so I closed it and searched its name in Gnome, whereupon the Google Earth launcher did show up as expected and I clicked it, which caused the application to launch again, now identified as a separate icon in the dock as well as in the alt-tab switcher.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-shell - 46.0-0ubuntu6~24.04.6

---------------
gnome-shell (46.0-0ubuntu6~24.04.6) noble; urgency=medium

  [ Nathan Pratta Teodosio ]
  * d/p/chromium-snap-pwa.patch: Fixes tab and dock grouping of progressive
    web applications for the Chromium snap (LP: #2007652).

  [ Robert Malz ]
  * d/p: Fix default service discovery.
    Fix an issue where authentication service was not
    properly picked due to incorrect checks in _isDiscreteServiceEnabled
    (LP: #2065432)
  * Add loginDialog-Don-t-assume-this._user-is-always-defined.patch.
    Cherry-pick for e5d9a0fe
    Fixes null dereference during login with smart cards. (LP: #2065432)

  [ Marco Trevisan (Treviño) ]
  * debian/gbp.conf: Use upstream/46.x branch
  * d/p: unlockDialog: Also center the time in 12h format (LP: #2084276)
  * d/p: Exclude override-redirect windows from workspace animation
    (LP: #2039543)
  * d/p: Use absolute tray icon position in root event coordinates
    (LP: #2059819)
  * d/p: Fix password not re-asked for TCRYPT devices (LP: #2084281)
  * d/p: Keep locate pointer animation when animations are disabled
    (LP: #2039801)
  * d/p: Fix keyboard navigation in AppFolderDialog (LP: #2042763)
  * d/p: Fix connection to WPA Enterprise networks from quick settings
    (LP: #2084286)
  * d/p: Add user permissions to new wifi connections if has no system ones
    (LP: #2084287)
  * d/p: gdm: Actually wait for pending messages being notified on failures
    (LP: #2084289)
  * d/p: Fix themed icons rendering in notifications (LP: #2084301)
  * d/p: Fix notifications not showing in the lockscreen (LP: #2084302)
  * d/p: Allow to set a custom ShellUserVerifier (LP: #2084306)
  * d/p: Fix toggling lockscreen view using Escape (LP: #2084308, #2072716)
  * d/p: Make active workspace above siblings (LP: #2084310)
  * d/p: notificationDaemon: Use correct property name to enable markup
    (LP: #2084293)

 -- Marco Trevisan (Treviño) <email address hidden> Thu, 05 Dec 2024 03:13:58 +0100

[Andreas Hasenack (ahasenack)]

The verification of the Stable Release Update for gnome-shell has completed successfully and the package is now being released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

[Marco Trevisan (Treviño) (3v1n0)]

I've re-uploaded it with 42.9-0ubuntu2.3 version... In these cases I actually like more 42.9-0ubuntu3~22.04.1, but I didn't bother for now.

[Timo Aaltonen (tjaalton)]

Hello zwn, or anyone else affected,

Accepted gnome-shell into jammy-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-shell/42.9-0ubuntu2.3 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-jammy to verification-done-jammy. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-jammy. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

In 22.04, I installed gnome-shell and gnome-shell-common from proposed (version .2.3)
*Logged in to Ubuntu desktop.
*Started Chromium.
*Went to earth.google.com.
*In the right end of the address bar, clicked the icon to install the PWA.
*The PWA opened in a separate window.
In this first launch the PWA was not yet recognized as a different application by the Gnome Shell, so I closed the PWA and opened it again.
*The PWA behaved as a stand-alone program, namely insofar as it:
++was found by pressing Super and then typing its name ('earth').
++launched when clicking that launcher.
++did not share Chromium's tab group in the alt-tab switcher.
++did not share Chromium's launcher icon in the dock.

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

In 20.04, I installed gnome-shell and gnome-shell-common from proposed (version .5)
*Logged in to Ubuntu desktop.
*Started Chromium.
*Went to earth.google.com.
*In the right end of the address bar, clicked the icon to install the PWA.
*The PWA opened in a separate window.
In this first launch the PWA was not yet recognized as a different application by the Gnome Shell, so I closed the PWA and opened it again.
*The PWA behaved as a stand-alone program, namely insofar as it:
++was found by pressing Super and then typing its name ('earth').
++launched when clicking that launcher.
++did not share Chromium's tab group in the alt-tab switcher.
++did not share Chromium's launcher icon in the dock.

[Ubuntu SRU Bot (ubuntu-sru-bot)]

All autopkgtests for the newly accepted gnome-shell (42.9-0ubuntu2.3) for jammy have finished running.
The following regressions have been reported in tests triggered by the package:

update-notifier/3.192.54.8 (ppc64el)

Please visit the excuses page listed below and investigate the failures, proceeding afterwards as per the StableReleaseUpdates policy regarding autopkgtest regressions [1].

https://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/proposed-migration/jammy/update_excuses.html#gnome-shell

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Autopkgtest_Regressions

Thank you!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-shell - 42.9-0ubuntu2.3

---------------
gnome-shell (42.9-0ubuntu2.3) jammy; urgency=medium

  [ Nathan Pratta Teodosio ]
  * d/p/chromium-snap-pwa.patch: Fixes tab and dock grouping.
    Fixes tab and dock grouping of progressive web applications
    for the Chromium snap (LP: #2007652)

  [ Marco Trevisan (Treviño) ]
  * d/p: Refresh git indexes
  * d/p: calendar: Emit selected-date-changed before rebuilding it
    (LP: #1970800)

 -- Marco Trevisan (Treviño) <email address hidden> Mon, 03 Mar 2025 16:05:16 +0100

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package gnome-shell - 3.36.9-0ubuntu0.20.04.5

---------------
gnome-shell (3.36.9-0ubuntu0.20.04.5) focal; urgency=medium

  [ Nathan Pratta Teodosio ]
  * d/p/chromium-snap-pwa.patch: Fixes tab and dock grouping of progressive
    web applications for the Chromium snap (LP: #2007652)

 -- Marco Trevisan (Treviño) <email address hidden> Thu, 14 Nov 2024 13:03:40 +0100