Claws Mail 'fancy' plugin missing in 17.10

[Paul Natsuo Kishimoto]

The package 'claws-mail-fancy-plugin', which allows display of HTML messages, is not available in the 17.10/artful archives.

Consequently, it's no longer possible to view HTML messages in Claws Mail.

$ lsb_release -rd && apt-cache policy claws-mail
Description: Ubuntu 17.10
Release: 17.10
claws-mail:
  Installed: 3.15.0-2build2
  Candidate: 3.15.0-2build2
  Version table:
 *** 3.15.0-2build2 500
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu artful/universe amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 17.10
Package: claws-mail 3.15.0-2build2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 4.13.0-16.19-generic 4.13.4
Uname: Linux 4.13.0-16-generic x86_64
ApportVersion: 2.20.7-0ubuntu3
Architecture: amd64
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Thu Oct 19 17:37:51 2017
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationDate: Installed on 2017-10-11 (8 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 17.04 "Zesty Zapus" - Release amd64 (20170412)
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 LC_PAPER=en_GB.UTF-8
SourcePackage: claws-mail
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to artful on 2017-10-19 (0 days ago)

[Hans Joachim Desserud (hjd)]

Thanks for reporting.

Looks like the claws-mail-fancy-plugin was removed in 3.15.0-2 (https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/claws-mail/+changelog) because it depended on a deprecated library, see https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=790199 for details.

[Paul Natsuo Kishimoto (khaeru)]

Ah, thanks for the pointer. I found a related bug in the Claws Mail bugtracker and added the link.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[milki (xmilky+launchpad)]

In case anyone stumbles upon this, here's a stub package which brings back the Fancy plugin:

https://apt.include-once.org/backports/artful-stretch/claws-mail-plugins-dillo-fancy-insecure_3.16~HEAD-3ace185_amd64.deb

Just quickled compiled this from 3.16, but it's binary compatible with the 17.10 claws-mail. Additionally contains the Dillo plugin as more secure alternative. Please see the package description before installing it though!

[Lithopsian (x-uzuntu-c)]

Any progress on getting the fancy plugin back? Claws 4.0 is now on GTK3 and the fancy plugin uses libwebkit2gtk, so the security issues with the legacy libwebkit should be resolved. Or not? I've built the fancy plugin from the 4.0 source and it runs well, nicer than Dillo. Use a shedload of memory though! Claws 4.0 still has a few styling glitches, but seems fairly stable.