registry team mailing list archive

[Felipe Contreras <felipe.contreras@xxxxxxxxx>]

@Nicolas

> But the fact is that this method had never worked.

Grep for "pidgin" in this thread. That method works. In fact, it's the
only one that does. That's why this bug exists and people are annoyed;
the default IM client used to work (Pidgin), now it doesn't (Empathy).

What I would have done is write something that works, like your code for
socks and http proxies, and make it a library, or just copy it inside
the most popular CM's (gabble and butterfly) with a git submodule. This
way you wouldn't be relying on GLib slowness/stubbornness. Once GLib has
proper proxy support, you switch. Problem solved.

The next problem is configurability. Instead of relying _completely_ on
libproxy, I would allow the option to override the proxy configuration
with a CM property, this way even if libproxy is buggy (which it is),
the user would not be stuck. I would have also added the option to read
directly from GConf, and let the user be able to choose this option.

> so I took the long road

With my proposal you have the benefit of both. When libproxy/GIO are
truly ready, you can switch easily, and everyone benefits. In the
meantime, things would work, and this bug would be solved.

> having to update things into distribution to get things to work is completely
> normal

Normal for GNOME people. Other people would rather have something
working _right now_, even it's not exactly the mode ideal, generic,
extensible, and permanent way of doing things. Hint: Pidgin, XChat,
Firefox, Ekiga, etc.

>  But the reality is that HTTP Connect users represent probably less
then 1% of the users

Ha! I would like to see proof of that. How about people following this
bug mention what type of proxy support they need? (socks, http, etc.)
It's important because Nicolas is assuming _everyone_ is using SOCKS,
and that is reflected on how libproxy interprets GNOME network
configuration.

> What Felipe is confusing in his comment is the support for proxy in Telepathy
> against bugs in the libproxy implementation.

Take a look at the title of this bug: use *system* proxy settings. This
means GConf, and this means precisely libproxy. If libproxy returns
"socks", when the user is expecting "http" (which it does), then the
user wouldn't be able to connect, and this bug remains valid.

> We are working hard to make it possible to trigger this choice in libproxy
> without the risk of reducing your connectivity

What you don't seem to understand is that the connectivity is *zero*,
you cannot reduce that, even if you try. Note that libproxy is not used
by anything in Unbuntu, so it doesn't matter what you do there, it would
not affect anyone negatively. The problem is this GNOME mentality, that
everything must be perfect since day 0, and therefore it's OK if things
don't work at all before that, which is the current situation.

> Felipe also often ignore the miss-adapted configuration tool we have
in Gnome.

Works in Pidgin.


Now, I would not like to give the impression that everything is horrible. There is great progress thanks to the efforts of many people, specially Nicolas; we are getting closer and closer to the generic solution, and I certainly would like to contribute to these efforts, when time allows. However, I would like something that works _right now_, and I think everyone here agrees.

So, for me, I'm looking into various solutions that are not "perfect"
but should get the job done (any of them):

 a) By default install only telepathy-haze (no gabble, idle, butterfly, etc.)
 b) Update to libproxy 0.4.6 and apply a patch so it's possible to return both "http" and "socks" for _all_ protocols (msn, xmpp, irc, etc.)

I don't think any other option has any chance of making it for the next
Ubuntu release.

Also, I would like to correct my previous statement that MSN would not
work. It does seem that the latest telepathy-butterfly has the option to
override whatever libproxy is passing, so it's possible to get it
working. However, that would not resolve this bug.

Cheers.

-- 
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Registry
Administrators, which is the registrant for Telepathy Haze.
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/304889

Title:
  Does not use system proxy settings