Open Bug 1290670 (thunderbird-flatpak) Opened 8 years ago Updated 1 year ago

Use Flatpak framework to distribute Thunderbird for Linux users [meta]

Categories

(Thunderbird :: General, enhancement, P2)

Product:
Thunderbird
Component:
General
Platform:
All
Linux
Type:
enhancement

Tracking

(Not tracked)

People

(Reporter: mariospr, Assigned: dandarnell)

References

(Depends on 3 open bugs)

Details

(Keywords: meta)

Attachments

(2 obsolete files)

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Fedora; Linux x86_64; rv:47.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/47.0 Build ID: 20160711192800 Steps to reproduce: In a similar fashion to what has been proposed in bug 127871 for Firefox, it would be wonderful if Mozilla could distribute Thunderbird as a flatpak[1], so that it can be distributed as an standalone bundle, independent from any distro. In order to help with this task, I've flatpak'ed Thunderbird 45.2.0 myself and published all the resources used in https://github.com/mariospr/thunderbird-flatpak, released with a CC0 1.0 (Public Domain Dedication) license, which you're more than welcome to use if you want as a baseline of course. Last, as a stretch goal, it would be wonderful if Thunderbird could constrain its sandbox as much as possible and improve its integration with the rest of the system, for what it will likely need some extra development effort in order to use some of the "portals" flatpak offer, such as the Documents and the OpenURI portal, for instance. But that could certainly be better suited to be tracked as a different bug, of course. Just mentioning here for rerefence [1] http://flatpak.org/ [2] https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/wiki/Portals Actual results: On Linux, Thunderbird is only distributed as tarballs or distro-dependent packages such as RPM or DEB.. Expected results: It is possible to install Thunderbird on any Linux distribution using flatpak
I think you mean bug 1278719
Component: Untriaged → General
See Also: → https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1278719
Oh! yes, I did mean bug 1278719, sorry for the confusing typo
Status: UNCONFIRMED → NEW
Ever confirmed: true
Severity: normal → enhancement
OS: Unspecified → Linux
I've been trying to flatpak(1) Thunderbird (52.4.0) myself, but it'd be much preferred if mozilla did it officially themselves. I've made quite a bit of progress but I'm still working out a variety of kinks (e.g. enigmail integration, lightning isn't working, etc). If you want to see the progress I've made you can look at this PR: https://github.com/flathub/flathub/pull/161
(In reply to adrianlucrececeleste from comment #3) Thank you for landing Thunderbird in Flathub[1] and creating a Repository[2]. If Flathub[3] is unable to host Thunderbird Beta[4][5], could Thunderbird Beta Flatpak be hosted on the official Thunderbird webpage[6]. If Flathub[3] is unable to host Thunderbird Nightly[7][8], could Thunderbird Nightly Flatpak be hosted on the official Thunderbird webpage[7]. Unfortunately, there are still some issues[9] with Thunderbird flatpak. Could Thunderbird core developers assist please? @jorgk Could official Thunderbird builds trigger[10] updates to the flatpak version too please? Is this something Thunderbird Release engineering needs to be aware of to enable continuous integration? Thank you [1] https://flathub.org/apps/details/org.mozilla.Thunderbird [2] https://github.com/flathub/org.mozilla.Thunderbird [3] https://flathub.org/ [4] https://www.thunderbird.net/channel/ [5] https://github.com/flathub/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/issues/23 [6] https://www.thunderbird.net/thunderbird/beta/all/ [7] http://ftp.stage.mozaws.net/pub/thunderbird/nightly/latest-comm-central/ [8] https://github.com/flathub/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/issues/24 [9] https://github.com/flathub/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/issues/ [10] https://treeherder.mozilla.org/#/jobs?repo=comm-central
At the moment Flathub doesn't do developmental snapshots. I would have no issue with Thunderbird Beta/Nightly flatpak(s) being hosted on Thunderbird's website though.
(In reply to Óvári from comment #4, and myself from comment #5) If you would need help in how to get Beta/Nightly flatpaks setup, I could try to help. I feel like there wouldn't be much work involved.
(In reply to Óvári from comment #4) > @jorgk Could official Thunderbird builds trigger[10] updates to the flatpak > version too please? Is this something Thunderbird Release engineering needs > to be aware of to enable continuous integration? Yes.
Flags: needinfo?(philipp)
Flags: needinfo?(mozilla)
For the Thunderbird team this has a hard dependency on Firefox completing their flatpak work. When there is a builder that generates the flatpaks for Firefox, we can have our release engineering set up jobs that work just the same. I don't think it makes sense to invest time in doing this beforehand, as it could possibly mean a substantial amount of work that the Firefox team would be doing anyway. I'd much rather re-use their work at this point.
Flags: needinfo?(philipp)
Flags: needinfo?(mozilla)
Depends on: 1471420

Flathub maintainers have released a Flatpak for Thunderbird:

It's been working well for me.

(In reply to Philipp Kewisch [:Fallen] [:📆][:🧩] from comment #8)

For the Thunderbird team this has a hard dependency on Firefox completing
their flatpak work. When there is a builder that generates the flatpaks for
Firefox, we can have our release engineering set up jobs that work just the
same. I don't think it makes sense to invest time in doing this beforehand,
as it could possibly mean a substantial amount of work that the Firefox team
would be doing anyway. I'd much rather re-use their work at this point.

Today Mozilla released first official stable version of Firefox to Flathub. The ball is on Thunderbird team side then. It think it would be reasonable to target next major TB release as first official release to Flathub. Meanwhile you may publish TB betas to flathub-beta repository same as FF did.

You may look and borrow useful stuff (like necessary flatpak permissions) from current unofficial TB app on flathub: https://github.com/flathub/org.mozilla.Thunderbird

Flags: needinfo?(philipp)
Depends on: 1665414

Looks like Rob is aware of this, so I am clearing my needinfo. Would be great to support/build flatpaks directly.

Flags: needinfo?(philipp)
Priority: -- → P2

Hello there. According to https://github.com/flathub/org.mozilla.Thunderbird/issues/250 the current flatpak of Thunderbird is being maintained by single outside volunteer. As flatpak gains importance with the Linux ecosystem, it would be preferable if the Thunderbird team could provide official flatpak releases (or at least hire that single volunteer to do so, since he seems to be doing a pretty good job). Thanks.

I do think we should take this over. Andrei, can you land this plane and get it assigned to someone?

Flags: needinfo?(sancus)
Hardware: Unspecified → All

(In reply to Ryan Lee Sipes from comment #14)

I do think we should take this over. Andrei, can you land this plane and get it assigned to someone?

Sure, Daniel can look into this. It will probably take some time though.

Assignee: nobody → daniel
Flags: needinfo?(sancus)
Severity: normal → S3
Attachment #9321761 - Attachment description: Bug 1290670 - Implement Flatpak repackage. r=#thunderbird-build-system-reviewers → WIP: Bug 1290670 - Implement Flatpak repackage. r=#thunderbird-build-system-reviewers
Depends on: 1822688
Depends on: 1822689
Attachment #9321761 - Attachment is obsolete: true
Depends on: 1825399
Depends on: 1825400
Depends on: 1825841
Depends on: 1825842
Depends on: 1825927
Depends on: 1826228
Depends on: 1826649
Depends on: 1826119
Alias: thunderbird-flatpak
Depends on: 1829223
Attachment #9321773 - Attachment is obsolete: true

During review of initial flatpak manifest[1] @rjl promised some reviews will be addressed in a follow-up but it never happened and we are on the brink of publishing first official Thunderbird release to Flathub. Can we make the follow-up addressing the reviews then?

[1] https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D172732

Flags: needinfo?(rob)
Depends on: 1842948
Depends on: 1843045

(In reply to Emerson Bernier from comment #18)

During review of initial flatpak manifest[1] @rjl promised some reviews will be addressed in a follow-up but it never happened and we are on the brink of publishing first official Thunderbird release to Flathub. Can we make the follow-up addressing the reviews then?

[1] https://phabricator.services.mozilla.com/D172732

Daniel - please create bugs for those items and address them.

Flags: needinfo?(rob) → needinfo?(daniel)
Depends on: 1843051
Depends on: 1843094
Depends on: 1843097
Depends on: 1843099
Depends on: 1843102
Depends on: 1843107
Depends on: 1843110
Depends on: 1844455
Depends on: 1845168
No longer depends on: 1845168
Flags: needinfo?(daniel)
Depends on: 1845495
Keywords: meta
See Also: → https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1629654
Summary: Use Flatpak framework to distribute Thunderbird for Linux users → Use Flatpak framework to distribute Thunderbird for Linux users [meta]
Depends on: 1850013
Depends on: 1850043
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