Hangs on Opening / Stuck at Motivational Quotes

[pfogel]

ScudCloud Version

ScudCloud 1.57 Python 3.5.2 Qt 5.5.1 PyQt 5.5.1 SIP 4.17

Distro and Desktop info

Ubuntu 16.04 64-bit Unity desktop Kernel version: 4.4.0-92

Expected behavior

Actual behavior

When launched, Scudcloud hangs with the loading animation, but never loads any data. Cannot find anything relevant in logs: syslog, Xorg.0.log, etc. Not sure where Scudcloud logs activity.

Often, closing the window and restarting Scudcloud a few times fixes it. Today, restarted Scudcloud at least 10 times. Finally everything loaded after trying Edit/reload about 4 times.

Screenshot attached.

The "self help test" succeeds; results pasted below:

IP Address: 128.xxxxxxxxx
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Ubuntu; Linux x86_64; rv:55.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/55.0
JavaScript: Enabled
jQuery Loaded: Success
Asset CDN: Success (594ms)
Files Legacy: Success (767ms)
Files Edge: Success (395ms)
Files Location: Success (Slack files US West (Oregon) (location: A backend: imgproxy-04a2ca72f3a69c4e1))
Web Socket (Message Proxy A): Success
Web Socket (Message Proxy B): Success
Web Socket (Message Proxy C): Success
Web Socket (Message Proxy D): Success
Web Socket (Flannel): Success
Web Socket (Flannel [No Compression]): Success
Bandwidth: Success (167.3 Mbps, 67 ms ping)

Everything seems to have worked. If you're still experiencing problems, tell us about it.

Steps to reproduce

1. Launch Scudcloud, either from the command line ("scudcloud &") or from the dock icon.

[raelgc]

Hi @pfogel and thanks for reporting this issue.

I didn't notice this... are you under a slow or intermittent connection?

Anyway, I'll keep an eye on my desktop too to check if I'll watch this behavior.

[pfogel]

My connection is fast and steady; part of a University infrastructure and in a building that used to house a super computer center: >200 Mbps.

I reported this because it has been happening pretty consistently. Every morning when I launch Scudcloud I have to restart it multiple times. This morning it took more than 30 minutes of fussing with it to get it to load data.

Where does it log so that I can check what is going on? Or do I need to launch it in debug mode or something like that?

[raelgc]

You can check the JS console: start in the command line with scudcloud --debug=True &, then after it loads, right click in the message pane and select Inspect.

Maximize the Inspector window and click in the Console tab.

[mtb-xt]

I'm seeing the same issue on Archlinux (amd64 kernel 4.12.3): Scudcloud 1.61, python 3.6.2, pyqt5 5.9.

When launched with debug, I can see some errors in the console, I've attached them in this gist: https://gist.github.com/mtb-xt/d4efe788cd4200fde0014ab0dfe983c7

I'm on 200 mbit\s symmetrical connection, and yes, restarting several times fixes the issue. But it started only a few days ago for me.

[skarap]

Seeing the same issue. The error are the same as reported by mtb-xt. Btw I have 2 teams added.

[raelgc]

@mtb-xt I can see several Slack JS errors. Other platform users complained about them too: https://bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi?id=149551

I have a different webkit version running here (I've installed KDE Neon PPA). I'll open the debug console and check if I can see the same JS errors.

[skelband]

I'm getting this with Linux Mint 18.3.

[raelgc]

Please, can you all post the output of scudcloud --version ?

[skarap]

ScudCloud 1.50 Python 3.5.3 Qt 5.7.1 PyQt 5.7 SIP 4.18.1

for me it also started a couple of days ago, so I don't think the webkit issue has anything to do with this. Also - sometimes scudcloud is able to properly load, if I load slack and login in the browser.

[mtb-xt]

ScudCloud 1.61 Python 3.6.2 Qt 5.9.1 PyQt 5.9 SIP 4.19.3

[pfogel]

performance much better the last 2 days, but i'm not aware of any changes on my end. opens on the first try and loads reasonably quickly. possible something changed at slack?

[raelgc]

ScudCloud itself has not changed in the last 2 months. All Slack changes. They keep working and improving their JS. Sometimes they introduce a change that breaks our simple client and we need to change. But sometimes are just changes that they see are breaking some platforms, so they revert or fix.

I wish they had a proper API, but probably this will never happen.

[loonies]

I'm also affected. So annoying.

[mtb-xt]

The issue seems to have disappeared for me, weird...

[CommodoreCrunch]

I also get this on Arch, but only on the second of two teams. It doesn't matter if I restart, refresh, or sign out and back in. That second team never loads.

ScudCloud 1.61 Python 3.6.2 Qt 5.9.1 PyQt 5.9 SIP 4.19.3

[raelgc]

Someone still affected by this issue? Today I just pushed a webkit update for those on Ubuntu xenial and zesty.

[skarap]

I've seen this yesterday and today. Exiting and starting scudcloud again got it working.

[raelgc]

@skarap, still an issue for you? There are 2 issues related to this:

• 546: when connection is lost for some minutes, Qt network libraries in qt5 didn't properly recognize when the connection is available again

• 271: if program starts without internet connection, and the connection is restored after the loadURL timeout, it'll not start properly.

[skarap]

Haven't seen it for a few days now. Will send an update if it stops working again. Thanks

[raelgc]

Thank you!

[loonies]

I'm unable to start Scudcloud anymore. Anyone else affected?

[ghostofkendo]

Today, it started happening again to me too. I'm running Arch Linux.

$ scudcloud --version
ScudCloud 1.63
Python 3.6.2
Qt 5.9.1
WebKit 602.1
PyQt 5.9
SIP 4.19.3

[loonies]

Same here. Turned off Scudcloud the last night, unable to start it since this AM :(

[raelgc]

This is back :(

[skelband]

Doing the JS debug console thing, I see a load of errors at the bottom. Trying to upload a screenshot but I get an error from github :(

[raelgc]

[skelband]

Different browser.

[skelband]

Yep. Looks like we get the same.

[raelgc]

I just tested here in a VM with KDE Neon (i.e., an environment with a newest qt+webkit) and it worked fine.

[skelband]

If there is a deb package available somewhere, I'm happy to give it a go.

[RealGrep]

Yup, was working fine previously, but now I just get an infinite spinny. Arch Linux, installed from the AUR.

ScudCloud 1.63
Python 3.6.2
Qt 5.9.1
WebKit 602.1
PyQt 5.9
SIP 4.19.3

Same as previously posted on Arch. I'm also trying to load the second team I added.

Thanks for your work, BTW, I appreciate it. Very useful.

[pfogel]

Yep, I'm back to this also. ScudCloud 1.57 Python 3.5.2 Qt 5.5.1 PyQt 5.5.1 SIP 4.17

And I also agree with RealGrep: very highly appreciate your hard work. Many thanks.

Am going to try installing the most recent release. (Have been using the version in the repo.) OK, that didn't do anything. Same behavior. Not fixed by repeatedly selecting "Reload" from the Edit menu.

[pfogel]

A colleague has informed me that there is now an official Ubuntu and Fedora package for Slack: https://slack.com/downloads/linux . Last time I checked they didn't have any.

Again, thanks to Rael for all of his hard work here.

[raelgc]

I'm trying to find a workaround for this (spent almost my entire morning on this). But the problem is: even the updated webkit I've published last month is not new enough to get the latest Slack working.

I tried in a KDE Neon (16.04) machine and it worked, but the packages to update are too many.

@pfogel Yes, there is an official client and it's really good.

[dvdn]

Got same issue with last version ( #600 )

ScudCloud 1.63 Python 3.5.2 Qt 5.5.1 WebKit 602.1 PyQt 5.5.1 SIP 4.17

Distro and Desktop info : 4.10.0-33-generic // 16.04.1-Ubuntu // x86_64 GNU/Linux

Merci

[paoloantinori]

Same problem on Fedora 26

[skelband]

@raelgc I appreciate all your efforts on this.

[cbrune]

@skelband I 2nd your thoughts -- @raelgc really appreciate your efforts here.

bums me out a bit. the "official" slack client does not support the X11 URGENCY bit in WM_HINTS, which I helped add to scudcloud.... sure is nice to be able to take things apart and put them back together how you want.

again @raelgc appreciate your efforts.

[anonyth]

Same issue here. My profile matches that of ghostofkendo and RealGrep above. I'm on Manjaro, have built (and rebuilt) from AUR, have stable bandwidth, use ~5 Slacks within, and also tried a fresh .cfg to rule out something sideways in my profile. @raelgc I'm grateful for your effort here. Scudcloud is a pleasure to use.

$ scudcloud --version
ScudCloud 1.63
Python 3.6.2
Qt 5.9.1
WebKit 602.1
PyQt 5.9
SIP 4.19.3

[rashkopetrov]

Same issue here.

It occurred recently just after dist-upgrading the Ubuntu.

~$ scudcloud --version
ScudCloud 1.63
Python 3.5.2
Qt 5.5.1
WebKit 602.1
PyQt 5.5.1
SIP 4.17

~$ uname -a
Linux Alexa 4.4.0-93-generic #116-Ubuntu SMP Fri Aug 11 21:17:51 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 16.04.3 LTS
Release:    16.04
Codename:   xenial

Console log:

TypeError: d["a"].File is not a function. (In 'd["a"].File()', 'd["a"].File' is an instance of ProxyObject)
TypeError: undefined is not an object (evaluating 'TS.interop.redux.configureStore')
TypeError: undefined is not an object (evaluating 'a.id')

[rosshadden]

Guys I'm sure he gets it by now. Just thumbs-up this or an earlier comment if you have the same issue, and if you want notifications click the subscribe button. <3

[tabowling]

Same issue for me on Fedora 26

scudcloud-1.60-1.fc26.noarch python2-2.7.13-12.fc26.x86_64 python3-3.6.2-5.fc26.x86_64 qt-4.8.7-28.fc26.x86_64 package pyqt is not installed sip-4.19.1-1.fc26.x86_64

[HalisCz]

Same issue here on Fedora 26:

ScudCloud 1.63 Python 3.6.2 Qt 5.7.1 WebKit 602.1 PyQt 5.8.1 SIP 4.19.1

[raelgc]

Guys, I spent a good time checking this. It's an "issue" in the Slack JS, very deep one (several layers of obscurity). I wrote "issue", because it works in updated web engines, but not in the qt version Ubuntu 16.04 and Fedora are using.

Solution one could be try to de-obfuscate their JS and see the whole reason for the failure.

Another solution would be upgrade again the web engine, but this time the upgrade would be huge.

The third alternative solution is to use the Qt WebEngine (which is based in Chromium), but will rely on upgrade a bulk of libraries too.

[Alveel]

How do these options compare to each other?

What kind of "huge" are we talking about if the web engine gets upgraded?

The first solution doesn't seem feasible unless you have a lot of free time on your hands, and know what you're doing I think.

[HalisCz]

@raelgc Thank you for quick reply, I really appreciate your work.

Can you include versions of web engine that works?

Do you consider using eg. flatpak for creating budle of scudcloud with up-to-date web engine included, so there will be no dependency hell for users?

Is there any way how can I help you? (Altough I don't have any JS knowledge, but maybe with flatpak etc.)

[raelgc]

@Alveel and @HalisCz, good questions.

Let me try to answer and give more solutions. I'd love comments!

1. Update webkit again

To upgrade webkit again, we need to upgrade more libraries this time (we're already using the most updated supported in 16.04 using default libraries). My first thought was trying to check the packages and dependencies in KDE Neon, because it's 16.04 and it has an updated webkit. But afraid it can break stuff. This will be smallest solution size, I think at least around 500MB.

To investigate this, we should get a KDE Neon install (I have it in a VM) and investigate all webkit dependencies (the package name is libqt5webkit5). I started to investigate once, but didn't finish (several dependencies), maybe there is an easier way to check Debian package dependency tree.

2. Use Qt WebEngine (Chromium based)

To use Qt WebEngine, I know the library is missing in any Debian based distros, but we should be able to download and build it from Qt website. But this uses around 1GB (last time I checked).

And it'll require some update in our code too: http://doc.qt.io/archives/qt-5.5/qtwebenginewidgets-qtwebkitportingguide.html

3. Flatpak

@HalisCz I thought about a flatpak/snap too. But last time I checked the snap dependencies, they were huge too (around 3GB). I'll check if flatpak has less dependencies for webkit/webengine.

4. Try a Electron/JS solution

That will be similar to the official app... what makes me wonder:

5. What's the point of ScudCloud today?

We're playing cat/mouse game here always trying to accommodate all Slack HTML/CSS/JS changes when they break ScudCloud. Made sense when no official client was provided, but now I got wondering if spend so much time with this (usually at night when family is sleeping) makes sense.

It's not Slack fault: they're a company and supposing to keep moving forward. They have an official client since some time ago, and they even improved the memory usage. Of course, we can discuss if they should offer a real API or not, but this is their business.

[HalisCz]

@raelgc

1. Update webkit again

I would suggest run clean docker container with distribution of choice (ubuntu 17.04 I guess) and try to install requested version of webkit. Apt will ask if you agree to install all those dependencies and it wil list them.

2. Use Qt WebEngine (Chromium based)

I am not sure about the idea of trying to fit in weekly updated scudcloud into rock-solid stable distribution like debian. Either users want updated scudcloud, so they should get updated webkit (so no reason to use Qt WebEngine), or they are not. If you are seriously thinking about bundling libraries within scudcloud package, I would deeply suggest flatpak (because of this is it's purpose)

3. Flatpak

I would be happy to help you develop flatpak package, altough I've never tried (yet). If you have library issues, I think this is the correct way.

4. Try a Electron/JS solution

Agreed. I dislike this option.

5. What's the point of ScudCloud today?

Only the project owner can settle the project's purpose. But I can say that I am using scudcloud because:

• I can keep it running in tray and separated from other apps, so when there is pop-up notification, I don't have to browse through 400 tabs in 10 browser windows
• It is not Electron/JS-it-will-eat-all-your-ram piece of sh*t

[djb61]

Unless I have missed it the official client for Linux doesn't work with proxy servers. That is the main reason I had stuck with scudcloud even after they launched the official client.

[chris48s]

Unless I have missed it the official client for Linux doesn't work with proxy servers.

@djb61 From https://get.slack.help/hc/en-us/articles/212924728-Slack-for-Linux-beta-

You can specify the proxy server used with the --proxy-server=IP:port command line switch