Ubuntu 16.04: Create/Upload sticker pack does not work

[CaviaPorcellus]

• [X] I have searched open and closed issues for duplicates

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Bug Description

The Create/Upload sticker pack option does not work. If the option is clicked, nothing at all happens. If it is clicked again, a blue window opens (a third attempt goes back to nothing, a fourth to the blue window, and so on).

Note that this is similar to closed issue #3821, but is not the same and it was suggested that a new issue be opened.

According to the comments in #3821, this newer issue seems only to affect Linux. It seems to affect several different desktop environments (affects people using Unity, Xfce, Gnome, etc.). I've personally tested on Ubuntu 16.04, where it does not work, yet it works fine for me in Kubuntu 19.10. I thought it might be only affecting older distros, but it affects at least one person with the recent Xubuntu 19.10.

Steps to Reproduce

1. Click the Create/Upload sticker pack option.
2. Click the Create/Upload sticker pack option again.

Actual Result:

1. Nothing happens on the first attempt.
2. A blue window opens on the second attempt.

Expected Result:

The sticker pack creator/uploader appears.

Screenshots

After a second attempt is made, this appears:

Platform Info

Signal Version: 1.33.0

Operating System: Ubuntu 16.04

Linked Device Version: Signal 4.58.5 on Android

Link to Debug Log

https://debuglogs.org/cf5e027e532edf063cf33f3ed50d05d0b87917ff7ade9b0e4abbb2f440cced2f

[josh-signal]

@aibaraiduas can you please click on View -> Toggle Developer Tools, switch to the Console, and check to see if there are any errors there when you try and open the sticker pack creator? You can filter out all the noise just to see errors as well.

[CaviaPorcellus]

@josh-signal Nothing appears in the console when I try to open the sticker pack creator. Not sure if it is relevant, but when Signal starts it does give a bunch of errors:

DevTools failed to parse SourceMap: file:///opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/node_modules/socks/build/client/socksclient.js.map DevTools failed to parse SourceMap: file:///opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/node_modules/smart-buffer/build/smartbuffer.js.map DevTools failed to parse SourceMap: file:///opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/node_modules/smart-buffer/build/utils.js.map DevTools failed to parse SourceMap: file:///opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/node_modules/socks/build/common/constants.js.map DevTools failed to parse SourceMap: file:///opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/node_modules/socks/build/common/helpers.js.map DevTools failed to parse SourceMap: file:///opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/node_modules/socks/build/common/util.js.map DevTools failed to parse SourceMap: file:///opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/node_modules/socks/build/common/receivebuffer.js.map DevTools failed to parse SourceMap: file:///opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/node_modules/popper.js/dist/umd/popper.js.map DevTools failed to parse SourceMap: file:///opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/stylesheets/manifest.css.map

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@aibaraiduas Those errors aren't consequential. What else can you tell us about your computer? When we run things on Ubuntu, we don't see this error, so we're looking for any additional information you can provide.

Does the rest of Signal Desktop works for you? Do you see anything on the unix console when you start from there and try to open the sticker creator? What kind of display hardware do you have? What kind of CPU/Memory usage do you see for Signal Desktop when you try this?

[CaviaPorcellus]

@scottnonnenberg-signal The computer is a Thinkpad T420s (Intel i7-2640M with integrated graphics; 1600x900 display resolution) running Ubuntu 16.04 with the default Unity desktop environment (actually I have two of these laptops with the same internal hardware and OS, though different Android-linked Signal accounts).

Signal Desktop otherwise works perfectly fine. No noticeable change in memory or CPU usage when I try to use the creator.

Once Signal is started via the console, when I try to use the creator for the first time (when no window appears at all) this messages shows up, though it doesn't seem all that significant.

{"name":"log","hostname":"[redacted]","pid":26501,"level":30,"msg":"spellcheck: user locale: en-US","time":"2020-04-28T02:24:59.625Z","v":0} {"name":"log","hostname":"[redacted]","pid":26501,"level":30,"msg":"spellcheck: available spellchecker languages: [\"af\",\"bg\",\"ca\",\"cs\",\"cy\",\"da\",\"de\",\"el\",\"en-AU\",\"en-CA\",\"en-GB\",\"en-US\",\"es\",\"es-419\",\"es-AR\",\"es-ES\",\"es-MX\",\"es-US\",\"et\",\"fa\",\"fo\",\"fr\",\"he\",\"hi\",\"hr\",\"hu\",\"hy\",\"id\",\"it\",\"ko\",\"lt\",\"lv\",\"nb\",\"nl\",\"pl\",\"pt-BR\",\"pt-PT\",\"ro\",\"ru\",\"sh\",\"sk\",\"sl\",\"sq\",\"sr\",\"sv\",\"ta\",\"tg\",\"tr\",\"uk\",\"vi\"]","time":"2020-04-28T02:24:59.625Z","v":0} {"name":"log","hostname":"[redacted]","pid":26501,"level":30,"msg":"spellcheck: setting languages to: [\"en-US\"]","time":"2020-04-28T02:24:59.625Z","v":0}

When I then try to open the creator again (when the blue window appears) no message appears in the console.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@aibaraiduas Thanks for that detail. Have you tried the Sticker Creator on your other laptop?

[CaviaPorcellus]

@scottnonnenberg-signal Yes, it has the exact same issue.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

@aibaraiduas What could be the difference between both of your computers and the ones we're testing Signal Desktop on? Low available RAM? Some sort of interesting plugin?

[CaviaPorcellus]

@scottnonnenberg-signal I'm not sure about the difference. The computers have 8GB of ram, plenty for our regular usage. No special customization.

I did another test, booting a stock Ubuntu 16.04.6 live USB image on a much newer computer, a desktop with an Intel i7-8700K, integrated graphics, and 16GB of ram. Installed and linked Signal: ran into the exact same issue (creator doesn't start, then a blue screen).

Maybe something to do with the older version of the OS? I know some other people have had issues. It's not a hardware issue in this case, since that computer normally runs Kubuntu 19.10, and Signal has no problem opening the creator there.

[scottnonnenberg-signal]

Thanks. I just sent up a new Ubuntu 16.04 VM, and I was able to repro this.

[Adjective-Object]

Ran into this same issue. No errors in console, but when signal-desktop is run from a terminal I get this error in terminal on selecting a file

/snap/signal-desktop/321/opt/Signal/signal-desktop --type=renderer --no-sandbox --field-trial-handle=15105197214385919794,15204010078128582473,131072 --enable-features=WebComponentsV0Enabled --disable-features=SpareRendererForSitePerProcess --lang=en-GB --app-path=/snap/signal-desktop/321/opt/Signal/resources/app.asar --no-sandbox --no-zygote --native-window-open --preload=/snap/signal-desktop/321/opt/Signal/resources/app.asar/sticker-creator/preload.js --enable-remote-module --background-color=#3a76f0 --enable-spellcheck --disable-electron-site-instance-overrides --num-raster-threads=4 --enable-main-frame-before-activation --renderer-client-id=6 --no-v8-untrusted-code-mitigations --shared-files=v8_snapshot_data:100: symbol lookup error: /snap/signal-desktop/321/opt/Signal/resources/app.asar.unpacked/node_modules/sharp/build/Release/sharp.node: undefined symbol: _ZN4vips6VImage15new_from_bufferEPKvmPKcPNS_7VOptionE

Signal v1.34.1, installed via snap.

❯ snap info signal-desktop   
name:      signal-desktop
summary:   Signal Private Messenger for Windows, Mac, and Linux
publisher: Snapcrafters
store-url: https://snapcraft.io/signal-desktop
contact:   https://github.com/snapcrafters/signal-desktop/issues
license:   unset
description: (omitted for brevity)
commands:
  - signal-desktop
snap-id:      r4LxMVp7zWramXsJQAKdamxy6TAWlaDD
tracking:     latest/stable
refresh-date: 4 days ago, at 08:23 PDT
channels:
  stable:    1.34.1 2020-05-19 (321) 119MB -
  candidate: ↑                             
  beta:      1.34.1 2020-05-19 (321) 119MB -
  edge:      1.34.1 2020-05-21 (322) 119MB -
installed:   1.34.1            (321) 119MB -

Fedora KDE spin

❯ uname -a                                              
Linux localhost.localdomain 5.5.10-100.fc30.x86_64 #1 SMP Wed Mar 18 14:34:46 UTC 2020 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Sorry if this is redundant, just trying to provide info on other environments that repro.

[CaviaPorcellus]

I realized running Signal with --disable-gpu allowed the sticker pack window to open and be visible. Though with version 5.0.0, most sub windows no longer open for me (e.g., preferences, about, etc.), as per https://github.com/signalapp/Signal-Desktop/issues/5096.