FS#45050 - [evince] browser plugin

Attached to Project: Arch Linux
Opened by Nicola Squartini (tensor5) - Friday, 22 May 2015, 09:09 GMT
Last edited by Jan de Groot (JGC) - Thursday, 18 June 2015, 09:00 GMT
Task Type Feature Request
Category Packages: Extra
Status Closed
Assigned To Jan de Groot (JGC)
Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig)
Architecture All
Severity Low
Priority Normal
Reported Version
Due in Version Undecided
Due Date Undecided
Percent Complete 100%
Votes 0
Private No

Details

evince browser plugin was disabled in version 3.14.1-2 as consequence of [ FS#42422 ](https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/42422). I tested the current version of firefox (38.0.1-1) with the plugin installed, and I was not able to reproduce the bug.

I propose to re-enable the plugin in a split package (evince-browser-plugin) to allow epiphany users to view PDFs in their browser, and at the same time allow more testing for firefox interaction. The split package could be abandoned in the future and the plugin re-enabled in the main package once the bug with firefox is cleared.

I attached the patch for the split package. Optionally one could add a post install script with a warning message to firefox users.

Thanks
   browser-plugin.patch (2.4 KiB)
This task depends upon

Closed by  Jan de Groot (JGC)
Thursday, 18 June 2015, 09:00 GMT
Reason for closing:  Won't implement
Comment by Jan de Groot (JGC) - Friday, 22 May 2015, 09:32 GMT
Is that bug fixed because firefox does all plugins out-of-process now, or is it because firefox doesn't load the plugin until it is actually required by something? (does about:plugins work for you?)

Note that though firefox could be fixed in the meanwhile, this also affects Thunderbird.
Comment by Nicola Squartini (tensor5) - Friday, 22 May 2015, 09:47 GMT
about:plugins in firefox reports evince plugin enabled. It might be that I just didn't hit the bug yet, since in the bug report it says "after some keyboard event".
I didn't try thunderbird.
Comment by Nicola Squartini (tensor5) - Friday, 22 May 2015, 09:56 GMT
BTW, although the plugin is enabled firefox still uses its own PDF.js to open pdfs.
Comment by Jan Alexander Steffens (heftig) - Friday, 22 May 2015, 15:35 GMT
Even GTK3 Firefox loads GTK2 into plugin processes and is thus unable to use GTK3 plugins.
Comment by Nicola Squartini (tensor5) - Saturday, 23 May 2015, 08:25 GMT
From what I see with Flash, firefox uses a separate process called /usr/lib/firefox/plugin-container.

What about splitting evince package into evince and evince-browser-plugin with the patch I attached. That would allow more people to test it. If there is still a freeze then you can just uninstall the plugin package.
Comment by Jan de Groot (JGC) - Saturday, 23 May 2015, 09:20 GMT
Firefox doesn't load all plugins as external process. My guess is you can only reproduce the crash when you disable pdf.js

Personally I don't see any reason for embedding a document viewer in a browser. Streaming with pdf is shit anyways, so why not open in an external viewer? Adding plugins makes your browser vulnerable to bugs in those plugins.
Comment by Nicola Squartini (tensor5) - Saturday, 23 May 2015, 10:41 GMT
Firefox and Chrome both open pdf, so why Epiphany should not have this feature. Plus you would have the freedom to uninstall the plugin if you don't like it, or disable it.

I also think the web should only be made of HTML, by time to time I hit some pdf document and I like to open everything in a tab, like I do with other html pages.

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