WebRTC support (jitsi) in Guix-packaged browsers?

WebRTC support (jitsi) in Guix-packaged browsers?

[Pierre Neidhardt]

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Hi Guix!

Last August I could run WebRTC services such as https://meet.jit.si just
fine.

For the last few weeks I've been unable to run it.  Maybe last Icecat
upgrade?
It does not work on Epiphany either.  Is anyone able to run it?

-- 
Pierre Neidhardt
https://ambrevar.xyz/

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Re: WebRTC support (jitsi) in Guix-packaged browsers?

[Chris Marusich]

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Pierre Neidhardt <mail@ambrevar.xyz> writes:

> Hi Guix!
>
> Last August I could run WebRTC services such as https://meet.jit.si just
> fine.
>
> For the last few weeks I've been unable to run it.  Maybe last Icecat
> upgrade?
> It does not work on Epiphany either.  Is anyone able to run it?

The website loads fine for me in IceCat 60.2.0-esr on GuixSD.  I tried
typing in "test" and hit "go", and it asked me for permission to use the
microphone and camera.  I denied it permission, since I don't really
know what that website or jitsi is about, although I see that (at least
some parts of jitsi) are free software, which is nice to know.  Are you
encountering a specific error?

-- 
Chris

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Re: WebRTC support (jitsi) in Guix-packaged browsers?

[Pierre Neidhardt]

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> IceCat 60.2.0-esr

What is "esr"?  I have IceCat 60.2.0-gnu, would that make a difference?

> I tried
> typing in "test" and hit "go", and it asked me for permission to use the
> microphone and camera.

This is the expected behaviour.  On my end, I have a grey background and nothing
else.  No popup.

> since I don't really
> know what that website or jitsi is about, although I see that (at least
> some parts of jitsi) are free software, which is nice to know.

It is free software (Apache license) as far as I know.
You can run your own instance if you like.  Jitsi has been one of the best VoIP
experience I've had.

-- 
Pierre Neidhardt
https://ambrevar.xyz/

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Re: WebRTC support (jitsi) in Guix-packaged browsers?

[Chris Marusich]

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Pierre Neidhardt <mail@ambrevar.xyz> writes:

>> IceCat 60.2.0-esr
>
> What is "esr"?  I have IceCat 60.2.0-gnu, would that make a difference?

"ESR" stands for Extended Support Release.  I'm just using the IceCat
that comes with Guix.  The exact version of Guix and IceCat I'm using on
my x86_64-linux GuixSD system is:

--8<---------------cut here---------------start------------->8---
[0] marusich@garuda.local:~
$ guix --version
guix (GNU Guix) 40f856fae80ee8a274067fba0837cccb74d9642d
Copyright (C) 2018 the Guix authors
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.
[0] marusich@garuda.local:~
$ icecat --version
GNU IceCat 60.2.0
[0] marusich@garuda.local:~
$ readlink -f $(which icecat)
/gnu/store/8hv5wcrjj9v6xba8nv1256mc1l14g5ni-icecat-60.2.0-gnu1/lib/icecat/icecat
[0] marusich@garuda.local:~
$ guix describe -f channels
(list (channel
        (name 'guix)
        (url "https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git")
        (commit
          "40f856fae80ee8a274067fba0837cccb74d9642d")))

;; warning: GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH="/home/marusich/custom-guix-packages"
[0] marusich@garuda.local:~
$ 
--8<---------------cut here---------------end--------------->8---

I tried just now to install only IceCat in a fresh profile and run it
without using any unnecessary environment variables.  Jitsi still seemed
to work (I got to the point where it asked permission to use my
camera/microphone, which I denied).  I did this in bash:

    cd $(mktemp -d)
    guix package -p .guix-profile -i icecat
    eval "$(guix package --search-paths -p $(realpath .guix-profile))"
    icecat


>> I tried typing in "test" and hit "go", and it asked me for permission
>> to use the microphone and camera.
>
> This is the expected behaviour.  On my end, I have a grey background and nothing
> else.  No popup.

Have you installed any extensions/plugins in IceCat that might
interfere?  Is there any indication of what went wrong in the dev
console (error HTTP status codes, JavaScript warnings, etc.)?

If you can install normal FireFox on your OS, does it work?  This might
help determine if it's a problem with your installation of IceCat.

>> since I don't really know what that website or jitsi is about,
>> although I see that (at least some parts of jitsi) are free software,
>> which is nice to know.
>
> It is free software (Apache license) as far as I know.
> You can run your own instance if you like.  Jitsi has been one of the best VoIP
> experience I've had.

Cool!  I've been curious about trying GNU Ring, myself, but I haven't
had time to look into it much.  Nice to know there are other free
software options out there, also.

-- 
Chris

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Re: WebRTC support (jitsi) in Guix-packaged browsers?

[Pierre Neidhardt]

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Hi Chris!

Thanks for testing this.  So I cleaned up all my left-over config files
(~/.mozilla, etc.), and now it works :(  I should have known better :p
Another great reason to dislike Firefox...

> If you can install normal FireFox on your OS, does it work?  This might
> help determine if it's a problem with your installation of IceCat.

Not needed anymore, but out of curiosity, how do you install Firefox on GuixSD?
Is there a channel somewhere? :p

> Cool!  I've been curious about trying GNU Ring, myself, but I haven't
> had time to look into it much.  Nice to know there are other free
> software options out there, also.

Oh, didn't know about it!  Looks great!  Looking forward to a Guix package! :)

-- 
Pierre Neidhardt
https://ambrevar.xyz/

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Re: WebRTC support (jitsi) in Guix-packaged browsers?

[Chris Marusich]

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Pierre Neidhardt <mail@ambrevar.xyz> writes:

> Not needed anymore, but out of curiosity, how do you install Firefox on GuixSD?
> Is there a channel somewhere? :p

In short, you can usually get any ELF binaries built for your
architecture working on GuixSD if you use a tool like patchelf to change
the ld interpreter path embedded in the pre-built ELF binaries.  To
ensure the program can load the libraries it needs, you might also need
to modify or add embedded rpath entries in the same ELF binaries;
alternatively, you can set LD_LIBRARY_PATH to point to the place where
the required libraries can be found (e.g., in a Guix profile).

I've done this for Firefox on my own GuixSD machine once in the past,
when I wanted to compare Firefox's behavior with IceCat's to
troubleshoot an issue I was having.  It took some trial and error to get
it working.  In any case, the result is a hack that is brittle and
tedious to maintain.  But sometimes, it's a useful trick to know.

-- 
Chris

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Re: WebRTC support (jitsi) in Guix-packaged browsers?

[Pierre Neidhardt]

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Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com> writes:
> You might want to give it a try with all the extensions disabled (burger
> menu -> Help -> Restart with Add-ons disabled) to verify it's not caused
> by an extension.

I had tried that but it wasn't it.  As I mentioned in my previous e-mail, I
ended up cleaning up all the .mozilla folders and it worked!  I guess it was
some configuration transition between IceCat 52 and IceCat 60.

Chris Marusich <cmmarusich@gmail.com> writes:
> In short, you can usually get any ELF binaries built for your
> architecture working on GuixSD if you use a tool like patchelf...

Yup, I've played with patchelf before but I think it's kind of a pity if we
could build it instead.  Did anyone set up a channel?

-- 
Pierre Neidhardt
https://ambrevar.xyz/

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Re: WebRTC support (jitsi) in Guix-packaged browsers?

[Maxim Cournoyer]

Hello Pierre,

Pierre Neidhardt <mail@ambrevar.xyz> writes:

>> IceCat 60.2.0-esr
>
> What is "esr"?  I have IceCat 60.2.0-gnu, would that make a difference?
>
>> I tried
>> typing in "test" and hit "go", and it asked me for permission to use the
>> microphone and camera.

I can launch a video conference room from my Icecat 60 (freshly
updated); it seems to work fine. I did have to whitelist cdn.jitsi.net
in TPRB. I'm also not using LibreJS for the time being.

You might want to give it a try with all the extensions disabled (burger
menu -> Help -> Restart with Add-ons disabled) to verify it's not caused
by an extension.

HTH!

Maxim