# GNOME 3.38 Stack Upgrade Notes
WARNING: Please read this task in its entirety before commenting or upgrading. Seriously.
As is tradition, I'm opening up a task for everyone to report their issues with the GNOME 3.38 stack upgrade. It's absolutely important we maintain focus on reporting issues which are specifically related to this stack upgrade **or Budgie** so we can best work to helping validate and resolve these issues. I welcome you to post a comment if an application is suddenly not working and you strongly believe it is the result of the new stack upgrade, such as it suddenly missing libraries or ones which may warrant a rebuild. If necessary, we may request you file a separate issue so we may obtain further detailed information, which we (#core_team_org, #triage_team) can reference in this task.
NOTE: This task content can only be modified by members of the Core Team or Global Maintainers. We will update the task as comments / feedback are received.
The objective of this task is to facilitate **technical** discussions around changes which have occurred in the GNOME Stack, such as:
- Changes to Budgie Desktop. It is highly encouraged that you test the new Budgie Desktop Icons (which are disabled by default, so be sure to re-enable desktop icons if you used them previously). More details on it are listed below, so you'll exactly what to expect and what **not** to expect with this new implementation.
- Changes to GNOME Shell
- Flatpak and xdg-desktop-portal packages have been updated and likely need more testing than what I have done
- GNOME Applications
This testing is being performed on the unstable repository and may also involve or require real-time communication via our development IRC channel. If you are not in IRC, use any supported IRC client that we provide in the repo (e.g. Hexchat, weechat, irssi, Konversation) and look at [our Getting Involved Page](https://getsol.us/articles/contributing/getting-involved/en/#irc) for connection details.
If you are not on the unstable repository and wish to help test, assuming you understand that the intent of unstable is to be the place where we break stuff and operate under the assumption you check IRC to know **when not to update**, you can run the below mentioned command to switch to the unstable repository:
```
sudo eopkg ar Solus https://mirrors.rit.edu/solus/packages/unstable/eopkg-index.xml.xz
```
## Upgrading Properly
**Do not run any commands until you fully read this section. Thank you.**
I cannot stress enough the importance of ensuring you upgrade properly and fully. If you are not on unstable already, you should **fully upgrade** your system by opting in to every package update available via the Software Center or running `sudo eopkg up` then reboot **before** switching over to unstable.
If you are on the unstable repository, likewise perform a **full upgrade** via either the Software Center or the Terminal, then reboot. If you use Budgie and GNOME and encounter the grey "Something happened" fullscreen window after a reboot and attempt to login, switch to a TTY (typically Ctrl+Alt+F2-9, pick one), login and run `sudo usysconf run -f` then reboot (`sudo reboot`).
If you are using GNOME Shell, be sure to **disable any extensions** which we do not provide / have enabled out-of-the-box. Otherwise you may have a completely broken GNOME Shell experience, or worse it'll crash and you'll have to go through loads of hoops such as hand modifying dconf key values and nuking some extension contents, etc. It is not my responsibility nor the responsibility of GNOME to ensure those extensions are maintained and updated against newer GNOME Shell APIs. If they break, you'll need to talk to the extension developer.
I encourage you to run the following command after the upgrade if you use GNOME Shell to properly reset your extensions back to the stock configuration:
```
gsettings reset org.gnome.shell 'enabled-extensions'
```
Also ensure you are not updating the extensions we support and directly provide, such as Dash to Dock, through any software such as GNOME Tweaks or extensions.gnome.org. It may result in a broken installation.
WARNING: Like I said earlier, reboot your system after upgrading. For realsies.
## Budgie
This GNOME Stack upgrade features a prerelease of Budgie 10.5.2. What does this mean? It'll still report as Budgie 10.5.1 until sufficient public testing of Budgie Desktop View is done, some translations get updated, etc. We may tag Budgie 10.5.2 when we go from unstable to shannon / stable repo, so I can't emphasize enough the importance of testing Budgie, especially the desktop view (not that there is much to test). If you're a translator, I'll be seeing about swapping the remote of Weblate over to Phabricator temporarily so it'll use that as a basis for translations. I would greatly appreciate if you could update translations if you have the sufficient access <3
NOTE: Budgie Desktop translators, I have updated the translations to reflect new functionality for Budgie 10.5.2. It would be greatly appreciate if you could submit translations. If you have pending translations with no individual approving them, please let me know! See https://discuss.getsol.us/d/5774-call-to-action-translators-needed for further details
### Budgie Desktop View
This implementation is **not** designed to replace your file manager or to perform typical file manager actions. If you're expecting something similar to the Nautilus implementation, this is not it. Its purpose is pretty simple:
1. Display an optimal amount of your folders and files in your Desktop folder, based on screen resolution and our options for icon sizes. This is done in a flowbox so everything will flow top to bottom, left to right. No support for putting icons in arbitrary locations.
2. Provide options to enable quick access to your Home folder, "Trash", as well as mounts.
3. Launch items with a single left click.
That's it, nothing crazy. Basically anything besides that is "out of scope" currently. What I do plan on adding (whether before or immediately after a "1.0" release of the implementation) is a right-click menu **on the main canvas** to provide options for accessing both Budgie Desktop Settings and Settings (Control Center), as well as the possibility to swap between single and double click for launching.
Testing it should basically involve:
1. Putting stuff in your `~/Desktop` folder
2. Enabling the show desktop icons option in Budgie Desktop Settings
3. Checking that the implementation actually shows up on your primary monitor.
4. Renaming files should rename them on the desktop view.
5. If you throw a desktop file in the Desktop folder, assuming it has valid DesktopAppInfo it should create an entry so you can launch the app.
If you have issues, please file them **on this task.** Not only is Budgie Desktop View a separate repo from Budgie itself (so it doesn't belong there), but it's currently only hosted on our Phabricator. It'll be moved to our GetSolus GitHub org when it's tested and ready for release :)
## Known Issues or WIPs
### GNOME Shell
As with any desktop environment, there are wide range of issues with GNOME Shell. I would advise checking https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gnome-shell/issues before reporting them here. If there is a patch and we don't have it yet, I'll see about getting it added.
### Mutter
If you are using nouveau or a weird Intel + NVIDIA hybrid, you may experience window flickering when resizing. **This is an upstream issue that GNOME has not addressed. Please address your concerns with this to GNOME.** https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/mutter/-/issues/1445
### Polari
Polari is kinda a weird one. During my testing it wasn't consistently connecting and when it was, I couldn't send a message. It's not an issue with any of the telepathy bits from my testing, YMMV.
## Deprecations / Held Back
There are several deprecations and packages held back (permanently) this cycle.
**Deprecations:**
- Various docs packages that are very unlikely to be used and not worth the extra effort to keep enabled.
- gnome-documents: Does not support tracker 3.0.
- gnome-sound-recorder: Deprecate due to now using libhandy
- libcloudproviders-32bit: Wasn't used for anything, no plans on that changing in the future.
- noise: Has no maintainer. By the time we get one and get it up-to-date, there will be a new noise release with libhandy support.
- vino: GNOME Control Center changed Vino support out for gnome-remote-desktop in Mutter.
**Held Back:**
- Due to libhandy library requirement, which we're not allowing into the repo (it's a mobile-focused graphics library being shoehorned into GNOME apps), the following packages are held back to their last pre-libhandy release:
- Unchanged from previous stack upgrades: epiphany, geary, gnome-calendar, gnome-clocks, seahorse
- New: deja-dup, gnome-boxes, gnome-screenshot
## Testing List
**Testing Notes:**
1. This list may not be comprehensive. Feel free to report other things!
2. Phabricator may indicate something is complete even if it isn't explicitly checked off. Ignore that and only look for the checkbox.
3. There are numerous sections within GNOME Control Center (Settings) that are only applicable to GNOME Shell. If something does not work under Budgie, it does not necessarily mean that functionality is actually broken, but rather it may be the unfortunate result of the functionality targeting a specific desktop environment.
- [x] Bluetooth
- Tested with Bluetooth pairing in GNOME Control Center with phone.
- [x] Desktops
- [x] Budgie Desktop
- [x] GDM (when co-installed with GNOME Shell)
- [x] LightDM + slick-greeter
- [x] GNOME Shell
- [x] GDM
- [x] MATE
- [x] Geolocation
- Tested with GNOME Weather
- [ ] IBUS
- [x] Networking
- [x] Shares (Samba via Nautilus)
- [x] Wireless
- [x] Wired
- [ ] Applications
- [ ] Abiword
- [x] Aisleriot
- [x] Baobab (Disk Usage Analyzer)
- [ ] Bookworm (due to Granite update)
- [ ] Claws Mail
- [x] Evince
- [x] Evolution
- [x] Firefox
- [x] Four-in-a-Row
- [x] Gaupol
- [x] GEdit
- [x] GIMP
- [x] GNOME 2048
- [x] GNOME Calculator
- [x] GNOME Calendar
- [x] GNOME Clocks
- [ ] GNOME Control Center
- [x] About
- [x] Applications
- [x] Background
- [x] Bluetooth
- [x] Date & Time
- [ ] Devices
- [ ] Color
- [x] Displays
- [x] Keyboard
- [x] Mouse & Touchpad
- [x] Printers
- [ ] Removable Media
- [x] Networking
- [x] Wi-Fi
- [x] Wired
- [x] Notifications
- [x] Online Accounts (Tested with a Microsoft Account)
- [x] Power
- [x] Privacy
- [x] Region & Language
- [x] Search (only applies to GNOME Shell)
- [ ] Sharing
- [x] Sound
- [ ] Universal Access
- [ ] Cursor Size
- [ ] Hearing -> Visual Alerts
- [ ] High Contrast
- [ ] Large Text
- [ ] Pointing -> Click Assist
- [ ] Pointing -> Double-Click Delay
- [ ] Pointing -> Mouse Keys
- [ ] Screen Reader
- [ ] Screen Keyboard
- [ ] Sound Keys
- [ ] Typing -> Repeat Keys
- [ ] Typing -> Cursor Blinking
- [x] GNOME Disks
- [x] GNOME Help / Yelp
- [x] GNOME Nibbles
- [x] GNOME Photos
- [ ] GNOME Pomodoro
- [ ] GNOME Power Statistics (GNOME Power Manager)
- [x] GNOME Logs
- [x] GNOME MPV
- [x] GNOME Mahjongg
- [x] GNOME Maps
- [x] GNOME Music
- [x] GNOME Screenshot
- [x] GNOME Sudoku
- [x] GNOME Sound Recorder
- [x] GNOME Tweaks
- [x] GNOME Videos (Totem)
- [x] GNOME Web (Epiphany)
- [x] Glade
- [x] Gthumb
- [x] Hexchat
- [x] Liferea
- [x] Lollypop
- [ ] Lyx
- [x] Nautilus **3.38.1**
- [x] Pitivi
- [x] Play My Videos (due to Granite update)
- [x] Polari
- [ ] Quodlibet
- [x] Rhythmbox
- [ ] Roxterm
- [x] Seahorse
- [ ] Simple Scan
- [x] Shotwell
- [x] Solus Software Center
- [x] Transmission
- [ ] Vocal
- [x] budgie-extras applets if you happen to use them
- [ ] deja-dup (held back, 42.x requires libhandy)
- [x] gtkhash (optionally the nautilus and caja extensions)