Gnome 40(-44?) requires legacy

[bbenne10]

Attempting to load the latest code from main fails under Gnome 40 on RHEL9 (...we're on ancient machines at work. It's probably better not to ask...). Opening ~/.local/share/gnome-shell/extensions/simple-tiling@domoel/extension.js, I notice that the imports are in the new ESM style. legacy has the right import style, but is marked as only supporting 3.38 in metadata.json. The following patch seems to get it working, but I'm unsure if there are additional things that aren't working, as I am unfamiliar with this extension beyond my work with it this morning.

diff --git a/metadata_legacy.json.in b/metadata_legacy.json.in
index ed08dcf..59fcd7b 100644
--- a/metadata_legacy.json.in
+++ b/metadata_legacy.json.in
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
   "version": __VERSION__,
   "shell-version": [
     "3.38"
+    "40"
   ],
   "settings-schema": "org.gnome.shell.extensions.simple-tiling.domoel",
   "preferences_ui": "prefs.js",

[bbenne10]

There are further issues with the legacy version though. Attempting to load the settings pane seems to fail. Maybe I can adapt the imports from the legacy version to the interim?

[bbenne10]

Given that interim.js has the same import style for the entirety of its existence, I think I'm missing something deeper here. The "real" problem is that Gnome 40 throws an exception about the imports not being at the top level of the module. The stack trace never makes it back to a local file though, so I'm afraid there's something deeper going on. If you want it, I'll happily get you the stacktrace I am seeing.

[Domoel]

Hi @bbenne10,

thank you so much for this incredibly detailed and insightful bug report! Your analysis was perfectly correct and helped me understand the root cause immediately.

The core problem, as you suspected, is a deep technical difference between GNOME 40 versions. GNOME 40 was a transitional release for developers, and this is where the issue lies:

• The import Syntax: The main "upstream" version of GNOME 40 introduced the new, modern JavaScript import... syntax. The interim version is written using this syntax. However, stable enterprise distributions like RHEL 9 often stick with older, more established technologies for stability. Your system's version of GNOME 40 still expects the older const... = imports... syntax. This is why the interim version fails on your machine with the "imports not being at the top level" error.
• The Settings Panel UI: Your idea to use the legacy code was very smart! The reason the settings panel failed is that the legacy version is built with the older GTK3 UI toolkit. GNOME 40, however, expects settings panels to be built using the newer GTK4 and Libadwaita libraries.

Since neither of the existing versions is a perfect fit, I will create a new, dedicated version of the extension specifically for GNOME 40 on systems like RHEL. It will combine the modern logic and GTK4/Libadwaita UI from the interim version with the compatible const... = imports... syntax that your system requires.

Consequently, the existing interim version will be retargeted for GNOME 41-44 only, as those versions reliably support the modern syntax.

I'm working on this new package now. I'll post a link to a test .zip file here as soon as it's ready. Your help in testing it on your system would be essential to confirm that everything, especially the settings panel, works correctly.

Thanks again for your fantastic analysis and help!

Dome

[bbenne10]

I notice that there's a LOT of repetition in the javascript files that we're using here. Is there a way that maybe we could template the javascript files and reuse some of that? Like...the interim version could globally use the old style imports (since I think those only got deprecated in 45 afict?) and you can then reuse the remainder of the file (+/- the other differences, of which there seem to only be ~80 lines or so?) as the canonical code paths?

You obviously get to make the call, but that seems pretty simple to do to me (either with an ad-hoc make-based templating library that concats or otherwise replaces into one interim.js from interim-specific.js and base.js or some other more advanced library that does this kind of thing.)

[Domoel]

Hi,

that is an absolutely excellent suggestion, and you are 100% right. Refactoring the project to use a base.js with templating for the version-specific parts is the correct long-term solution to manage the code duplication. It's definitely the direction I want to take the project in the future.

However, a refactoring of that scale requires a significant amount of time, not just for implementation but also for thorough testing across all version branches to ensure everything works perfectly.

My immediate priority is to get a working version out to you and other users on GNOME 40 as quickly as possible. Therefore, I'm going to proceed with the short-term plan of creating a dedicated "enterprise" version for now, despite the temporary code redundancy.

Once that fix is live, I will open a new beta branch to work on the idea you've proposed. It will be a key goal for a future architectural release.

Thanks again for the fantastic idea!!

Best,
Dome

[Domoel]

@bbenne10: The new version is live (for now only on Github). Could you please test it and if everytrhing is working fine, I will push it to the extension store.

Best,
Dome

[bbenne10]

I've currently found two problems but cannot quite get past the second.

First, the install phase is failing to unzip into the correct directory.
The commit 6ade2e1 is what seems to have broken this. I have not investigated if there was a partial fix after this commit, but you're unpacking into the wrong directory (If the simple-tiling@domoel directory is in the zip, it needs to not be added to $(EXTDIR) in the install-* targets). I can branch and push a simple fix for this if you'd like. I have further changes to the Makefile to actually introduce dependencies between these and to introduce a new "KIND" variable that we can use to template over the differences a bit, but I didn't want to introduce that yet since it can muddy the waters)

The second problem is this:

No JS module 'extension' found in search path

I think this points to line 12:

const Extension = imports.ui.extension.Extension;

Notably, gresource list /usr/lib/gnome-shell/libgnome-shell.so doesn't list this file at all.

Resources that exist

/org/gnome/shell/gdm/authList.js
/org/gnome/shell/gdm/authPrompt.js
/org/gnome/shell/gdm/batch.js
/org/gnome/shell/gdm/credentialManager.js
/org/gnome/shell/gdm/loginDialog.js
/org/gnome/shell/gdm/oVirt.js
/org/gnome/shell/gdm/realmd.js
/org/gnome/shell/gdm/util.js
/org/gnome/shell/gdm/vmware.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/config.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/extensionUtils.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/fileUtils.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/gnomeSession.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/history.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/ibusManager.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/inputMethod.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/introspect.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/jsParse.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/keyboardManager.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/loginManager.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/modemManager.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/objectManager.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/params.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/parentalControlsManager.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/permissionStore.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/smartcardManager.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/systemActions.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/util.js
/org/gnome/shell/misc/weather.js
/org/gnome/shell/perf/basic.js
/org/gnome/shell/perf/core.js
/org/gnome/shell/perf/hwtest.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/accessDialog.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/altTab.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/animation.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/appDisplay.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/appFavorites.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/audioDeviceSelection.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/background.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/backgroundMenu.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/barLevel.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/boxpointer.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/calendar.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/checkBox.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/closeDialog.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/components/__init__.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/components/automountManager.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/components/autorunManager.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/components/keyring.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/components/networkAgent.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/components/polkitAgent.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/components/telepathyClient.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/ctrlAltTab.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/dash.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/dateMenu.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/dialog.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/dnd.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/edgeDragAction.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/endSessionDialog.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/environment.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/extensionDownloader.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/extensionSystem.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/focusCaretTracker.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/grabHelper.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/ibusCandidatePopup.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/iconGrid.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/inhibitShortcutsDialog.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/kbdA11yDialog.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/keyboard.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/layout.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/lightbox.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/locatePointer.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/lookingGlass.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/magnifier.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/main.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/messageList.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/messageTray.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/modalDialog.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/mpris.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/notificationDaemon.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/osdMonitorLabeler.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/osdWindow.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/overview.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/overviewControls.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/padOsd.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/pageIndicators.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/panel.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/panelMenu.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/pointerA11yTimeout.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/pointerWatcher.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/popupMenu.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/remoteSearch.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/ripples.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/runDialog.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/screenShield.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/screenshot.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/scripting.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/search.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/searchController.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/sessionMode.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/shellDBus.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/shellEntry.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/shellMountOperation.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/slider.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/status/accessibility.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/status/bluetooth.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/status/brightness.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/status/dwellClick.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/status/keyboard.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/status/location.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/status/network.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/status/nightLight.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/status/power.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/status/powerProfiles.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/status/remoteAccess.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/status/rfkill.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/status/system.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/status/thunderbolt.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/status/volume.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/swipeTracker.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/switchMonitor.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/switcherPopup.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/unlockDialog.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/userWidget.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/welcomeDialog.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/windowAttentionHandler.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/windowManager.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/windowMenu.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/windowPreview.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/workspace.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/workspaceAnimation.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/workspaceSwitcherPopup.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/workspaceThumbnail.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/workspacesView.js
/org/gnome/shell/ui/xdndHandler.js

I haven't tried with the final class not extending this Extension class. That's my next play.

[Domoel]

Hi and thanks again for pointing these two issues out.

I have fixed the first one and already made a suggetion for the second one. Could you please try again and test the newly issued v7.5?

This new build should fix both issues you reported.

To address the No JS module 'extension' found error you correctly diagnosed, I've refactored the extension's main entry point. The root cause was an attempt to inherit from a base Extension class whose import path (imports.ui.extension.Extension) is obsolete in GNOME 40. The fix was to switch to the standard, more robust pattern for non-ESM extensions: using simple enable() and disable() functions at the top level, instead of a main class that inherits from a base class. This avoids the problematic import and inheritance issue entirely.

Please make sure to completely remove any old version of the extension before installing from this .zip file.

Could you please give it a try and let me know if it works on your system?

Thanks again for your invaluable help!

Dome

[bbenne10]

I've gotten a small changeset working and it gets started with no complaints, but I'm not sure whether it is fully functional yet. The keyboard shortcuts seem to not exist? There's nothing listed in the dialog at all (other than my custom "launch Alacritty" keybind). I'll fork and push a commit you can look over for the full changeset.

[bbenne10]

bbenne10@82cf024 is the changeset I arrived on. This is not all required (I have formatted some code to better match my opinion and have done away with the enable and disable functions entirely), but it does start.

[bbenne10]

I'm pretty sure that the version I linked above is bugged and does not add a keybind properly. There are no keybinds with the names I would expect in the GNOME Keybind management interface. The default binds do seem to work (but seeing as I am on a 40% sized keyboard, some of them are a bit difficult for me to get to comfortably so I need to change them :P)

I think what that means is that my prefs.js is wrong (as the keybinds work but cannot be changed)?

[bbenne10]

I'm no longer using Gnome on RHEL9, so this is no longer relevant to me and I think this version of Gnome is probably worth deprecating support for. I am not able to test support for additional builds, so I am unsubscribing from this. Please feel free to close if you feel that is the best way forward.