webkit2-gtk mpackage results in "Internal WebKit Error".

[jmercouris (John Mercouris)]

When compiling the Webkit2-gtk like this: sudo port -s mpkg webkit2-gtk, we can produce a metapackage. However, every call to any URL on a machine in which it is installed results in a "Internal WebKit Error". Tested in both the minibrowser, and another known working browser.

[kencu (Ken)]

Hmmm...on which os?

When you say "another known working browser", what do you mean, exactly? It breaks Safari?

[jmroot (Joshua Root)]

There are a few inherent limitations to (m)pkgs, for example they can't run any post-activate code due to not having all the MacPorts machinery available. No idea if that's the problem here, but something to keep in mind.

[kencu (Ken)]

And --- is this a quartz variant, coming from the system where your other ticket reports that you had to do some fairly major hacks to get py-object to build for you?

[jmercouris (John Mercouris)]

I'll try my best to answer all questions:

1. Build machine Catalina, test deployment machine Catalina.
2. "Another known working browser", a browser which depends on WebKit2-gtk, which also breaks, we can call it browser X.
3. This is both for the Quartz AND X11 variant, in both cases, this error is reproducible.

Hopefully that helps!

[kencu (Ken)]

Thanks, helpful. And are the edits you did in py-gobject 61113#comment:9 on this same system too?

[kencu (Ken)]

I think perhaps sort out your py-gobject issue on Catalina, then try your mpackage thing again.

[jmercouris (John Mercouris)]

The tickets are completely orthogonal. The edits for py-gobject are NOT in the metapackage I tried to produce. I tried a X11 meta package (which does not require the edits), and I still get "Internal WebKit Error".

[kencu (Ken)]

OK, good to know. I'm not sure what the webkit2 error is, so looked at this as an issue you might be having.

I doubt we'll be able to sort this ticket out without some idea what error you are seeing beyond "Internal WebKit Error", though. I can't make any headway on that whatsoever with that information, and so I was looking for something that might be broken in your setup, and there is something broken in py-gobject (and maybe elsewhere??).

I don't have any capacity to make a metapackage of webkit2-gtk on Catalina, and then install that on another virgin Catalina system and see what happens.

You might have to dig in on such a system and see what the "Internal WebKit Error" is... is there anything in the console? There are some environment variables that webkit-gtk responds to, to print out debugging information when these are set. You could look into doing that for some inspiration.

I presume you've tried running these from the command line and seeing what happens. Maybe you can run it under lldb on the systems that show the error and see what you might glean from a backtrace of that.

Just spitballin' here for you.

[kencu (Ken)]

BTW -- I'm just about enthusiastic again for upgrading our webkit2-gtk port. It's always such a helluva project to do, and takes hours to build on one system, not to mention on all them, not to mention both x11 and quartz :>

Sometimes, I'm amazed I have it working as well as I do ... I think MacPorts is the only package manager that even tries to provide webkit2-gtk on MacOS.

[jmercouris (John Mercouris)]

You are absolutely correct. I'll have to look if I can build with some further debug options and/or set some environment variables.

There is nothing in the console. The "Internal WebKit Errors" do not report anything useful in the console without setting the aforementioned options, so I cannot provide you with anything useful at the moment.

I can also try with LLDB or Profiler, maybe I can use dtrace...

Thank you by the way for your work on WebKitGTK+, it is the only reason Nyxt is able to exist on macOS. For that, I am very grateful. (for reference, Nyxt ​https://github.com/atlas-engineer/nyxt)

[jmercouris (John Mercouris)]

Also yes, MacPorts is the only package manager which provides Webkit2-GTK for macOS. I have been consulting with the developers about submitting some of your patches + mine (I have some new changes in my ports tree (​https://source.atlas.engineer/view/repository/macports-port)). The developers are quite receptive about adding macOS support.