[Software] Evolution suddenly breaking.

[Retro Hacker]

It worked 2 days ago and now this error.

user@debian:~$ uname -a
Linux debian 5.10.0-21-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.10.162-1 (2023-01-21) x86_64 GNU/Linux
user@debian:~$ evolution
Failed to initialize gtk+: Unable to initialize the Clutter backend: no available drivers found.
user@debian:~$

Cheers,
John.

[Retro Hacker]

FIXED with a kernel update.

user@debian:~$ uname -a
Linux debian 5.10.0-22-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.10.178-3 (2023-04-22) x86_64 GNU/Linux
user@debian:~$


Go Figure ??????

Cheers,
JT.

[terihearcom]

Well, not quite done yet, really cute. Evolution was working until the latest update today to libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37:amd64 (2.38.5-1~deb11u1, 2.40.1-1~deb11u1). No error message. Just a peeping line for viewing the message. Kernel was upgraded to same.

[terihearcom]

Seems to be a recurrence of this bug https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo ... ug=1021112 which has no follow up from Sun, 2 Oct 2022 10:15:01 UTC in sid at that time with an earlier version of libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37.

[sublime-cloud]

I don't have the exact same problem, but Evolution is kind of useless right now because it doesn't display the message body of emails anymore (an email program, unable to show emails ... awesome ). I guess this has something to do with the upgrade I did yesterday. I just reviewed the apt logs. The upgrade included the following gtk-related packages:

gir1.2-gtk-3.0:amd64 (3.24.24-4+deb11u2, 3.24.24-4+deb11u3)
libgtk-3-0:amd64 (3.24.24-4+deb11u2, 3.24.24-4+deb11u3)
gtk-update-icon-cache:amd64 (3.24.24-4+deb11u2, 3.24.24-4+deb11u3)
libgtk-3-common:amd64 (3.24.24-4+deb11u2, 3.24.24-4+deb11u3)
libgtk-3-bin:amd64 (3.24.24-4+deb11u2, 3.24.24-4+deb11u3)

and of course a kernel upgrade:

linux-headers-5.10.0-22-common:amd64 (5.10.178-3, automatic)
linux-headers-5.10.0-22-amd64:amd64 (5.10.178-3, automatic)
linux-image-5.10.0-22-amd64:amd64 (5.10.178-3, automatic)

Any chance this is getting fixed soon? I'm not sure if I can roll back or something.

[terihearcom]

There is an even earlier version of this problem https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugrepo ... bug=975039. The workaround no longer works around. A very crippling work around now is to view the message under fowarding which leave to: blank, so you can look at it, and not accidentally mouse off.

[terihearcom]

I have downgraded libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37 to 2.38.5-1~deb11u1, the version just before the security version that breaks evolution.
This is a note more about downgrading than about either evolution or libwebkit2gtk.

The essential but not unique commands are

$ sudo aptitude install libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37=2.38.5-1~deb11u1
$ sudo aptitude forbid-version libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37

See man pages.

The mileage varies. Dependences depend on history. On one machine, the dependency resolver found the right solution and the downgrade was a breeze. Another machine was in dependency hell, with A dependent on B dependent on A. To break that, gnome et al had to be removed and re-installed.

[terihearcom]

Problem resolved with latest update to evolution version 3.38.3-1+deb11u2.

[sublime-cloud]

Problem resolved with latest update to evolution version 3.38.3-1+deb11u2.

Very nice. I can confirm, problem is fixed

[sunrat]

libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37 was just updated today too:

$ apt list libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37
Listing... Done
libwebkit2gtk-4.0-37/stable-security,now 2.40.1-1~deb11u1 amd64 [installed,automatic]


If issue is fixed, please edit the title of your first post to add prefix [Solved]

[fabien]

Received this today from debian-security-announce@lists.debian.org:

- -------------------------------------------------------------------------
Debian Security Advisory DSA-5396-2 security@debian.org
https://www.debian.org/security/ Alberto Garcia
May 04, 2023 https://www.debian.org/security/faq
- -------------------------------------------------------------------------

Package : evolution
Debian Bug : 1035469

The webkit2gtk update released as 5396-1 introduced a compatibility
problem that caused Evolution to display e-mail incorrectly. Evolution
has been updated to solve this issue.

For the stable distribution (bullseye), this problem has been fixed in
version 3.38.3-1+deb11u2.

We recommend that you upgrade your evolution packages.

For the detailed security status of evolution please refer to
its security tracker page at:
https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/evolution