Gratuitous installation of Jami disrupted normal computer usage

7 replies [Last post]
amenex
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Joined: 01/03/2015

Jami appeared on my desktop unannounced.
Then it appeared on my panel.
When I removed Jami from the panel, all the other setting vanished with it.
Then I found Jami among the installed applications ... I removed it.
Nice to know it's not intentionally malevolent.

I can restore all the applications to my panel except one: The WiFi button.
I tried unplugging ThinkPenguin's USB WiFi plugin dongle, but that freezes
the 'puter.

Where is the menu entry for the WifFi connection ?
How can I restore that button to the panel?

joshaspinall
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Joined: 01/01/2018

Jami is not malevolent, and is a GNU package that is installed by default with a Trisquel 9 installer. Have you done a new installation, or an upgrade from a previous LTS version?

As for restoring the menu bar icons, have you tried a reset (right-click, reset panel)? You should also be able to add them manually.

Please let us know how you get on!

koszkonutek
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Joined: 03/19/2020

> Jami is not malevolent

To some extent it is. I once mentioned it in an emailed to RMS:

> I noticed that even when I closed the GNU/Linux desktop Jami
>> application, it would silently daemonize itself. It seemed to be a
>> behavior that makes Jami able to run longer and help sustain the p2p
>> network. And at the same time it seemed to be an anti-feature, because
>> in the GUI I saw absolutely no information about this and no option to
>> stop Jami from daemonizing.

He responded:

> I found this surprising too. I won't say it is bad,
> but the interface must make this clearer.

A Jami dev was in the CC field but I got no response from him after that.

Perhaps having Jami installed by default in Trisquel is also meant to help run the p2p network?

lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

> To some extent it is.

So you reported to God, and God said they did not see a problem with that, but you would still want the Jami fallen angels to react and stop it from being malevolent? Holier than God, you are.

Do you have the same qualms with, say, the Transmission BitTorrent client?

I would also consider it a UI topic, not a philosophical point about what an app should tell you. As mentioned in the OP, the Jami icon is clearly visible in the notification zone as long as it is running. This is totally standard for networking apps.

As a UI topic, I always found it disgraceful when an app does not mention that it is only closing its window, and not quitting (i.e. going the daemon way). I would not go as far as calling this kind of behavior malevolent, though. In fact, that could easily be construed as slander.

NB: if you uncheck "show Jami icon in notification zone" in the general settings, then closing the window will also close Jami.

lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

> Jami appeared on my desktop unannounced.

Indeed, Jami does not do ring any more. In all seriousness, Jami is a promising app, but having it installed by default is somewhat surprising. According to the philosophical discussion you referred to in the other thread, it is not exactly mature yet.

> When I removed Jami from the panel, all the other setting vanished with it.

That is even more surprising. Or do you mean that you hit the wrong button and deleted the whole notification applet?

> Wifi button

I can only make a wild guess, but I would think that what you are missing is the "Indicator applet". Not sure what comes by default on Trisquel 9 and what does not, but on my system I can add it by right clicking on the panel where I want it to appear, choose "Add..." and select the applet in the list. I always choose the option to lock whatever I have added to the panel, in order to keep the risk of unannounced disappearances much lower.

amenex
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Joined: 01/03/2015

Fortunately my laptop has two HDD's, one in the normal place, and the other on a
caddy plugged into the CDROM slot, each with its own installation of Trisquel_9.

Jami appeared out of nowhere on the "external" HDD but has been lurking quietly
on the "internal" HDD without interfering.

All I did with Jami on the "external" HDD's panel was to unclick the lock-to-panel
menu item, followed by remove-from-panel immediately afterwards, whereupon all the
other panel items vanished with Jami.

Looking at the Jami.net website, I read "create your own plugins" which brings to
mind my experience with wordpress:
https://www.pinthetaleonthedonkey.com/StatisticsAllYears/May-2018-WordPress/WordPress-attacks-MiDomane.com-May-2018.htm
The webpage covers a few months of wordpress data requests (which can be overwhelming)
but the attachment covers the attack of May 2, 2018 on MiDomane.com. The perpetrators
were trying to upload insecure wordpress app's and then cash in on their weaknesses,
but MiDomane.com has no wordpress installation at all. My ISP blocks all head, post, etc.
requests anyway, so there wasn't any foul.

AttachmentSize
2May2018.txt 21.54 KB
lanun
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Joined: 04/01/2021

> All I did with Jami on the "external" HDD's panel was to unclick the lock-to-panel
menu item, followed by remove-from-panel immediately afterwards, whereupon all the
other panel items vanished with Jami.

Which makes sense, because you cannot remove individual items from the Indicator Applet directly through the panel interface. What you removed from the panel is in fact the Indicator Applet itself. You can instead choose to quit Jami, which will make the icon disappear from the Indicator Applet, and choose to remove it from the "Startup Applications" list so it won't show up again. Since you already uninstalled it, this has become purely theoretical anyway.

What you need now is to add your Indicator Applet back on your panel, following the steps I mentioned above. Again, I am not sure what is the default, but "Indicator Applet" or "General Indicator Applet" should bring back what you are currently missing.

EDIT: "Reset panel" might be an even better option if you have been using the default settings all along, as suggested by joshaspinall.

strypey
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Joined: 05/14/2015

Jami is based on a cool idea, a P2P messenger. It's UX is a significant improvement on the various apps built on the Tox protocol. I've tested group voice calls with a couple of people and it works pretty well. Sadly, a number of fairly essential features are lacking, such as group text chat (which Tox can do to some degree), and the ability to easily sync messages between devices. Progress on such features seems to be always just beyond the horizon.

It's a great idea to have Jami in the Trisquel repos (ideally a recent version) so that users can test it. I don't think it serves Trisquel users to have it installed by default, let alone launched by default. At least until such time as the aforementioned features are rolled out.