Comment 1 Samuel Mannehed 2017-02-22 14:47:55 CET

Moving from 'MediumPrio' to '---' for discussion.

Comment 7 Samuel Mannehed 2024-11-05 16:33:57 CET

A platform specific note under "General" was added for this:

https://www.cendio.com/thinlinc/docs/platforms/general/

Comment 13 Hannes 2025-05-19 11:06:36 CEST

> MUST
> * It must be clear for an admin that the most common issue is that the system
> lacks a desktop environment.
Yes, the updated text clearly states this as a possible cause.

> * There must be a message targeting end-users, to let them know that the issue 
> is not on their end.
Yes.

> * There must be information to the administrator to let them know what step to
> take next.
Yes, we now link to an updated chapter in TAG

> SHOULD
> * The message should be searchable in the TAG.
Yes.

Comment 19 Hannes 2025-05-21 16:27:15 CEST

Resolving again after feedback by mail.

Comment 22 Samuel Mannehed 2025-05-22 12:55:25 CEST

Looks good! The new generic error message is a big improvement compared to the last one. Even if we didn't add any more fancy logic to this, I think new users are now much more likely to understand what's wrong.

I noticed that a release note was missing, so I added one. Otherwise, the code looks good.

Build 4074 was used on a minimal Ubuntu 24.04 without any desktops installed.

Comment 23 Samuel Mannehed 2025-06-03 16:59:50 CEST

After internal discussions, we decided to revise the 4 different error messages a bit. The main aspects we want to change are as follows:

 * We want unique and eye-catching headings for the different errors. The title might be the only thing a lazy user reads.
 * Start the text with the problem, and move ThinLinc-specific details about profiles further down.
 * Include more helpful next steps such as recommendations for installing desktops.
 * Log information in tlsetup.log and xinit.log (for tl-select-profile).

Note that this applies to changes made in many of the related bugs, for coordination these changes are gathered under this bug.

Comment 33 Tobias 2025-06-05 07:48:24 CEST

The profile chooser error page has had its texts for different scenarios updated such that they follow a general structure of

(1) problem statement, including a more salient and problem-oriented header
(2) recommended problem solutions
(3) link to external information

Also, the problems encountered in the profile chooser are now logged in the xinit.log.

Comment 34 Tobias 2025-06-05 07:48:38 CEST

Tested adding a bold delimiter "Recommended next step" between the problem statement and the next step recommendations. While it did look pretty good and gave the pages a more structured look, it did feel a bit excessive since the texts are ultimately quite short.

Moreover, it grew the size of the window even further, which was quite noticeable for the scenario with most content, i.e. when we print the list of desktops. We likely want to be format-wise consistent across the different scenarios.

Comment 69 Samuel Mannehed 2025-06-09 15:00:59 CEST

(In reply to Samuel Mannehed from comment #23)
> After internal discussions, we decided to revise the 4 different error
> messages a bit. The main aspects we want to change are as follows:
> 
>  * We want unique and eye-catching headings for the different errors. The
> title might be the only thing a lazy user reads.
>  * Start the text with the problem, and move ThinLinc-specific details about
> profiles further down.
>  * Include more helpful next steps such as recommendations for installing
> desktops.
>  * Log information in tlsetup.log and xinit.log (for tl-select-profile).
> 
> Note that this applies to changes made in many of the related bugs, for
> coordination these changes are gathered under this bug.

This has now been addressed. Details about profiles were not included in the interface. Such details were moved to the TAG where a new chapter was created for the profile stuff.

Clear recommended solutions were added along with logging.

Tested tl-setup in both GUI mode and text mode, and the profile chooser on Fedora 41:

* No desktops installed
* Only wayland desktops installed
* Unsupported desktop installed
* Supported desktop installed, but all profiles inactivated.

Comment 70 Samuel Mannehed 2025-06-09 15:34:10 CEST

Here's a link to the new profile-chapter:

https://www.cendio.com/resources/docs/tag-devel/html/profiles.html

Note that the links in tl-setup/tl-select-profile doesn't work until we release the 4.19.0 TAG on the web, since they link to the real non-devel version of the TAG.

Comment 71 Madeleine 2025-06-16 13:49:36 CEST

Tested server build 4099 on RHEL9 and Ubuntu 22.04 and verified that the error messages appears as expected. It looks good! I find the messages informative, without being misleading, and that it's obvious that things are misconfigured rather than broken.

The new profile-chapter looks good, and it's helpful that you also mention the session log xinit.log. On RHEL9, I tried creating a fake profile with a dummy .desktop file to bypass the new error messages, just to get a look at the error in xinit.log.

I like the format of the error messages with a short suggested solution and a link to the ThinLinc profiles chapter. One thought: it might be worth referencing or in some way tying together the Common issues section in the new chapter with the more general Troubleshooting ThinLinc chapter.

Comment 72 Madeleine 2025-06-16 14:04:25 CEST

Ignore the last bit about the reference, I was looking at the old version of the Troubleshooting chapter. I see now that it’s been updated with a reference in the new TAG