SafeStorage is not available on Debian / XFCE

[krassle]

Steps to reproduce

1. Upgrade from v1.11.100 to v1.11.101
2. Watch it crash immediately after start

Log from terminal:

nova@baas:~$ element-desktop 
/home/nova/.config/Element exists: yes
/home/nova/.config/Riot exists: no
(node:134655) [DEP0180] DeprecationWarning: fs.Stats constructor is deprecated.
(Use `element-desktop --trace-deprecation ...` to show where the warning was created)
Loading app config: /opt/Element/resources/webapp.asar/config.json
Loading local config: /home/nova/.config/Element/config.json
Skipping nonexistent file: /home/nova/.config/Element/config.json
Reached Electron ready state
MESA-INTEL: warning: Haswell Vulkan support is incomplete
Starting auto update with base URL: https://packages.element.io/desktop/update/
Auto update not supported on this platform
Fetching translation json for locale: en_EN
Changing application language to de
Fetching translation json for locale: de
Skipping nonexistent file: /opt/Element/resources/app.asar/lib/i18n/strings/de.json
Resetting the UI components after locale change
Resetting the UI components after locale change
Ensuring storage is ready
safeStorage backend 'gnome_libsecret' selected, 'gnome_libsecret' in config.
Error: safeStorage is not available
    at Store.prepareSafeStorage (file:///opt/Element/resources/app.asar/lib/store.js:273:19)
    at async Store.safeStorageReady (file:///opt/Element/resources/app.asar/lib/store.js:175:9)
    at async App.<anonymous> (file:///opt/Element/resources/app.asar/lib/electron-main.js:401:9)
Opening main window
libva error: /usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/dri/iHD_drv_video.so init failed
(node:134655) [DEP0044] DeprecationWarning: The `util.isArray` API is deprecated. Please use `Array.isArray()` instead.

Outcome

What did you expect?

The app to start and run normally.

What happened instead?

It crashes.

Operating system

Debian 12 bookworm

Application version

v1.11.101

How did you install the app?

Official repo

Homeserver

No Response

Will you send logs?

No

[Rafiot]

And to save you the time, if you already updated, this is where you can download the v1.11.100 and reinstall it: https://packages.element.io/debian/pool/main/e/element-desktop/index.html

dpkg -i Downloads/element-desktop_1.11.100_amd64.deb does the trick.

[dbkr]

We're looking at this with high priority and aiming to do a hotfix for this. It's unfortunate as we tested on a wide range of linux environments. Although I see you upgraded, I'm only reproducing this bug on the first launch of Element on a system account.

A workaround appears to be to explicitly launch with element-desktop --storage-mode=encrypted once, and after that it is launching normally for me. This was wrong: see below for actual workaround.

I'll post more here as we know it.

[dbkr]

Update: this is due to a bug in gnome-keyring which just doesn't work the first time its used: https://issues.chromium.org/issues/343125281#comment16

The workaround is to restart gnome-keyring (or reboot) and then launch element-desktop again.

[networkr0]

Another workaround for KDE is to create a new wallet in Kwallet Manager called "Element" and restart the Element Messenger app. This works for the latest version that had been corrupted, which is nice because the next update will hopefully just fix the issue without me reinstalling.

Note: I am not knowledgeable enough to use the default encryption, which results in a kwallet error, so I used the other option. I think it was called PGP or blowfish.

[krassle]

@dbkr

The workaround is to restart gnome-keyring (or reboot) and then launch element-desktop again.

Unfortunately, on my system, gnome-keyring wasn't installed, so I couldn't just restart the service or reboot.
My minimal Xfce installation only depends on: xfce4 & xfce4-goodies and it gives me a perfectly working environment including the lightdm greeter, thunar and everything else for my needs. A quick reverse dependency check reveals all packages that depend on gnome-keyring, non of which I need or have installed on my minimal system.

nova@baas:~$ apt-cache rdepends gnome-keyring
gnome-keyring
Reverse Depends:
  gnome-keyring-pkcs11
  libglib2.0-0
  virt-manager
  software-properties-gtk
  seahorse
 |libqt6keychain1
 |libqt5keychain1
 |python3-secretstorage
  python3-keyring
  pan
  network-manager-gnome
  phosh-core
  gnome-core
  mate-desktop-environment-extras
  gvfs-backends
  golang-docker-credential-helpers
  gnome-session
  libpam-gnome-keyring
  gnome-keyring-pkcs11
  libglib2.0-0
  gnome-initial-setup
  gnome-session-flashback
  evolution-data-server
 |geary

So, maybe gnome-keyring should be added as a hard dependency to element-desktop.

Anyway, I reverted to the previous release for now and will eventually wait for the hotfix.

Thanks!

[G2G2G2G]

This isn't only debian or even really related to it at all, this is all of linux and as #32041 points out it doesn't even work with his keepassxc.
It'll likely be another year long electron mess like the desktop toolbar icons were
https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/libsecret is what SHOULD be getting used since it can be installed without any dependencies anywhere but instead, of course, it's some crap with 5000 dependencies instead

[MidhunSureshR]

It's more of a chromium issue than an electron issue: https://issues.chromium.org/issues/40926329