Nextcloud 19 RC2 is here - help us test it!

[plinss]

But the bottom line is that they can’t personally test and vouch for every third party app. Sorry.

I’m not expecting Nextcloud to test every third party app, I’m asking them to stop breaking them for no good reason.

[Paradox551]

@kesselb You seem like a pretty open developer. Can you explain for everyone why apps are marked incompatible after updates?

That way we can drop this.

Thanks!

[kesselb]

@plinss

If app authors really need to update their apps for compatibility, wouldn’t users be better served if the authors had the information they needed to update their apps before the Nextcloud release? The silence helps no one.

Critical changes for developers & admins for Nextcloud 19

Critical changes for developers & admins for Nextcloud 18

Critical changes for developers & admins for Nextcloud 17

@tflidd

This is kind of essential for good testing

Use embedded previews of ZIP-like files

Add WebAuthn support

Move to subfolders for preview files

https://github.com/nextcloud/server/pull/20033

Faster implementation of sftp read and write stream

test against password history, if configured

Fix DOM problems and styling

Some “cool” features to start with

Releases · nextcloud/spreed

There is also a lot in the queue for Talk 9

@Paradox551

Can you explain for everyone why apps are marked incompatible after updates?

I guess apps without a compatible release are marked as incompatible Afaik the process is that app developers are asked to increase the max-version, check if the app still works (for some apps the ci is doing this) and upload a new release.

As you already mentioned the semantic versioning / release strategies discussion is off topic and the right place for such a discussion would be GitHub anyway.

Thanks for testing to everyone

[nursoda]

Thanks. Yes, sure. I do have a test instance that I can do such experiments on. My post was meant as a status on which app devs did the compatibility check.

Nextcloud team cannot and shall not test all apps and the whole idea of apps in the context of major upgrades is that the core system is released and then app devs ideally follow-up and release compatible versions.

There are some apps though that are marked “official” – at least these should be compatible prior to the release (read “now, it’s RC2”).

And for many of us, different 3rd party apps do matter much since NC is used as a base for an application (such as a photo gallery, or a groupware server). So the status of which apps are marked “compatible” by their devs does matter.

This does not and shall not mean that nextcloud “core”/“hub” itself should not be released once it’s ready, independent of the app readiness. It’s the admin’s job to check if ALL parts of the application are ready to migrate the core system.

[Please allow me one more sentence on semantic versioning: I agree that it would be a great relief for app devs since there seems no need to migrate an app from 18 to 19. In my opinion, the compatibility check / adaption for PHP 7.4 was worth a major version (17→18). So yes, please, open an issue someone if @kesselb thinks that’s the right place. Personally, I don’t think so. It’s a marketing decision of Nextcloud, not a bug, and it should rather be discussed on a conference.]

[anon71540698]

@nursoda

It’s a marketing decision of Nextcloud, not a bug,…

Exactly!
The “Move fast and break things” era is considered over by some, but not Nextcloud!
https://hbr.org/2019/01/the-era-of-move-fast-and-break-things-is-over
Just realize and adjust to it…

I agree that “official” apps should be ready by the time a release is RC2.
But then again, considering the history of OnlyOffice “rocky” relationship, I wouldn’t be surprised if Nextcloud just wants to forget about it…

Consider it a MS Windows release: worth looking into (for production use) after service pack 1…

[Paradox551]

I’m at a total loss on what everyone is complaining about. NC19 is shaping up to be one of their best releases.

Is only office borked or something? I use collabora.

[anon71540698]

Who’s complaining about NC19?
Complains are only about being kept in the dark.
No, OnlyOffice isn’t borked. At least one" flavor" of it. Read above…

I’m also surprised this discussion does take place.
Because there was nothing different when v.18 was released.

I guess that shows how fast Nextcloud userbase grows…

[alfred]

Sadly the “Critical changes for developers & admins for Nextcloud” don’t contain everything that could break an app for a new version, and I refrain from enabling apps prematurely for a new version because sometimes there are breaks between betas or even release candidates. Probably the same for other app developers, hence nobody likes to mark them “compatible” as long as there is a chance that they break.

[nursoda]

Agreed that one should not mark apps “compatible” lightheartedly. Yet, good admin practice includes to (a) test on a separate, uncritical testbed system and (b) never take a “.0” version for production. So, by the time 19.0.1 is out, most apps should be tested

[rakekniven]

Please stay on topic and help testing NC 19.

Have a nice sunday and enjoy life!

[tflidd]

@alfred

I refrain from enabling apps prematurely for a new version because sometimes there are breaks between betas or even release candidates.

Well, that’s the thing about testing and why these versions are released. Like eehmke, I have a test setup with similar apps and same underlying system, and this way I can test all the apps I care about. And during test and development, I try to break the setup to find problems.

@alfred

Probably the same for other app developers, hence nobody likes to mark them “compatible” as long as there is a chance that they break.

Keep in mind, there are many community developed apps. They are tested by their developers to a certain amount (and then probably mark them as compatible), but certainly not the whole range of different deployments of Nextcloud and all imaginable combination of apps.

If you look a bit, there was a topic some time ago about the testing and some ideas how to improve it. Or let’s start a new one if there is the need of discussing this.

My upgrade to NC 19 RC2 went well. So far no obvious problems. However, there seems to be one new thing where I can’t figure out what’s supposed to happen:

Mark one or more file. What does the “Select file range” do? On Firefox/Win10, I don’t see anything obvious??? So I can select a part of a file?

[kesselb]

Ability to select file ranges with mouse or touchscreen

For some details how the feature should work. Please submit a bug report if broken.

[nursoda]

I migrated one test system through all NC19 beta stages without any issue. Yesterday I pushed two staging instances from 18.0.4 to 19.0RC2, also no issues.

Compatible apps of the stage systems that were upgraded: activity, admin_audit, cloud_federation_api, comments, dav, federatedfilesharing, federation, files, files_pdfviewer, files_rightclick, files_sharing, files_trashbin, files_versions, files_videoplayer, logreader, lookup_server_connector, notifications, oauth2, password_policy, photos, privacy, provisioning_api, serverinfo, settings, sharebymail, systemtags, text, theming, twofactor_backupcodes, updatenotification, viewer, workflowengine.

Incompatible apps of the stage systems that were deactivated: apporder, checksum, documentserver_community, files_accesscontrol, files_automatedtagging, files_lock, impersonate, onlyoffice, ransomware_detection, ransomware_protection, spreed, twofactor_email.

Compatibility of all these “incompatible” apps could be overridden and at first glance. At least these seem to work fine: apporder, checksum, documentserver_community, files_lock, impersonate, onlyoffice, twofactor_email.

No issue with the base system or the upgrade path.

Edit: Migrated some production systems aswell, no issues. Forgot to mention system details: Arch Linux (current) with NGINX 1.18.0, PHP-FPM 7.4.6, MariaDB 10.4.13.

[Pisoko]

I love to test the new feature called Passwordless Authentication

But unfortunately I got an error with my Yubikey 5 (NFC) while setting this up:

"The attestation statement format “packed” is not supported."

Any experience from any of you about this? Any requirements needed to use this new feature?

Thx in advance.

[anon71540698]

@Pisoko

“The attestation statement format “packed” is not supported.”

I believe WebAuthn supports packed attestation…
And I know NC19 handles properly the FIDO2 (blue) Yubikeys for passwordless authentication.

Are you by any chance using macOS/Safari?
Try the same key on a different browser/OS…

EDIT
Interestingly, Nextcloud allows to use Yubikey NEO as a WebAuthn device (passwordless authentication). But NEO does not officially supports FIDO2, component of WebAuthn…
https://www.yubico.com/products/compare-yubikey-4-neo/

[Pisoko]

Nice that’s it.
Firefox was the only browser with this issue. (chrome and Edge were fine)
And I love this feature! You can even use your fingerprint on android.

Is there a way to enforce device login?
My idea is to use username-password-login only as backup.
Would be so much easier to login to nextcloud.

[nursoda]

Works for me in Firefox also using SOMU on Arch Linux. Love it, too, especially with 2FA enforced. Real two factors none of which is a password

Wish for 20+: I’d love a combination of a certificate (stored on the computer) and an external second factor such as the mobile app. It may be necessary to allow the admin to not only enforce 2FA but to enforce certain levels of 2FA for certain groups, like to prevent local attacks (just touch non-bio FIDO2 device), or admin attacks (access to e-mail).

[voltoj]

Good morning everyone,
I made a clone of my home production environment and tried to upgrade to NxC19_RC2. Here are the results of the first tests.

Current Environment setup based on Nextcloud 18.0.4
OS: CentOS 8 (4.18.0-147.8.1.el8_1.x86_64)
PHP: Version: 7.4.6
MySQL (Mariadb) 10.3.17

Security & setup warnings collected after automatic upgrade

• The database is missing some indexes. Due to the fact that adding indexes on big tables could take some time they were not added automatically. By running “occ db:add-missing-indices” those missing indexes could be added manually while the instance keeps running. Once the indexes are added queries to those tables are usually much faster.
  Missing index “properties_path_index” in table "oc_properties".
  The database is missing some optional columns. Due to the fact that adding columns on big tables could take some time they were not added automatically when they can be optional. By running “occ db:add-missing-columns” those missing columns could be added manually while the instance keeps running. Once the columns are added some features might improve responsiveness or usability.
  Missing optional column “reference_id” in table "oc_comments".

(All fixed with simple occ(s) command)

• This instance is missing some recommended PHP modules. For improved performance and better compatibility it is highly recommended to install them: bcmath; gmp

(All fixed with simple installation of PHP modules required)

A large part of the applications in use on the production environment have been declared as Untrusted Used Apps. Below are the results obtained by enabling applications that were disabled by the system during setup:

• Splash - > App Enabled without problem, all functionality appear working correctly;

• Side menu - > App Enabled without problem, all functionality appear working correctly;

• AppOrder - > App Enabled without problem, all functionality appear working correctly;

• Impersonate - > App Enabled without problem, all functionality appear working correctly;

• Quota warning - > App Enabled without problem, all functionality appear working correctly;

• W2G2 - > App Enabled without problem, all functionality appear working correctly;

• Ransomware protection - > App Enabled without problem, all functionality appear working correctly, but not deeply tested

• Ransomware recovery - > App Enabled without problem, all functionality appear working correctly, but not deeply tested

• Activities for shared file downloads - > App Enabled without problem, all functionality appear working correctly, but not deeply tested

• Activities for shared file downloads, visible to all admins - > App Enabled without problem, all functionality appear working correctly, but not deeply tested

• Community Document Server + ONLYOFFICE -> App Enabled without problem, I collet the following error…
  [no app in context] Warning: Host 192.168.1.81 was not connected to because it violates local access rules
  [onlyoffice] Error: HealthcheckRequest on check error: Host violates local access rules

I hope my contribution has been useful and can be used to release this new version of Nextcloud!
Have a nice day.

Jeev@an

[Hutzi]

Where is the RC3? It’s scheduled for today

[nursoda]

The access rules error seems to result from the cloning / ip address range, please check what you restricted to. Community Document Server + OnlyOffice is working for me on 7 instances without issue.