Problems with Gitlab

[Bart]

Gitlab does not prompt me (for a confirmation email) if I sign in from a different machine (all this on Windows).
I can however (last time I tried) not login from my linux VM anymore, since I cannot convince gitlab that I'm not a robot. (Mint 18.2-64bit with FF as browser.)

Bart

[JuhaManninen]

I don’t know what would be involved to make this happen but wouldn’t it be great to do the bug reports here in the forums instead of relying on GitHub? An added bonus is you could cross reference the forum history with bug reports.

It is happening in a small scale. People report bugs here and if a developer with commit access sees it, the bug may get fixed without reporting it in Gitlab.
It is not a reliable system though because many developers don't follow the forum closely. The forum has so much traffic that a report gets quickly buried down and ignored.

How about a child forum for bug reports? 

A dedicated bug tracker is better. The forum is meant for different things. A bug tracker supports predefined labels, milestones, links to related issues, duplicates etc. etc.
The Gitlab bug tracker is actually nice feature-wise. My complaints were elsewhere. It is unnecessarily slow at the time when our computers, and I believe also the server computers, are super-fast. The login problem is a serious bug IMO.

[rvk]

Do you experience the problem I explained when switching between computers? Does it always require an email confirmation?

No. On Ubuntu it didn't even give me the cloudflare window (I think).

On Windows I could see the cloudflare window which verified automatically (where on other sites I sometimes need to click "I'm not a robot".

And now on mobile... I can just login using username/password and I'm in.

[Handoko]

I had problem accessing GitLab in the past, I used Pale Moon on Ubuntu Mate. I could browse the site but (if I remember correctly) the left panel always showed only blank content.

I had not tried to visit GitLab using Pale Moon for several years. If I needed to visit it, I used Firefox. But now I just visited GitLab again using Pale Moon. Surprisingly, it had no problem. Maybe the 'rendering' issue have been fixed in newer versions of Pale Moon. Or maybe by GitLab.

[MarkMLl]

It is happening in a small scale. People report bugs here and if a developer with commit access sees it, the bug may get fixed without reporting it in Gitlab.

Speaking personally, I strongly prefer having somebody here give an opinion on any bug or problem I'm experiencing before formally reporting it. In common with most ptojects which have a wide spread of user abilities there are far too many outstanding bugs as it is.

How about a child forum for bug reports? 

I take it that the person who suggested that is volunteering to integrate the child forum with the developers' Git-based workflow.

MarkMLl

[JuhaManninen]

No. On Ubuntu it didn't even give me the cloudflare window (I think).

OK. This is fishy.
Early on when the development moved to Gitlab, I didn't need an email confirmation. Actually I had not read mails from my lazarus-ide.org address then. I had to ask Marc to send me my password when Gitlab suddenly started asking for a confirmation.
What happened? Is there a setting I should check? I don't remember changing any settings there myself.

[zeljko]

I'm using firefox (LinuxMint 20.3). After each update of firefox gitlab sends verification mail. When I verify with updated firefox it does not ask until next update. Not more not less than that

[rvk]

No. On Ubuntu it didn't even give me the cloudflare window (I think).

OK. This is fishy.

Maybe you have 2FA enabled.
I don't have this enabled.

https://docs.gitlab.com/ee/security/email_verification.html

See if it's on on this page under account.
https://gitlab.com/-/profile/account

[MarkMLl]

Early on when the development moved to Gitlab, I didn't need an email confirmation. Actually I had not read mails from my lazarus-ide.org address then. I had to ask Marc to send me my password when Gitlab suddenly started asking for a confirmation.
What happened? Is there a setting I should check? I don't remember changing any settings there myself.

I can see a couple of emails from the same date in mid-'21 which I presume is when Mantis was phased out, but nothing since. Interestingly, I can't see anything from when (I think) I had to reenter my credentials, suggesting that it was more a consistency error than a loss of data.

MarkMLl

[Martin_fr]

A little googling got me to this: https://about.gitlab.com/blog/2023/08/08/gitlab-account-security/

[Aruna]

@Aruna suggested using Lynx for Gitlab. Yeah, not a good joke...

Who's joking :-) The reason why I suggested Lynx, you will see in the first attached screenshot. Then the second screenshot clearly tells you what you need to do to access the site. I am going to put together a short video of Lynx and Gitlab so folks start seeing we have alternate options from way back when that still get the job done :-)

[MarkMLl]

Then the second screenshot clearly tells you what you need to do to access the site.

Except that it doesn't tell you the one thing you need to know: what /version/ of Javascript it wants and what version it thinks you're running.

MarkMLl

[Aruna]

Then the second screenshot clearly tells you what you need to do to access the site.

Except that it doesn't tell you the one thing you need to know: what /version/ of Javascript it wants and what version it thinks you're running.

MarkMLl

Absolutely, I agree. However, this issue only arises during the sign-in process. If I'm just browsing without logging in, Lynx performs exceptionally fast and smoothly. I'll share a video soon to show you exactly what I mean. Possibly later this evening..

EDIT: Lynx is ideal for situations where speed, resource efficiency, and accessibility are critical, particularly in environments where a graphical interface is unavailable or unnecessary. It is also a good choice for users who prioritize security and minimalism. (Like @Joanna).

GUI Browsers, on the other hand, offer a rich browsing experience with full multimedia support, modern web compatibility, and extensive features, making them suitable for general web use and more complex browsing needs. But comes at the price of slower start-up and much longer browser erndering. Where as Lynx is pure and plain text and does not get any faster. Try it if you do not belive me :-)

Choosing between Lynx and a GUI browser largely depends on your specific requirements and browsing environment.

[Aruna]

How to access and browse the Lazarus Forum using Lynx Text Browser
No JS, No video, No audio, No images, No bells or whistles just simple plain old text, and it's fast.

[dbannon]

Real lynx users don't use a mouse. Keep your hands on that keyboard !

Davo