Bug 774849 – www-client/chromium-89.0.4389.82: missing sync with Google cloud

• Product: Gentoo Linux
• Status: RESOLVED OBSOLETE

[Description manwe 2021-03-08 12:30:05 UTC]

After updating from www-client/chromium-89.0.4389.72 to 89.0.4389.82, feature to synchronize browser settings with Google account is gone. Profile (second icon from the right) is displaying local user, there's no option to enable sync. 

Downgrade back to 89.0.4389.72 enabled sync back. 

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Get chromium <89.0.4389.82
2. Login to Gmail, enable browser sync feature
3. Emerge 89.0.4389.82, feature is gone

[Comment 1 Stephan Hartmann (RETIRED) 2021-03-08 13:26:38 UTC]

Google restricts access to Google APIs and services that are reserved for Google use only (which includes e.g. Sync)[1]. For this we had to disable setting the Client ID and secrets in the ebuild. However, without Client ID you are no longer allowed to sign into your Google account. You can try to setup your own keys for development [2].

[1] https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/chromium-packagers/c/SG6jnsP4pWM/m/Y73W4CecCQAJ
[2] https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/g/chromium-dev/c/jgy5pcJ7np8/m/p3j_4b6vBQAJ

[Comment 2 manwe 2021-03-08 13:33:56 UTC]

In my opition, that's quite the change and should be followed with proper info in the ebuild (pkg_postinst). Especially since we don't have chromium-bin, switching back and forth between versions takes "some" time.

[Comment 3 manwe 2021-03-08 14:22:42 UTC]

What's worse, when you create you profile with older version of chromium and sync  it with G Suite organisation, and then update chromium to 89.0.4389.82 whole profile will be removed (message about this profile being unaccessible).

[Comment 4 manwe 2021-03-08 14:24:31 UTC]

Passing allow-browser-signin=true keeps profile from being cleaned, but so far I'm unable to sync with my API keys (export GOOGLE_API_KEY, GOOGLE_DEFAULT_CLIENT_ID and GOOGLE_DEFAULT_CLIENT_SECRET).

[Comment 5 manwe 2021-03-08 14:30:09 UTC]

OK, so far I was able to sync with public keys. But they'll probably change them in near future. https://github.com/adobe/chromium/blob/master/chrome/common/net/gaia/gaia_urls.cc#L27-L36 

For now:

export GOOGLE_API_KEY=
export GOOGLE_DEFAULT_CLIENT_ID=77185425430.apps.googleusercontent.com
export GOOGLE_DEFAULT_CLIENT_SECRET=OTJgUOQcT7lO7GsGZq2G4IlT
chromium --allow-browser-signin=true 

and sync works in 89.0.4389.82.

[Comment 6 Andrew Udvare 2021-03-09 02:23:38 UTC]

(In reply to manwe from comment #5)
> OK, so far I was able to sync with public keys. But they'll probably change
> them in near future.
> https://github.com/adobe/chromium/blob/master/chrome/common/net/gaia/
> gaia_urls.cc#L27-L36 
> 
> For now:
> 
> export GOOGLE_API_KEY=
> export GOOGLE_DEFAULT_CLIENT_ID=77185425430.apps.googleusercontent.com
> export GOOGLE_DEFAULT_CLIENT_SECRET=OTJgUOQcT7lO7GsGZq2G4IlT
> chromium --allow-browser-signin=true 
> 
> and sync works in 89.0.4389.82.

That's fine but I think if you want to use this feature you should get your own keys from Google's site, until they remove access to such APIs anyway.

[Comment 7 manwe 2021-03-09 08:19:26 UTC]

I know. But so far, following this tutorial https://www.chromium.org/developers/how-tos/api-keys#, I was unable to get my keys to work. Maybe someone else figures this out.

[Comment 8 mercuriete 2021-03-21 22:32:38 UTC]

I can confirm that workaround using comment #5 is working today March 21st.

I would like to see a message on pkg_postinst pointing to some tutorial.

Thanks.