Crosswalk 7 OpenSSL showstopper

[Andrea_C_]

Hi all,

We have built our app based on Crosswalk 7 and published on the Play Store.

As you already know there was a security issue concerning openssl, so many alerts were sent by the Play Store concerning this.

After 15 of July no more updates will be accepted from the play store for apps that use this openssl version. It seems that, even if Chromium was rebased on the version that does not suffer of this issue, the Play Store still detects the problem (most probably beacause the internal version was not renamed). Another option for us would be to upgrade to a newer version of Crosswalk, but as said in other posts, this at the moment is not an option since we had some performance regressions.

https://crosswalk-project.org/jira/browse/XWALK-3720,

https://crosswalk-project.org/jira/browse/XWALK-3977

Could you please give us some support in order to be compliant before the deadline given by Google?

Thanks

[PaulF_IntelCorp]

We have been working with the Crosswalk team to see if there is a way to make the re-based Crosswalk 7 version acceptable for use in the Google Play store. However, there is no resolution, at this time, and no promise that this path can be made clear to use after July 15.

The alternative is to build with Crosswalk versions 10, 11 or 12. I recommend starting with 10. 11 has some rendering issues that might result in having to rewrite the layout of your app and 12 has issues with the pulldown event (search the forum for a user-contributed solution to that issue). The drawback to these newer versions is reduced performance on some devices, as your issue list points out. Some of those issues can be resolved through the use of some Chromium command-line options. Engineering is in the process of enabling the use of those command-line options in the Crosswalk build. I am not able to publish a date for the availability of that feature in the build system, but will be adding your request to the list of those that require it.

More information will be provided as it becomes available.

[Andrea_C_]

Any news concerning the issue above?

We would like to release a compliant apk before the deadline established by Intel, but unfortunately we can't (see the post above for more details).

Regards.

[PaulF_IntelCorp]

To help resolve the performance issues we are updating the build system to allow the use of Chromium command-line options. This fix would allow you to use, for example, the "--ignore-gpu-blacklist" option, which will allow the GPU to be used on more devices, at the expense of some devices crashing due to bad GPU implementations. There may be some other options in the list that might help, instead of using this one.

While I cannot provide a release date, due to company policy, I can tell you that the plan is soon and should give you enough time in advance of the Google deadline of July 15. I have tried the staging version of this build system, with several Chromium options; so the engineering is mostly done.

[PaulF_IntelCorp]

Hi Andrea, I'm told that the skia fix (for performance issues) is in Crosswalk 14.43.343.16 -- which is the current shared model Crosswalk library that you'll find in the Google Play store (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.xwalk.core). You can build an app that uses this library and try it on your Android devices for validation that this fixes the performance issue (see this article: https://software.intel.com/en-us/xdk/docs/choosing-crosswalk-build-options-shared-or-embedded).

Whether or not you decide to use this approach to deploy and app is up to you, I would consider this feature beta right now. You can also use this library on the debug tab, but unfortunately, there are some version mismatch issues with the Debug tab and that library, so using it is cumbersome until that issue can be resolved.

I cannot tell you when we'll have the Crosswalk 14 embedded library available in the build system, but once the Crosswalk team has done the work to get it into an embedded build it usually does not take much time to make that happen. So, for now, at least, you can do some testing with built apps against that library to confirm whether or not it addresses the performance issues you've been seeing with your app.

Please report back your findings.

[Andrea_C_]

Hi Paul,

thanks for your kind support. This a big news for us! Unfortunately I am afraid that building our app with Crosswalk a shared library can be a problem for two main reasons:

1) An user does not expect to download a library after downloading an app, this could "scare" the user;

2) If for some reasons there are some regressions (as the skia library issue), this wouldn't be under our control.

I'll wait for the 14 embedded library. Anyway I'll do some test performance with the shared library in order to give you a feedback, ok?

Thanks again.

Andrea

[Andrea_C_]

Paul, 

unfortunately the shared version still has performance problems compared to crosswalk 7. Maybe a little better that Crosswalk 12, but the difference is huge, specially when scrolling.

[PaulF_IntelCorp]

Hi Andrea, can you send me a test app that would clearly demonstrate the performance differences you are seeing? I could get this to the Crosswalk team for their investigation. If you make such an app, just ZIP the entire project directory and attach it to this thread. If you prefer, you can send me a private message (Send author a message) and attach it to that message. There is no need to send your existing app, but something representative of what you're seeing in your existing app for demonstration.

Also, a list of the devices you are using that illustrate the problem, along with the version of Android they are running.

[Andrea_C_]

Ok, i will send you a "compiled" version of the app, since I customized the build system a lot in order to use requirejs, templates and so on.

Then you can build with Crosswalk 7 and other versions of Crosswalk. The difference it's remarkable in particular on "older" phones (like my S3 mini).

[Andrea_C_]

Paul,

I have sent you a private message with attached the project. Feel free to contact me.

Andrea

[Andrea_C_]

I forgot to tell you the version of android: Its a kitkat 4.4.4 custom rom (http://novafusion.pl/).

But I have also an Asus Memopad tablet (ME173X) with Android 4.1, same problems there.

[PaulF_IntelCorp]

Hello Andrea, I was not able to see any scrolling problems with three different devices I tried tonight (Samsung S3, Galaxy Victory and Nexus 7). There is another device that might illustrate the problem that I will see if I can get hold of tomorrow. I'm doing the test by simply using the Debug tab (I'm not building the app). Does this mode of testing show you the issue? When I'm using the app it is extremely fast, the scrolling is amazing. It is a very beautiful and impressive app!!

Because I am testing with the Debug tab, and not building an APK, your Facebook and Actionsheet plugins are not being included in the app. Is it possible there is something else going on that is related to these two plugins? Let me know what your results are if you use the Debug tab versus a built APK. Note that the Crosswalk version you select on the Projects tab is what the Debug tab will use when running your app over USB. This includes the shared mode, it will use the version of the Crosswalk library you install from the Play store (use navigator.userAgent to see what version of Crosswalk you are debugging against).

[Andrea_C_]

First of all thanks for  appreciations!

As you can understand, I worked a lot to make the app fast, so that's why I am trying to keep it as fast as possible.

The problem is shown when you *build* the app. I never tried to use the debug tab to test performances.

Just to be sure, I'll try to do exactly your test (using the debug tab) and see if I see the regressions I mentioned.

Thanks for your support and patience.

Andrea

[Andrea_C_]

John,

I tested using the Debug tab and the difference between Crosswalk 7 and the other version it's clear, at least on my smartphone.

I will do exactly the same tests on the other device I have, I will tell you more as I have more information.

[Andrea_C_]

Anyway I think the devices you tested against are a bit more powerful than mine. I test always on my phone (S3 mini - GT-I8190), because I assume that if it works fast here, it should work nicely on other devices. That's maybe the reason because you are not able to reproduce the problem.

[Andrea_C_]

FYI:

The relevant commits to the Skia patches are:

1) https://github.com/crosswalk-project/crosswalk/pull/3108 (Crosswalk 14 backport: the shared beta version has this patched included)

2) https://github.com/crosswalk-project/crosswalk/commit/9beca558a69c74534e1f2941c3bf33085fb069e8 (Crosswalk 15).

These patches look quite different. It would be nice to test against Crosswalk 15.

In my opinion this is the bug I am observing in my device. The best thing you could do if is checking if you see any differences between Crosswalk 12 and the latest shared mode. Crosswalk 12 does not include the patches mentioned above.

[Andrea_C_]

Tested against Crosswalk 15 via Canary build, building by hand: the problem persists.

[PaulF_IntelCorp]

Interesting, I was expecting this Samsung Galaxy Victory to be equivalent to your S3 Mini. It was a cheap refurb running Android 4.1.2 that I picked up recently for testing. Actually, the performance on my S3 was worse (but not terrible). On the S3 I would see some "white space" rows as I scrolled quickly, but the rows would fill in very quickly when the scrolling stopped or slowed down. So even though it had some deficiencies, it was nothing I would consider to be alarming.

I'll see if I can find some other devices for testing. If you could use Mobizen to capture a movie with your S3 Mini and attach that here, that would help me to understand the level of the problem so I know when I've reproduced it.

[Andrea_C_]

Actually on my tablet with Crosswalk 14 now the app is smooth (very good news). It's something just related to my s3 mini. I will try to send a video anyway.

[PaulF_IntelCorp]

I see some jumpiness and delays when scrolling the list (a white screen) with this Samsung Tab 4 (model SM-T230NU) running Android 4.4.2. I'm guessing this is what you are seeing.

This device appears to be on the gpu blacklist, so it may be the GPU is getting reset or something like that due to strange errors. Here are the Samsung devices I found in the Chromium gpu blacklist json file that is located here: https://code.google.com/p/chromium/codesearch#chromium/src/gpu/config/software_rendering_list_json.cc (there should be a Crosswalk source blacklist, but I did not have time to find it).

Note the "machine_model_name" fields, below...

{
      "id": 83,
      "description": "Samsung Galaxy NOTE is too buggy to use for video decoding",
      "cr_bugs": [308721],
      "os": {
        "type": "android",
        "version": {
          "op": "<",
          "value": "4.4"
        }
      },
      "machine_model_name": ["GT-.*"],
      "features": [
        "accelerated_video_decode"
      ]
    },
    {
      "id": 85,
      "description": "Samsung Galaxy S4 is too buggy to use for video decoding",
      "cr_bugs": [329072],
      "os": {
        "type": "android",
        "version": {
          "op": "<",
          "value": "4.4"
        }
      },
      "machine_model_name": ["SCH-.*"],
      "features": [
        "accelerated_video_decode"
      ]
    },

...

{
      "id": 101,
      "description": "Samsung Galaxy Tab is too buggy to use for video decoding",
      "cr_bugs": [408353],
      "os": {
        "type": "android",
        "version": {
          "op": "<",
          "value": "4.4"
        }
      },
      "machine_model_name": ["SM-.*"],
      "features": [
        "accelerated_video_decode"
      ]
    },

[Andrea_C_]

The problem you are seeing is shown on Crosswalk 14? Does the app work smoothly on Crosswalk 7? If so, you have falled in the issue.

The strange thing is that my phone is not in the list you pasted in your last post.

I have tried to make a video on my phone, but all the programs I have used are claiming that my phone is not able to record for hardware limitations, I'll try with a workaround.