Proxy configuration broken

[mroi]

I believe I have found two separate issues with proxy configuration. I am running elementary OS 8 in the latest version (8.0.1). With this question, I am mostly looking for guidance in which sub-projects I should file issues.

First issue: Proxy settings get reverted in switchboard

My target proxy setting is the following (given as a Dconf dump):

[system/proxy]
mode='manual'

[system/proxy/socks]
host='localhost'
port=9050

I can enter this configuration in switchboard and if I then look at the Dconf content, it will have these settings stored. But whenever I re-enter the network module of switchboard, the settings get reverted to:

[system/proxy]
mode='auto'

[system/proxy/socks]
host='localhost'
port=9050

The manual setting for mode does not stick. Switchboard keeps changing this back to auto. If others can confirm this behaviour, I assume I should file an issue with elementary/switchboard-plug-network?

Second issue: Proxy settings are ineffective

Even though I have the correct settings stored in Dconf (avoid entering the switchboard network module…), they are not effective. Elementary apps like Web (i.e., Epiphany) should use these proxy settings, but they do not. I can verify this as follows:

> dbus-send --print-reply --dest=org.freedesktop.portal.Desktop /org/freedesktop/portal/desktop org.freedesktop.portal.ProxyResolver.Lookup string:https://example.com
method return time=1753364121.042409 sender=:1.60 -> destination=:1.120 serial=242 reply_serial=2
   array [
      string "direct://"
   ]

Meaning: No proxy is in use. The reason is in the implementation of the ProxyResolver portal within the xdg-desktop-portal service. It uses libproxy to determine the proxy configuration. libproxy however only reads the configuration from Dconf, when the XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP variable is set to GNOME. For elementary OS, this variable is set to Pantheon, so libproxy will not use the configuration.

I see two ways to fix this:

• An immediate workaround would be to amend the entry DesktopNames in /usr/share/wayland-sessions/pantheon-wayland.desktop and /usr/share/xsessions/pantheon.desktop from Pantheon to Pantheon;GNOME. This causes XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP to contain GNOME and libproxy will happily use my configuration.
• The proper long-term fix would be to file an upstream issue with libproxy. I can do this, but I guess it would take a while for this change to trickle through Ubuntu down into elementary OS.

What do you think is the proper course of action? If the workaround is acceptable, would I file an issue with elementary/session-settings?

[mroi]

Next step: filed issue #332 with libproxy.

[mroi]

Step two: filed issue #436 with switchboard-plug-network
Step three: filed issue #89 with session-settings

I guess this is all there is to do for now.