Request for classic confinement for "Tandem"

[tan-tandem-chat]

Hello,

I would like to request classic confinement for my Snap, Tandem. Technical Justification

**System Font Access:**
The application requires unrestricted access to system-wide fonts to properly render UI components and text. This is a known issue for Electron apps under strict confinement, as discussed here:
https://github.com/electron-userland/electron-builder/issues/5217.

For my app, this issue occurs on Ubuntu 24.04.

**Electron Runtime:**
Tandem is an Electron-based desktop application that integrates with system resources (e.g., font rendering and theme access) which are unavailable or blocked under strict confinement.

About the Snap

• Snap Name: Tandem
• Version: 2.2.1625
• Electron Version: 21.4.4
• Platform: Desktop (Linux, Ubuntu 24.04)

Due to these reasons, I kindly request approval for classic confinement so the application can function as intended.

Thank you!

[ogra]

There are probably a few hundred electron apps in the store and none of them use/need classic confinement for rendering their fonts, is your app a font manager (if so, a system-files interface to give your app the ability to drop fonts in place should be enough) ?

Also note that classic will only be granted if your app fits into one of the “supported” categories listed on:

Process for reviewing classic confinement snaps

Classic confinement review process Background As of snapd 2.20, snappy supports confinement: classic which allows the snap to run without restrictions. Future releases of snapd will also support a classic interface (name TBD) that operates similarly. Snaps specifying classic confinement may target the stable channel, but are only supported on classic distro systems (ie, not on Ubuntu Core). Because classic confinement snaps run without restrictions, use of classic confinement effectively gran…

[James-Carroll]

Can you ensure that Electron Builder, if you’re using it, is using Core22 or Core24 as a base.

If you’re building with Snapcraft with the normal instructions, can you ensure the gnome extension (or equivilent on older bases) is used?

This problem was fixed 5 years ago, the issue is apps not adopting the fixes, which the extensions apply automatically. Explicitly, the extensions started bundling their own fontconfig tooling and building fontcaches to be compatible with the snaps own fontconfig libraries, since there were situations were forward/backwards compatibility falls apart and does what you’ve linked above. I’ve an Electron app that had this problem 5 years ago and hasn’t had it occur once since.

I believe at some point, Electron Builder started producing snaps that use Gnome extensions by default, but it’d be incredibly easy to be releasing Core18 electron snaps to this day that don’t have it if you weren’t checking.