Show Error Message When Connection Fails

[gasi-signal]

In some cases, e.g. #2327, the app simply hangs if it can’t connect. We should add an error message alerting users to the problem so they don’t have to hunt through the docs. We have the existing yellow connection status area: Can we reuse it? Why did it not kick in for the DNS/IPv6 related issues?

[Maverik]

I tried to take a screenshot of what I was seeing earlier and I can't seem to be able to reproduce it. When I opened the original issue, It was the blue screen with the indefinite progress bar on it. Today it's actually reporting the error:

I wish I had taken the original screenshot but may be it was one off problem? I deleted the Signal folder under %appdata% to revert it to fresh state and cause this screen (along with reverting DNS to Cloudflare IPv6 DNS). Is it possible that there's some other saved state somewhere that needs cleaning? The stacktrace I linked at #2327 (comment) actually has the stack trace from that splash screen but I can't see anything relevant. I'll keep an eye out for the same stuck screen and if I spot it i'll drop another stacktrace in that state in case it lends any more insight.

[Maverik]

Another observation: There's a quick flicker for a frame of a second where this screen changes to something else that I can't see and then it comes back instantly to this screen. Judging by what I saw originally, I'd guess it's going back to that blue connecting screen and then coming back to this instantly (It'd be General Failure error at network level as no IPv4 interface exists and there's no translation available).

Since the stack trace in linked issue is trimmed to first instance of exception only, I've dug out the raw log when I took the above screenshot and attaching here zipped should you wish to see the full state at the time of screenshot (it's in its original json format). Didn't want to open signal again tampering the log to present in it's plain-text form.

Food for thought: Is it really supposed to be trying to auto-reconnect on it's own while presenting me with "Try again" option?