gbirthday crashes with "glib.GError: Unexpected reply type" error

[tellapu]

I installed gbirthday 0.6.10 on my Ubuntu 18.04 system. I was successful to install (sudo apt install) and run it. But after the first restart of the system it crashes now all the time and gives me this output when starting it from the command line:
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/gbirthday", line 12, in <module>
    main()
  File "/usr/share/gbirthday/gbirthday/__init__.py", line 239, in main
    status_icon = StatusIcon(addressbook, conf)
  File "/usr/share/gbirthday/gbirthday/status_icon.py", line 42, in
__init__
    self._reload_set_icon()
  File "/usr/share/gbirthday/gbirthday/status_icon.py", line 99, in
_reload_set_icon
    notify.show()
glib.GError: Unexpected reply type

I tried to uninstall and re-install gbirthday but it would not help.
After another uninstall I installed the zip-version (also 0.6.10) with ./gb, but I get the same error when trying to start it up.
Then I installed python2-gnome which was mentioned in the README but this did not help, either ...
I am puzzled as it worked on the fresh install but why not afterwards anymore.
Any hint would be appreciated (if you time).

PS: gbirthday was ported to qbirthday (https://github.com/lafrech/qbirthday), maybe this newer app can be included in the Ubuntu repositories although there is a annoying bug: https://github.com/lafrech/qbirthday/issues/13

[Jerome (jerome-jolimont)]

qbirthday maintainer here.

Indeed gbirthday is unmaintained (and is Python2/PyGTK).

When porting it to Qt I renamed it as qbirthday so that anyone willing a GTK version can pick gbirthday where we left it. I doubt anyone will, so switching to qbirthday sounds more reasonable on the long run. Besides, it should be easier to package. It has a setup.py and all. I contacted gbirthday's Debian packager but got no answer. Anyone willing to give it a go, please do so.

I have no idea what triggers this glib.GError and frankly, I won't take the time to investigate. Of course, if a patch is proposed, I can release a new version with the fix.

Meanwhile, @tellapu, you could try qbirthday (you're not the same person as Filbuntu, are you?) and see if you have that same display issue.