xdg-open fails to launch browser

[Robert Collins]

Problem: Step 4 of installing says that running the client will launch a web page. It didn't.

The xdg-open command fails to launch the browser. The error is logged, but there is no indication in the UI that anything is failing.

[Robert Collins (lifeless)]

Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
Package: ubuntuone-client 0.1~9.04-1259-1
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=la_AU.UTF-8
UbuntuoneClientPackages:
 ubuntuone-client 0.1~9.04-1259-1
 ubuntuone-storage-protocol 0.1+bzr30~trunk-0ubuntu1.9.04
 ubuntuone-ppa 2009.04.27-0ubuntu1
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-11-generic x86_64
UserGroups: adm admin audio cdrom dialout dip floppy lpadmin netdev plugdev powerdev scanner video

[Elliot Murphy (statik)]

Thanks for the bug report!
The reason this failed on Roberts machine is because he has disabled firefox somehow, and xdg-open doesn't work. If xdg-open fails, it would be good to show an error message to the user explaining what we tried to do, and saying that xdg-open didn't work. I don't know that we'll be able to let users work around the problem, they will need to fix xdg-open, but giving an error message is better than silent failure.

[Elliot Murphy (statik)]

suggestion from IRC:
> 'xdg-open could not open url <...> please do so manually and click {ok} to continue or {cancel} if you cannot open that web page at this time'

[dobey (dobey)]

Curious. If you run gnome-default-applications-properties, what does it say your default browser is? xdg-open doesn't require firefox. It simply calls gnome-open under gnome, which then opens the appropriate url handler.

[Robert Collins (lifeless)]

On Thu, 2009-04-30 at 13:33 +0000, Rodney Dawes wrote:
> Curious. If you run gnome-default-applications-properties, what does it
> say your default browser is? xdg-open doesn't require firefox. It simply
> calls gnome-open under gnome, which then opens the appropriate url
> handler.

There are two potential issues here: why did my xdg-open fail, and what
should happen when it fails.

The reason for it failing is well understood - this bug is about
handling the failure ;)

-Rob

[Elliot Murphy (statik)]

Since this is about displaying an error message when xdg-open fails, it's not a beta1 blocker.

[Dovix (dovix)]

I get a similar problem - no web page opened after client install and no web page opens when I run Ubuntu One from the menu.

Running it from the command line gives this message:

$ ubuntuone-client-applet --signup
Ubuntu One client applet already running, quitting

If I kill it and run it from the command line it launches the page:

$ killall ubuntuone-client-applet && ubuntuone-client-applet --signup

My default browser (as shown by gnome-default-applications-properties) is Firefox. I also have Chrome installed on this machine.

$ uname -a
Linux dovr05 2.6.28-13-generic #44-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jun 2 07:57:31 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

The machine is AMD 64.

[yannobi (yannobi)]

I don't know if this can help but i've got the same problem, i mean nothing happen when i laucnh "ubuntuOne" from the menu (no web pages, no launcher on the top panel bar).
I killed 2 processes and relaunch ubuntuone-client-applet --signup
Here is the result :

/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/canonical/ubuntuone/oauthdesktop/auth.py:191: DeprecationWarning: BaseException.message has been deprecated as of Python 2.6
  raise UnknownLoginError(e.message)
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.6/dbus/connection.py", line 578, in msg_reply_handler
    reply_handler(*message.get_args_list(**get_args_opts))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/canonical/ubuntuone/oauthdesktop/auth.py", line 230, in got_state
    self.acquire_access_token(description, store)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/canonical/ubuntuone/oauthdesktop/auth.py", line 283, in acquire_access_token
    self.request_token = self.make_token_request(oauth_request)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/canonical/ubuntuone/oauthdesktop/auth.py", line 191, in make_token_request
    raise UnknownLoginError(e.message)
canonical.ubuntuone.oauthdesktop.auth.UnknownLoginError

... and it "freeze" and don't give me the prompt back (i've got to do a ctrl+C)

My spec :
Ubuntu 9.04 uptodate
Gnome
Firefox 3.0.11
Intel32
Linux cogito 2.6.28-13-generic #45-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jun 30 19:49:51 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux

[Stavros Korokithakis (stavrosk)]

This happens for me too, although launching ubuntuone from the terminal with --signup just freezes. I have added a print statement to xdg-open to print path_or_url but execution never reaches that line.

[nsasherr (nsasherr)]

I am having a similar issue -- I have tried testing xdg-open with "http://www.google.com" as an argument, and it properly opens a new tab in my browser (Epiphany). The UbuntuOne client still silently fails, though.

[nsasherr (nsasherr)]

I solved my own problem. It turns out that the packages ubuntuone-client and ubuntuone-client-tools were not installed when I installed the package in firefox via apt:url. After installing these two packages manually, the web site appears as expected.

[Rajeev Sharma (rajeev1982)]

After installing ubuntuone-client and ubuntuone-client-tools it works for me. Guys, how can you leave dependencies in the package and blame xdg-open?

[Conrad Knauer (atheoi)]

Confirmed on my system that this bug is caused by the lack of ubuntuone-client and ubuntuone-client-tools.

[whitefort (whitefort)]

I've added ubuntuone-client and ubuntuone-client-tools, and still get nothing when I click ubuntuone in my 'internet' menu.

However, running 'ubuntuone-client-applet --signup' in the terminal DID bring up the webpage.

[Rosario Nuguid (charo-nuguid)]

I would like to confirm as well that adding ubuntuone-client and ubuntuone-client-tools and running

$ killall ubuntuone-client-applet && ubuntuone-client-applet --signup

solved my problem as well.

[Zesty (collibar)]

Tried all the above solutions with no luck. I noticed someone mentioned they had Chrome installed, as I do as well. Will try removing it.

[Zesty (collibar)]

Still no luck after removing Chromium.

[Zesty (collibar)]

Decided on a whim to try and manually install ubuntuone-client again. It now works fine.

[dei (cephos)]

Also have G Chrome installed, but workaround with the two missing packages work. I also have various firefox 3.5-rc, 3.0 and 3.5 final installed, so browsers seem not to be a problem...

are you sure you killall 'ed ubuntuone-client-applet and restarted it after adding the two missing packes?

[DeadEnd (homegridworks)]

Nothing useful to add apart from the above solution solved the problem of ubuntuone-client-applet not working as expected.
I

[Tom Hudson (trhudson)]

Following Cheiron's comments, I also was able to resolve the issue by installing the packages ubuntuone-client and ubuntuone-client-tools. As a side note, I am using FireFox 3.5 therefore I'm not sure if the apt:url didn't install because of this...

[Patropi (marcelopatropi)]

Manually installing ubuntuone-client and ubuntuone-client-tools; killilng ubuntuone-client-applet and launching from menu worked for me.

Ubuntu 9.04
Firefox 3.0.11

[booradlus (bpablosmith)]

Also fixed via installs of ubuntuone-client and ubuntuone-client tools. Default browser was set to firefox.

Ubuntu 9.04 amd64, Firefox 3.0.11

[FAJALOU (fajalou)]

Sounds like two different bugs to me; one concerning --signup, and one concerning the dependencies. I couldn't get step four to work either, and so I tried the ubuntuone-client-applet --signup and that did the trick....

[Matt Griffin (mattgriffin)]

Lots of people have reported this issue in quite a few ways (see duplicates list). This will be resolved very soon (most likely Monday). I'm going to write a LP answer to detail the installation process conclusions discovered in this thread. Thanks to everyone for their help (and for helping each other).

[Matt Griffin (mattgriffin)]

Just posted the LP Answer for this bug [1]. Cheiron (or anyone else)... please take a look and make sure I've captured the necessary details. Thanks!

[1] https://answers.launchpad.net/ubunet/+question/76131

[Kenny Leao (zazaqr)]

i am using a dell mini 9 netbook with ubuntu 9.04 netbook remix.

same problem with me on step 4. webpage did not open when i clicked on the Ubuntuone icon.

on terminal, i typed in

top

and it says ubuntuone is active.

killall -9 ubuntuone

I have also uninstalled everything and manually installed everything back.

and re-tried many time to click on the ubuntuone icon. it did not open any webpages.

I even enable the Software Sources > Updates > Pre-release updates (jaunty-proposed)

did not work.

[David Rahrer (david-rahrer)]

Similar to many:

Manually installing ubuntuone-client and ubuntuone-client-tools; killing ubuntuone-client-applet and launching from menu worked for me.

Ubuntu 9.04 (32) on AMD
Firefox 3.0.11

[[e-mail] (castrumargenti)]

I installed ubuntuone from the installation page but, after, when I try to open ubuntuone client from the menu Applications->Internet->Ubuntu One, nothing happen and I had some trouble with the GUI (for example clicking on the trash nothing happen). After I've manually installed "ubuntuone-client" and "ubuntuone-client-tools"; killed "ubuntuone-client-applet" and launched it from menu: it worked.

Ubuntu 9.04 (32) on Intel P4
Firefox 3.0.11

[merovius (merovius)]

Same issue here. Had to install ubuntuone-client and ubuntuone-client-tools by hand then log out/in for it to work.

[Pasi (pasi-lehtimaki)]

Same issue as reported above on my both machines. Laptop and desktop. Installation of ubuntuone-client and ubuntuone-client-tools and relaunching the applet fixed it in both cases.

[dobey (dobey)]

This bug is about the case where xdg-open fails to launch the browser. The new issues are completely different, and are a result of a dependency problem created during the recent package splitting. This dependency problem will be fixed in an update today.

[elgilicious (elginearl-deactivatedaccount)]

I've had the same problem on two different computers. On this laptop, installing ubuntuone-client-tools and logging out/back in worked. On my other PC, removing the Ubuntu One token from Passwords tab under Accessories > Passwords and Encryption Keys did the trick.

[noktafa (platonick)]

https://answers.launchpad.net/ubunet/+question/76131
worked for;
Ubuntu 9.04 (32) on intel t6400
Firefox 3.0.11

[Ben (ben2talk)]

With Opera10, I get the following error:

Error!
A page on the public Internet requests data from your computer. For security reasons, automatic access is blocked.

You tried to access the address https://ubuntuone.com/oauth/authorize/?oauth_token=MjbSZGqFJxX37rgznvcB&oauth_callback=http%253A%252F%252F127.0.0.1%253A45066%252F%253Fnonce%253D7322998, which is currently unavailable. Please make sure that the Web address (URL) is correctly spelled and punctuated, then try reloading the page.
Make sure your Internet connection is active and check whether other applications that rely on the same connection are working.

[Ben (ben2talk)]

With Firefox 3.5 I get this:

Unable to connect

Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at 127.0.0.1:45066.

Let's try to troubleshoot the problem:

    * Check Internet connection: Your Internet connection seems to be working!

[dobey (dobey)]

Hi Ben,

Are you using a proxy to connect to the Internet? If so, it seems like
it is slightly mis-configured to attempt to connect to localhost via the
proxy as well. Is this the case? The proxy issue is bug #376760 and not
this one, which is for the browser silently failing to launch. Thanks.

On Thu, 2009-07-09 at 10:33 +0000, Ben wrote:
> With Firefox 3.5 I get this:
>
> Unable to connect
>
> Firefox can't establish a connection to the server at 127.0.0.1:45066.
>

[bhuvi (bhuvanesh)]

webpage didnt open even after doing all of these.
I'm behind a squid proxy

[dobey (dobey)]

There is another bug about supporting proxies. This bug was about handling errors when xdg-open fails to launch the browser.

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

bhuvi: Thank you for trying to find a matching bug report. If this case, could you please file a new bug report describing *your* exact problem, and somebody can then analyse the exact circumstances in your situation and follow-up with debugging requests, or dup (duplicate) it to the appropriate bug if it should match.

[dobey (dobey)]

The correct bug report that bhuvi's issue is a duplicate of, is bug
#387308 which was apparently incorrectly marked as a duplicated of
another bug.

On Sun, 2009-08-09 at 23:32 +0000, Paul Sladen wrote:
> bhuvi: Thank you for trying to find a matching bug report. If this
> case, could you please file a new bug report describing *your* exact
> problem, and somebody can then analyse the exact circumstances in your
> situation and follow-up with debugging requests, or dup (duplicate) it
> to the appropriate bug if it should match.
>

[mohawke (mohawke-gmail)]

I also have this problem. I've tried everything on this thread and nothing. I am running Ubuntu 9.04 32bit, fairly new install. I am not behind a proxy. I simply get a key error.

The error I get is:

$ ubuntuone-client-applet
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/var/lib/python-support/python2.6/dbus/connection.py", line 578, in msg_reply_handler
    reply_handler(*message.get_args_list(**get_args_opts))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/ubuntuone/oauthdesktop/auth.py", line 251, in got_state
    self.acquire_access_token(description, store)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/ubuntuone/oauthdesktop/auth.py", line 317, in acquire_access_token
    callback=callback_url)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/ubuntuone/storageprotocol/oauth.py", line 286, in from_token_and_callback
    parameters['oauth_token'] = token.key
AttributeError: 'NoneType' object has no attribute 'key'

[dobey (dobey)]

On Wed, 2009-09-16 at 15:37 +0000, mohawke wrote:
> I also have this problem. I've tried everything on this thread and
> nothing. I am running Ubuntu 9.04 32bit, fairly new install. I am not
> behind a proxy. I simply get a key error.

You're experiencing a different, more recent issue. This is fixed in the
latest update that was pushed out (0.95.0+r213), however we've hit a
slight snag with the update on Jaunty 9.04. This is also being fixed
right now (just waiting for PPA builder to rebuild a package), and
should be published in the PPA in the next few hours. Sorry about the
problems. :)

[Matthew McGowan (mmcg069)]

Hi,

I had the same experience as the original bug reporter. I use Opera 10, and it is set as the default browser in Preferred Applications. On clicking UbuntuOne in the Main Menu all i got was silence, no feedback of any sort.

My web browser command (as seen in Preferred Apps):
opera -notrayicon -newpage %s

From a terminal, 'gnome-open http://example.com/' works successfully, i.e. a new tab opens in Opera and webpage loads.

[giganetom (giganetom)]

I had the same problem for a few days. I tried to run "u1sync --authorize", than I got an error:

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/dbus/connection.py", line 576, in msg_reply_handler
    reply_handler(*message.get_args_list(**get_args_opts))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/ubuntuone/oauthdesktop/auth.py", line 276, in got_state
    self.acquire_access_token(description, store)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/ubuntuone/oauthdesktop/auth.py", line 345, in acquire_access_token
    self.open_in_browser(oauth_request.to_url())
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/ubuntuone/oauthdesktop/auth.py", line 256, in open_in_browser
    self._forward_error_callback(IOError(errors))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/ubuntuone/oauthdesktop/auth.py", line 145, in _forward_error_callback
    raise error
IOError: Hiba az URL megjelenítése közben: Nem sikerült a gyermekfolyamat („/usr/local/firefox/firefox”) végrehajtása (Nincs ilyen fájl vagy könyvtár)

The last says: Error opening URL: Child process („/usr/local/firefox/firefox”) could not be started (No such file or directory).

And this was the problem: Before I switched to Karmic, I used vanilla firefox wich was installed at the location above. Now I am using Karmic-kind-of firefox, but the "default browser" somehow slipped back to the old installation. The problem is, that I removed that firefox instance long ago.

A had a very similar issue like this before, and the solution was the same: set the default browser correctly.

I suggest adding a "wrong default browser" error handler to ubuntu-one, because now it just fails silently when such a wrong setting is present.

Anyway, Ubuntu One is pure awsomeness, :) keep on the good work.