u1sdtool crashes when run remotely through ssh

[Matti Laakso]

Binary package hint: ubuntuone-client

When I try to remotely via ssh see the status of transfers via u1sdtool --current-transfers, I get the following error

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/u1sdtool", line 159, in <module>
    main(sys.argv, sys.stdout)
  File "/usr/bin/u1sdtool", line 81, in main
    bus = dbus.SessionBus(mainloop=loop)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/dbus/_dbus.py", line 219, in __new__
    mainloop=mainloop)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/dbus/_dbus.py", line 108, in __new__
    bus = BusConnection.__new__(subclass, bus_type, mainloop=mainloop)
  File "/usr/lib/pymodules/python2.6/dbus/bus.py", line 125, in __new__
    bus = cls._new_for_bus(address_or_type, mainloop=mainloop)
dbus.exceptions.DBusException: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.Spawn.ExecFailed: /bin/dbus-launch terminated abnormally with the following error: Autolaunch error: X11 initialization failed.

Obviously, I don't have remote X, but it probably shouldn't be required? I have Karmic beta with everything up-to-date.

ProblemType: Crash
.home.malaakso..config.ubuntuone.ubuntuone.client.conf:
 [ubuntuone]
 connected = True
 connect = 0
 show_applet = 1
 bookmarked = True
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri Oct 16 10:38:26 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/u1sdtool
InterpreterPath: /usr/bin/python2.6
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: ubuntuone-client 1.0.1-0ubuntu1
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcCmdline: python /usr/bin/u1sdtool --current-transfers
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.46-generic
PythonArgs: ['/usr/bin/u1sdtool', '--current-transfers']
SourcePackage: ubuntuone-client
Title: u1sdtool crashed with DBusException in __new__()
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic x86_64
UserGroups: adm admin cdrom dialout kvm libvirtd lpadmin plugdev sambashare

[Elliot Murphy (statik)]

This is a known limitation, we depend on having the gnome-keyring available and that seems to drag in X. I'm going to close this bug out for Karmic, and we'll keep in mind that being able to run in an SSH session is a feature request. Thanks for using Ubuntu One!

[Luis Carlos Cobo (luiscarlos)]

Still there in Lucid...

[Rick McBride (rmcbride)]

Elliot's point about the gnome keyring is valid, but the more basic problem is that u1sdtool needs to be able to talk to the dbus session on the host, and dbus over ssh simply doesn't work at the moment. For a bit more detail see the comments for bug 162672.

[dobey (dobey)]

If you set DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS to the correct value for your logged in GNOME session (on the machine you're connecting to), then u1sdtool will work fine. I suppose we could trap this exception, and print an error and exit instead, but the message is roughly going to be the same. The u1sdtool script doesn't necessariy require X, but whatever it was attempting to launch apparently does. Looks like it was attempting to launch dbus-daemon for the session.

[MikeR (mike-rechtman)]

>If you set DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS to the correct value

1. How do I do that
2. Can it be done automagically?

[Timo Derstappen (teemow)]

A small script that wraps the u1sdtool if you are remotely connected and a user has a gnome session. Have fun!

[Will Daniels (wdaniels)]

@Timo Thanks for the wrapper script, although I think you need to export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS?

This is still an issue in 12.10, would somebody with permissions please consider nominating this for some series?

I don't think it is such an unlikely/uncommon use case that you get to work, go to open your document then realise that you forgot to copy it to your U1 sync folder... so you SSH in to your home desktop and copy it to U1... naturally, you might want to check the status of the transfer etc.

This is going to keep happening to people, so would be nice if U1 devs would commit to fixing it _eventually_ which does not seem to be the case at present. Just worried that this "feature request" has gotten lost is all.