openoffice could not find default browser

[iopo]

Binary package hint: openoffice.org

When clicking on a link, Konqueror opens correctly. However, an error message pops up saying "OpenOffice.org could not find a web browser in your system". Clicking OK it is possible to continue working without any problem.
I'm on a fresh install of Kubuntu 9.10 64 bit.
Thanks!

[iopo (iopo)]

one more piece of information: while the browser is open, it is not possible to work on the spreadsheet (it is frozen). As soon as I close the browser, the error message pops up. After clicking OK I can edit the spreadsheet.
Best

[Steffan Jacobs (steffanjacobs)]

Confirming this on my Kubuntu Karmic AMD64 install, here's what I did and experienced:

I started oocalc and created a link to http://www.kubuntu.org/ in the topleft cell. I clicked the link while my browser was open. I had previously set firefox as my default browser and this correctly opened this link in a new tab. Calc however displays an error message saying that no browser could be found.

Second situation I tested was with firefox not running, when clicking the link, firefox is opened, but the error message is not yet shown. The spreadsheet cannot be edited however. When closing firefox again, the error message that a browser could not be found appears. When closing this error the spreadsheet is usable again.

[Paul Worrall (nicknak)]

An equivalent upstream bug: http://www.openoffice.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=106952 was closed on the grounds that the bug was not present in the debs downloaded direct from the OOo website.

[Paul Worrall (nicknak)]

On Kubuntu Lucid (see attachment), the message about "could not find a web browser" does not appear, but the more significant problem remains of openoffice not responding until the browser is closed.

[Ladislav Nesnera (nesnera)]

I met exactly the same behaviour, which describes the bug.
OOO310m19, default browser Mozilla Firefox 3.5.8 and Kubuntu 9.10 64 bit too.

[MMlosh (mmlosh)]

Confirmed with Firefox 3.5.8 on Kubuntu 9.10 64b

Anyone with a the problem _NOT_ on 64bit?
If it "WORKSFORHIM", isn't he accidentally on 32bit?

[Paul Worrall (nicknak)]

I see the problem on my 32bit machine.

A workaround is to set the environment variable $BROWSER to "/usr/bin/firefox"

[MMlosh (mmlosh)]

#7: thanks... settings $BROWSER seems to remove all symptoms.

[Chris Cheney (ccheney)]

The issue with respect to freezing is already in the bug tracker as bug 508447 (and possibly others) so marking this bug as fix released since the other issue is claimed to be resolved.