'Network error' on attempting to connect to GTalk account on Maverick Empathy

[Rob Parker]

Binary package hint: empathy

When adding a 'Google Talk' account in Empathy on Maverick (amd64), I always receive 'Disconnected - Network error' - however if I add the same Google account (with same username and password) using the 'Jabber' (which should surely be 'XMPP' nowadays?) account type Empathy is able to connect successfully. Testing different states of the 'Encryption required (SSL)' and 'Ignore SSL certificates errors' options does no appear to fix the issue.

The only possible cause on my part could be that I am behind a rather strict university firewall - however I have had the port used by Google Talk and most other XMPP services - TCP 5222 - unblocked, and hence Pidgin, and the aforementioned Jabber account type in Empathy, are able connect fine (they were not prior to having this unblocked).

Steps to reproduce:
1. Start Empathy.
2. If the 'Messaging and VoIP Accounts' window has not already opened, open it from Edit > Accounts in the 'Contact List' window.
3. Click the 'Add...' button.
4. Set the 'Protocol' to 'Google Talk'.
5. Enter a valid Google account's username (the full email address, including the domain) and password in the 'User ID' and 'Password' boxes.
6. Click the 'Log in' button.
7. Note how red-background messages appear in both the 'Messaging and VoIP Accounts' and 'Contact List' windows.
8. Use the 'Remove' button to delete the account, and repeat the process from steps 3-6, but this time use 'Jabber' as the protocol instead of 'Google Talk', and note how the connection succeeds.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10
Package: empathy 2.32.0-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-22.33-generic 2.6.35.4
Uname: Linux 2.6.35-22-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia wl
Architecture: amd64
Date: Wed Sep 29 18:38:52 2010
ExecutablePath: /usr/bin/empathy
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Alpha amd64 (20100915)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_GB.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: empathy
XsessionErrors:
 (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:1655): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed
 (nautilus:1656): GConf-CRITICAL **: gconf_value_free: assertion `value != NULL' failed
 (Tomboy:1642): Gdk-CRITICAL **: IA__gdk_window_thaw_toplevel_updates_libgtk_only: assertion `private->update_and_descendants_freeze_count > 0' failed

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

Thanks for the bug report. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 649561, so is being marked as such. Any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to report any other bugs you may find