Help doesn't open

[Sebastian Breier]

Binary package hint: evolution

When I click on the Menu item "Contents" in the "Help" menu or press the F1
key, the help doesn't open.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Open Help Contents (Menu) or press F1

Actual results:
Nothing happens.

Expected results:
The help contents should open.

Does this happen every time?
Yes.

Other information:
I'm using Ubuntu 7.04 / Evolution 2.9.3-0ubuntu3 / Gnome 2.17.2-0ubuntu1.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Thank you for your bug and the upstream pointer

[Sebastian Breier (tomcat42)]

Still happening in 2.9.91-0ubuntu1.

[Lambros Lambrou (lambros)]

I've only just started using Evolution (was using Thunderbird before). This message appears in the terminal whenever I try to access Help->Contents:

(evolution-2.10:8294): Bonobo-WARNING **: Error: 'Unable to find help paths /usr/share/gnome/help/evolution-2.10 or /usr/share/gnome/help/evolution-2.10.Please check your installation'

I'm using Ubuntu 7.04, Evolution 2.9.92-0ubuntu1

[Matt Zimmerman (mdz)]

A patch is available in the upstream bug: http://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=386503#c8

There are other places where we're still using versioned paths; is it possible to get rid of those as well? This has been a source of problems in other areas as well, such as the launcher icon

[Michael Losonsky (michl)]

It is still a problem in the beta ubuntu feisty-desktop-i386.iso I downloaded and installed March 21.

[Rajeev Nair (rajeev)]

I confirm this bug as on april 15 with all patches for feisty beta

[Yigal Weinstein (yigal)]

the problem will persist until either a patch is applied to each new version of Evo. or until an action to stop this misdirection, to the help path, is enacted.

[Claude Paroz (paroz)]

I suggest applying the patch #c17 of the upstream bug report for the Feisty release. Even it may not be the final solution adopted by the developers, it will at least permit to access help in Evo for Feisty.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

the candidate CD for feisty are being tested the change will not be used now

[gundam_rx78nt1 (alison-santiago)]

I am a noob of the first degree. How do I patch evolution? I would really like to use the help file to get familiarized with this groupware suite.

[Yigal Weinstein (yigal)]

Patching is easy if you understand how to use the command line for common tasks. I suggest that you use the main help, that is Yelp, found on the main bar in Ubuntu and from there navigate to Evo.. When you are more familiar with the commandline then look at how to patch Evo..
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

-----Original Message-----
From: gundam_rx78nt1 <email address hidden>
Date: Wed, 09 May 2007 21:44:30
To:<email address hidden>
Subject: [Bug 76004] Re: Help doesn't open

I am a noob of the first degree. How do I patch evolution? I would
really like to use the help file to get familiarized with this groupware
suite.

--
Help doesn't open
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/76004
You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
of a duplicate bug.

[gundam_rx78nt1 (alison-santiago)]

Just to clarify... I am using Kubuntu, not Ubuntu. I don't have yelp.

[Daniel Holbach (dholbach)]

Fixed Upstream.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

This upload fixes the bug:

 evolution (2.11.3-0ubuntu1) gutsy; urgency=low
 .
   * New upstream version
     New in 2.11.3:
     - Included support for Contact Image in the preview pane
     - Improved thread sorting. Even expanded threads are promoted up the list.
     - Improved options for offline support.
     - Added Swedish Welcome mail.
     - Version less binary for Evolution.
     Bug fixes:
     - #311512: New message notification is not triggered
                even by identified spam.
     - #315012: Fixed crash when reopening an encrypted sent email
                (Ubuntu: #52029, #114169)
     - #321741: Default date for appointment or meeting is now set to
                current date
     - #326388: Delete button is disabled for 'Birthdays & Anniversaries'
               calendar
     - #333707: Thread message selection improvements, while deleting
                messages in thread.
     - #333858: Fixed popping of multiple categories dialog in contact editor
     - #335241: Send/Receive Messages window size fixed
     - #335396: Account Editor's "Sent / Draft Folder" dialogs now has
                proper title
     - #347767: A confirmation dialog will come up if a memo is saved
                without a summary
     - #351729: Fixed unnecessary/broken windows
     - #386503: Help Menu or F1 now works (Ubuntu: #76004)
     - #415770: Outlook style reply option
     - #424562: Dropped support for GTK+ < 2.10
     - #427232: Fixed a crash during startup due to missing relative-URI
               (Ubuntu: #103877)
     - #436985: Move files that have translations but are not shipped to
               POTFILES.skip
     - #438461: Mail preferences buttons now has a consistent look
     - #438467, #439118, #437584, #441055, #441014: Compilation warning cleanups
     - #439049: Setting time for an appointment in "ja" locale now works
                correctly
     - #439122: Compilation warnings cleanup
     - #439146, #438711: Improvements for the new mail-notification plugin
     - #439316: Fixed translation issues and some fixes around broken gtk.
     - #439512: Mark strings for translation.
     - #439957: Fix camel warnings
     - #440741: Added apps-evolution-mail-notification.schemas.in.in to
               translation.
     - #441010: Fixed dropdowns in mailer's view editor
     - #441992: Fixed a crash when selecting a mail
     - #443140: Added a missing mnemonic in Preferences window
   * debian/evolution.gconf-defaults:
     - don't display unstable warning on startup (Ubuntu: #91799)
   * debian/evolution.links:
     - updated to changes from the new version
   * debian/patches/04_autoconf.patch:
     - updated
   * debian/patches/80_from_bugzilla_no_icon_animation.patch:
     - dropped, fixed with the new version
   * debian/patches/90_list_arabic_encoding.patch:
     - dropped, fixed with the new version

[Dan Munckton (munckfish)]

Is this going to be back ported to Feisty? If not then is it safe for Feisty users to symlink /usr/share/gnome/help/evolution-2.10 to /usr/share/gnome/help/evolution to get it working in the meantime? Would this be likely to cause problems in October when we upgrade from Feisty to Gutsy?

[Dan Munckton (munckfish)]

Ok I've now discovered that symlinking isn't a work-around for the problem anyway so please ignore the second part of my question.

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

The fix might be backported to feisty, we didn't get many demand for that yet though

[Johannes Aquila (johannes-aquila)]

I had success with a modification of Dan Munckton's fix:

cd /usr/share/gnome/help
ln -s evolution evolution-2.10
cd evolution
cd C
ln -s evolution.xml evolution-2.10.xml

This fixes the problem for the default locale (C). Repeat the same for any other locales, like en_GB, fr or es, that your users are likely to use.

[NoOp (glgxg)]

Johannes thanks for that fix :-)

I found it works if installed as root:

$ su

first. Otherwise it gives an error on the xml command:

:/usr/share/gnome/help/evolution$ cd C
<systemname>@<username>:/usr/share/gnome/help/evolution/C$ ln -s evolution.xml evolution-2.10.xml
ln: creating symbolic link `evolution-2.10.xml' to `evolution.xml': Permission denied

Thanks again!

[Peter Wagner (o-petris)]

Thank you, Johannes Aquila and NoOp, I had the same problem. Now it works.
Peter Wagner