Ubuntu's built-in help Web search (search.ubuntu.com) has stopped working

[Matthew Paul Thomas]

1. Open Ubuntu's help viewer.
2. Do a search for anything.
3. Click the link "Repeat the search online at the Ubuntu Help Pages".

What should happen: A browser opens with some search results.
What actually happens: A browser opens to an empty page.

17:10:27@~> wget --tries=1 http://search.ubuntu.com/help?os=ubuntu&ver=6.10&q=scanner
--17:10:47-- http://search.ubuntu.com/help?os=ubuntu
           => `help?os=ubuntu'
Resolving search.ubuntu.com... 17:10:47@~> 82.211.81.205
Connecting to search.ubuntu.com|82.211.81.205|:80... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... No data received.
Giving up.

[Phil Bull (philbull)]

I can confirm this.

[Phil Bull (philbull)]

Do we have a webserver at search.ubuntu.com? If so, what software is it supposed to be running to perform searches? There was a bit of talk on ubuntu-doc list about using the Google Custom Search Engine: http://google.com/coop/cse/overview

I'd like to help work on this if possible.

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

Yes, by "stopped working" I meant that it used to work, though the presentation was a bit rough.

While Google Custom Search would give more reliable result rankings, I doubt it would be flexible enough. For example, the Yelp search URLs contain version parameters so that eventually we can make the search return only results relevant to that version of Ubuntu.

[Matthew Nuzum (newz)]

The search engine web server was taken down accidentally by the sysadmins. They have been alerted and will set this site back up soon.

We don't want to use Google custom search. We chose to use our own search engine because it allows us to prioritize the rankings. For example, we would rather have official, QA'd documentation show above stuff in the wiki. Likewise, with our own search engine we can choose an indexing frequency that ensures new content is added promptly.

Sysadmins: if you can set up the site for me, I have a backup copy of the database and configuration that I can use to get the site working. Of course, if you have a recent backup, that would be nicer than mine, since mine is the one I used originally to configure the live search site.

[Christophe Sauthier (christophe.sauthier)]

This bug seems to still valid... Or may be it is temporary, but right now search.ubuntu.com is not responding

[Heiko Scheit (h-scheit)]

So, what is up with this? The y(help) system is almost useless without this option.

BTW the URL also requests an old version 'ver=6.10' on gutsy.

[Heiko Scheit (h-scheit)]

Maybe just redirecing to

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/?action=fullsearch&context=180&value=<search-string>&fullsearch=Text

would do the trick.

Or at least a message that this service is currently not available should be displayed.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

To add to this bug report, in Ubuntu Version 7.10, using Gnome, the URL the search is directed to is
     http://search.ubuntu.com/help?os=ubuntu&ver=6.10&q=gdialog
This search URL does not exist, and the search fails. Searching google.com for the URL, I got one hit,
     http://searchubuntu.com/
Please not the dot between search and ubuntu is missing in this URL. This URL does exist and is apparently the correct URL for this search.
Unfortunately, simply removing the dot from the search line gave me this error:

Removing the period gave me this page 2008-03-22 11:58:04 -0600 :

Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.

Please contact the server administrator, <email address hidden> and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.

More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Additionally, a 500 Internal Server Error error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Apache/1.3.39 Server at searchubuntu.com Port 80

I am sending the webmaster a separate email on this. By removing the "&ver=6.10", I was able to complete my search.

Hopefully, this will assist in fixing this bug. Contact me if I can be of further assistance.

[Matthew East (mdke)]

Charlie - as far as I know searchubuntu.com is a completely unrelated site...

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

On Sat, 2008-03-22 at 19:32 +0000, Matthew East wrote:
> Charlie - as far as I know searchubuntu.com is a completely unrelated
> site...

If so, is there a reason to keep the reference in help?

--
Charlie Kravetz [http://teamcharliesangels.com]
Linux Registered User Number 425914 [http://counter.li.org/]
Never let anyone steal your DREAM. [http://keepingdreams.com]
bicyclist, computer tech, plumber, customer service rep, retired,
diagnosed in 2000 w/ Multiple Sclerosis, MS doesn´t have me down yet...

[Matthew East (mdke)]

Yes, because search.ubuntu.com should provide a functionality. it currently isn't working, and that's a problem we need to try and fix.

[Duncan Lithgow (duncan-lithgow)]

Why is bug #245156 marked as a duplicate of this bug report. They look like two separate issues to me. Can someone explain. (And I can also confirm bug #245156.)

[Matthew East (mdke)]

On Sun, Sep 14, 2008 at 8:08 PM, Duncan Lithgow <email address hidden> wrote:
> Why is bug #245156 marked as a duplicate of this bug report. They look
> like two separate issues to me. Can someone explain.

It's because when you use the "Repeat the search online at the Ubuntu
Help Pages" function of yelp, that function tries to use
search.ubuntu.com (which isn't working, as per this bug report).

[markor (markoresko)]

search.ubuntu.com does not work for me.
I use Seamonkey and Firefox on Xubuntu Hardy/8.04.1 amd64
and i use Noscript to not to execute unwanted , unathorised and cpu-intensive javascript and
flash.
Javascript for *.ubunut.com is enabled.

When i enter something in search box on search.ubuntu.com , I get no results.
This is due search.ubuntu.com wants me to execute google.com javascript.
I don`t want to enable google.com javascript because there is so many sites
using google javascripts and it is inadvisable and security and privacy problem
to use those scripts on all sites I visit.

It seems that there are 2 solutions decribed here (with or without https)
(http://groups.google.com/group/google-custom-search-cse-and-your-site/browse_thread/thread/b06fc51e3ac168bc)

And also, it seems that help.ubuntu.com have a solution for that,
but waiting a Fix to be implemented, as described here in bug #298243

[Matthew Paul Thomas (mpt)]

The JavaScript issue is completely unrelated. Please report it as a separate bug.

[markor (markoresko)]

I think that using Google javascript IS problem with this bug.
Wgen google java script is enabled, search results are displayed.

So if user does not want to enable google javascript, search.ubuntu.com does not work for him.
So problem is that search.ubuntu.com uses google to search ist own site, using google scripts.
Maybe it could be done for user not to use google scripts and still get search results?

[Sam_ (and-sam)]

For the record.
In addition to my duplicate #347493
Positive - The search is working again when inserting a keyword e.g. gedit
Negative - It opens a google page without https but with http.
Positive - The results can be viewed without java scripting enabled. (I use noscript too, in addition google analytics is set untrusted)

What should happen was described by Matthew, comment #4
Goal - We don't want to use google -, inspite of offering more results.
If I wish to use google I'd do so in the first place.

To workaround google, I'd insert manually e.g. gedit at the end of the string in the url bar
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/
this will open
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/gedit

or likewise any other keyword will offer at least list of related pages - within the main environment.

[Matthew Nuzum (newz)]

Was fixed a little while ago, closing the bug. A redirect was put into place so old versions of yelp will work without needing updated.