can't configure any accounts in empathy

[Cameron Matheson]

Accounts can't be configured in empathy in 12.10. I think this is because of the online accounts fork (I have the gnome-shell version of online accounts, but not the ubuntu version). I think maybe I should have both?

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.10
Package: empathy 3.6.0.3-0ubuntu1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.5.0-17.28-generic 3.5.5
Uname: Linux 3.5.0-17-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.6.1-0ubuntu3
Architecture: i386
Date: Wed Oct 17 15:03:54 2012
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" - Release i386 (20111012)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=screen
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: empathy
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to quantal on 2012-10-11 (6 days ago)

[Bilal Shahid (s9iper1)]

thanks for the bug report
can you told us the error when you try to configure ?

[Cameron Matheson (cameron-matheson)]

There wasn't any error, but there was also no way to configure the account.

It turns out I needed to install gnome-control-center-signon. Since this is the only way to configure accounts for empathy, perhaps that should be one of empathy's dependencies?

[Bilal Shahid (s9iper1)]

yes you need to install gnome comtrol center signon

[Julien Olivier (julo)]

As I said in https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/empathy/+bug/1060060 (now marked as a duplicate of this one):

The bug is about the fact that it doesn't work when gnome-control-center-signon is not installed. I don't use stock Ubuntu, I use ubuntu gnome so I don't want gnome-control-center-signon. gnome-control-center-signon is the configuration tool for Ubuntu-Online-Accounts not for Gnome-Online-Accounts (as you know those are 2 different things).

So, there is a way to configure Empathy accounts through Ubuntu-Online-Accounts, but there is no way to confirgure them when using Gnome-Online-Accounts.

[Mauricio Farell Perezgrovas (mfarell)]

I have the same problem... after some digging found it marked as "Known issues" in Ubuntu Gnome Remix: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/UbuntuGNOME/ReleaseNotes/12.10#Known_Issues

Yes, it is kind of confusing.... 8-(

[Henri Bourcereau (henri-bourcereau)]

I have gnome-control-center-signon installed, but I can't configure any account.

[Lee Hyde (anubeon)]

I've GOA, UOA and gnome-control-center-signon installed (as well as the various webaccount plugins), but whenever I attempt to set up an account (be it facebook, google, windows live, etc…) I'm shown the authentication page momentarily and then the control centre just flashes back to the UOA start page. I don't even have enough time to entre my username before I'm abruptly sent back to the beginning.

In it's current state, I can't use empathy at all. How on Earth did 12.10 get released in this state?! That'll teach me to stray from LTS I guess. All thus guff with GOA vs UOA is a headache and frankly this is making Ubunuty 12.10 look very unattractive for me. For now, I'm using pidgin, but if things don't start to look up soon, I think I'll take this opportunity to give Elementary Luna or some other distro a bash via a fresh install.

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

The problem is that gnome-control-center-signon uses one of these "OnlyShowIn" lines:

OnlyShowIn=GNOME;Unity;

So if you happen to be using, say, Lubuntu, you won't be able to configure empathy accounts unless you know how to launch it from the command line.

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

Related: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gnome-control-center/+bug/1040193

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

Also related: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/indicator-datetime/+bug/1074314

[Alistair Buxton (a-j-buxton)]

The main problem here is that if you are running a desktop oher than what is listed in the "OnlyShowIn" field in the .desktop, gnome-control-center will refuse to display that configuration panel, even if you explicitly ask for it, eg:

> gnome-control-center credentials

Instead it will show the top level configuration screen (where the icon is of course absent.) This means it is impossible to configure empathy (and indicator-datetime) without first editing a .desktop file in /usr/share/applications.

[Bilal Shahid (s9iper1)]

thanks for the bug report
please attach the empathy all debug log file with the bug report.?

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for empathy (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[Julien Olivier (julo)]

The bug is still there, and cofirmed.

[jrr (johnruble)]

I configured Empathy under Gnome or Unity, and then switched to XFCE (xubuntu-desktop), and lost the ability to access its configuration. I eventually edited /usr/share/applications/gnome-credentials-panel.desktop and added XFCE to "OnlyShowIn". ( http://askubuntu.com/questions/202514/how-can-i-manage-empathy-online-accounts-in-lubuntu-12-10 )

I'm not sure what *should* have happened here. Perhaps either:
1) Empathy starts at login and Empathy's gnome-control-center panel is available, or
2) Empathy does automatically start and the panel is unavailable

In other words, it should be neither or both. To be clear, currently (12.10) you get Empathy starting but no access to its configuration.

This seems to be a specific instance of a more general problem: between various desktop environments, how can the presence of applications be reconciled with the presence of their gnome-control-center panels?

[Bilal Shahid (s9iper1)]

i say thats not a empathy bug its ubuntu's and it must be filed in ubuntu online accounts

[Julien Olivier (julo)]

@Bilal: the problem is that you can't configure Empathy accounts when using gnome-online-accounts instead of ubuntu-online-accounts. So, the bug is *not* in ubuntu-online-accounts because it happens when ubuntu-online-accounts is not even installed. The problem is simply that empathy should be able to launch gnome-online-accounts configuration when you use this one instead of ubuntu-online-accounts.

[Sassan (sassanh)]

I've uninstalled every uoa related package and now empathy's Account settings button doesn't function at all, I don't wanna use ubuntu's oa module while using Gnome, so please fix this issue.

[Walter Garcia-Fontes (walter-garcia)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to look at all reported bugs in a timely manner. There have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time you reported the bug and your problem may have been fixed with some of the updates. It would help us a lot if you could test it on a currently supported Ubuntu version. When you test it and it is still an issue, kindly upload the updated logs by running apport-collect <bug #> and any other logs that are relevant for this particular issue.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for empathy (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]