Needs correctly set Preferred applications>Browser gconf key (fails on manual Firefox 3.5 installs)

[dentaku65]

In Jaunty if you remove firefox-3.0 package and install firefox-3.5, Ubuntuone can't connect (cannot find firefox login) in the first connection.

To fix this it is necessary to create a symlink:
sudo ln -s /usr/bin/firefox-3.5 /usr/bin/firefox

[Elliot Murphy (statik)]

This is a bug in the firefox package, not in ubuntu one and perhaps not in the packages that are officially included in jaunty. Do you remember where you got the firefox-3.5 package from? This bug should be forwarded there perhaps, although I suspect that it is deliberate that the firefox-3.5 package does not replace the default browser.

[dobey (dobey)]

I don't think this is a firefox package issue. It's more of a general desktop problem on Linux. Changing web browsers requires user intervention to update the desktop configuration to use the new browser as the default. I'm not sure what to do with this bug, as there isn't really anything we can do to fix that issue in our packages. Perhaps we could get it included as a papercut item in the desktop bugs?

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Trying to track down what's happening here with 'strace xdg-open foo.html':

  /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache

contains:

  text/html=epiphany.desktop;firefox.desktop;

which results in a read of:

  /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop

which lists:

  Exec=firefox %u

which causes:

  execve("/usr/bin/firefox", ["firefox", "foo.html"], ...)

Now which of those are different/incorrectly set on a manually performed firefox-3.5 install?

[dobey (dobey)]

But we're not opening an HTML file, we're opening a web site, and so the
code in GNOME doesn't hit the mimeinfo.cache or desktop files to start
the browser. Instead, it reads the "Preferred Applications" gconf keys,
unless the preferred applications keys are disabled, in which case it
falls back to the MIME handler for whatever content type is returned by
an HTTP HEAD request (which may often also be incorrect).

It seems to me this specific bug is an example of the case where an
alternate browser has been installed, and is used by the user, but the
Preferred Applications settings have not been updated to point at
instead.

On Fri, 2009-07-31 at 00:16 +0000, Paul Sladen wrote:
> Trying to track down what's happening here with 'strace xdg-open
> foo.html':
>
> /usr/share/applications/mimeinfo.cache
>
> contains:
>
> text/html=epiphany.desktop;firefox.desktop;
>
> which results in a read of:
>
> /usr/share/applications/firefox.desktop
>
> which lists:
>
> Exec=firefox %u
>
> which causes:
>
> execve("/usr/bin/firefox", ["firefox", "foo.html"], ...)
>
> Now which of those are different/incorrectly set on a manually performed
> firefox-3.5 install?
>

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

Dobey: Correct; but which file/gconf key is it that the alternate browser is not setting... (and how should it be setting it).

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

It could also be the case that the (now removed) browser is not _unsetting_ that default key, so there is still the old preference which now points to nowhere.

[dobey (dobey)]

More aptly, the browser itself does not modify this setting, and there
is no cross-desktop way for it to do so. It requires user intervention,
which is why we are seeing all these issues in the first place.

On Fri, 2009-07-31 at 13:01 +0000, Paul Sladen wrote:
> It could also be the case that the (now removed) browser is not
> _unsetting_ that default key, so there is still the old preference which
> now points to nowhere.

[dentaku65 (dentaku65)]

I just want to remark that ubuntuone client fails only at the first connection in this scenario.
If you disconnect ubuntuone client, delete the firefox symlink (sudo rm /usr/bin/firefox) and then connect again ubuntuone client it works.

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

dentaku: interesting. (Before you deleted that symlink), what package had created it? Can you paste the output of:

  dpkg -S /usr/bin/firefox

[Paul Sladen (sladen)]

May also be the claimed fixed bug #369038
  "xdg-open fails to launch browser"

[John Lenton (chipaca)]

Marking as invalid; this isn't an Ubuntu One bug.

[Aditya Suseno (aditya-suseno)]

I am removing my computer from Ubuntu One website. The problem is when I try to re-add it. Ubuntu One Preferences doesn't pop up a web browser where I can add the computer. It just can't connect like there is no internet connection at all. I try to reinstall Ubuntu One client but it still didn't work.

This is what I got when I type u1sdtool -s command:

State: AUTH_FAILED
    connection: With User With Network
    description: auth failed
    is_connected: False
    is_error: True
    is_online: False
    queues: WORKING_ON_BOTH

I have try to reinstall ubuntu one but it also didn't work.

Does Ubuntu One only allow the user to add a computer once? So once it removed, it can't be added anymore.

By the way I use Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Jackalope (32-bit), Python 2.6.2. Also I have three web browsers: Mozilla Firefox 3.6.8 (I am just upgrading it from 3.0.19), Opera 10.60 and Google Chrome 5. Trying to switch default web browser via Preffered Application also didn't works.