ubuntu-bug is broken (only) within Mate, because of gvfs-open.

[RichardNeill]

The ubuntu bug reporting system is rather badly broken, because when I run ubuntu-bug/apport-bug, it gathers data, then opens a new blank firefox window, but does not connect to launchpad!

The root cause is this one:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/exo/+bug/1427144
which basically means that apport needs to invoke firefox with a different set of options.

This should be trivial to fix, but I think it's rather important, especially given how hard it is to get a direct report into Launchpad, and all the redirects that emphasise using the ubuntu-bug tool:
https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs

(I'm reporting this from Ubuntu Wily, though I think I recall seeing it in Vivid)
Apport version is: 2.17.3-0ubuntu4

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Apport first tries to use xdg-open as we can see below:

            try:
                subprocess.call(sudo_prefix + ['xdg-open', url])
            except OSError as e:
                # fall back to webbrowser
                webbrowser.open(url, new=True, autoraise=True)
                sys.exit(0)

What happens if you try to use 'xdg-open' and a url?

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Oh, and using ubuntu-bug works fine for me and opens a tab in Firefox on Vivid.

[RichardNeill (ubuntu-richardneill)]

Hello Brian, Thanks for your comment.
If I type the following command at the shell:
   xdg-open "http://www.bbc.co.uk"

Then I get a newly opened, maximised Firefox window, which opens a blank page
(the Ubuntu start page, exactly as if within Firefox, I had pressed Ctrl+N.)

However, if I run either of the following commands:
   firefox "http://www.bbc.co.uk"
  firefox -new-tab "http://www.bbc.co.uk"
then the BBC page opens in a new tab as I would expect.

I'm doing this in Ubuntu Mate, 64-bit, Wily, fully updated as of now, Firefox is already running.

Are there any other tests it would help for me to do?

[RichardNeill (ubuntu-richardneill)]

One more thing that may help; I read through the source of xdg-open, and the open_mate() function calls gvfs-open.
If I run the command:
  gvfs-open "http://www.bbc.co.uk"
then I get, as before, the new window with the ubuntu-start-content.

Looking at the other underlying commands within xdg-open:
  gnome-open #new, window with ubuntu start contents.
  mate-open #command not found
  exo-open #BBC opens, in the dillo browser.
  kde-open #BBC opens in firefox tab.

So, the underlying problem is actually with gvfs-open and gnome-open commands.

[RichardNeill (ubuntu-richardneill)]

According to mate, the "gvfs-open" command is no longer a mate-fork, but part of gnome.
https://github.com/mate-desktop/mate-vfs/issues/6#issuecomment-128310994

Furthermore, within the Gnome (Unity) environment, running the command "gvfs-open http://www.bbc.co.uk"
opens the BBC webpage as we expect. However, running in the Mate environment, running the same command opens a blank webpage.

So the problem thus far is that when a Gnome component is run outside of Gnome, it doesn't work as expected.

What should I do now? I don't know where to to take this...

[Martin Wimpress  (flexiondotorg)]

I can't reproduce this in Ubuntu MATE 15.04 or Ubuntu MATE 15.10.

[RichardNeill (ubuntu-richardneill)]

I just tested this again in my Ubuntu Mate system (Wily, fully updated as of today).
Running the command "gvfs-open http://www.bbc.co.uk" still results in the same problem - namely a new firefox window that is open at the homepage, not the URL required.

The gvfs-open command does what it should when the running-desktop is KDE or Unity - but not when it is Mate.

How else can I help debug this?

[Martin Wimpress  (flexiondotorg)]

I have just fresh installed the Ubuntu MATE 15.10 beta 1 candidate. I can't reproduce the issue you are describing. Websites open in the already open instance of Firefox in a new tab.