Can not add folders in WinXP

[Johan Borg]

System info:
Windows XP Professional, SP3, 32Bit, English

Might have relevance:
During installation of Windows XP, I have changed USERPROFILE locations to D:\Arkiv\User, instead of the usual C:\Documents and settings\User. This, to keep user files from filling up the OS disk (C:).

System Variable "HOME" = "D:\Home"

How to reproduce error:
1. Start Ubunto One Client
2. Press button "Add a folder from this computer"
3. Select any folder on computer for sync
4. Produces an error message:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
The chosen directory "D:\Home\Sync" is not valid.

Please choose a folder inside your "d:\Home" directory, and not overlapping with any existing cloud folder.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Actual dialog: http://i.imgur.com/7EqIf.jpg

Note: This happens regardless if I choose a folder inside or outside my d:\home dir. I also tried to put a new folder inside my actual USER folder (i.e. D:\Arkiv\Users\Johan\My Documents\UbuntoOneSync) but it did not work either.

Related bugs might be:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntuone-client/+bug/876366
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntuone-client/+bug/854980

Bug 876366 combined with what I have seen on my computer leads me to believe setting a custom "HOME" system variable (for emacs, etc.) might confuse the Ubuntu One client. Might be in combination with having a custom USERPROFILE location. I can unfortunately not test this as this is the only Windows box I have available right now.

[Roberto Alsina (ralsina)]

Thanks for the detailed bug report!

The problem seems to be that setting HOME confuses python's os.expanduser function, making it believe your home is outside %USERPROFILE% which is something that should not happen ;-)

[Dan Haynes (dphaynes)]

I can confirm that this is the $HOME environment variable setting.

I'm on Windows 7 x64 all patches, I get the same thing - I can't share any folder regardless of whether it's in C:\Users\dhaynes (Windows user directory) or in e:\dhaynes (where my HOME environment variable points)

The $HOME setting is yet another annoyance of Cygwin. That's the reason $HOME points to somewhere other than the Windows directory.

If you need a guinea pig for testing a fix, I'm available.

I'm not a python fan but I have written production quality python code and I might have time to create a patch if someone can point me to the source file.

[Diego Sarmentero (diegosarmentero)]

Hi, can you still reproduce this issue with the latest installer?
It seems to be fixed.

[Dan Haynes (dphaynes)]

I couldn't reset my workstation so here's what I did:

1. Cloned a basic Windows XP VM in VirtualBox (bare install with XP 100% up-to-date on patches)
2. Downloaded Ubuntu One Installer 2.0.3
3. Created a fake home directory c:\myhome
4. Set user environment variable HOME=c:\myhome
5. Rebooted VM just to ensure that all processes were using new value of HOME
6. Ran installer 2.0.3
7. During the setup wizard I added a folder to be shared by browsing to c:\myhome and from the dialog creating a new subdirectory then selected it to share. That seemed to work.
8. Completed wizard, no errors reported
9. From the UI I clicked on "Add a folder from this computer"
10. Just as during the setup wizard, I browsed to c:\myhome and from the open dialog I created a new subdirectory and selected it to share.
11. Got error dialog titled "Ubuntu One experienced an error". "Sorry, an error has occurred and Ubuntu One needs to close.". The detail text simpy says "IPCError".
12. When I closed the error dialog, Ubuntu One remained running.
13. The directory was created in spite of the crash.
14. Repeating the same steps results in the same crash.
     a) "Add a folder from this computer"
  b) browse to c:\myhome
  c) right click and select "New folder"
  d) click on "Choose"
  e) error dialog pops up
15. The newly shared folders do not appear in the "My personal folders" view.
16. Manually shut down and restarted Ubuntu One
17. "Add a folder from this computer" and click on any of the folders created in c:\myhome and it always crashes with the same IPCError dialog.

[Dan Haynes (dphaynes)]

Follow up: I deleted the HOME environment variable setting, rebooted the VM and attempted to select the same c:\myhome\somedir directory I created during the test. Now I get the usual warning dialog: "The chosen directory "C:\myhome\somedir" is not valid. Please choose a folder inside your "C:\Documents and Settings\dhaynes" directory, and not overlapping with any existing cloud folder"

I can't sync any folder outside of "Documents and Settings\dhaynes". Folders inside that directory I can add/sync successfully.

[Diego Sarmentero (diegosarmentero)]

Hi, thanks for this bug report and the follow up, sadly U1 doesn't support in this moment to sync files outside the user home (%USERPROFILE% in windows), for this reason, the problem that you are having it's because when U1 ask the system where the USER HOME is located, windows is answering with this: "C:\Documents and Settings\dhaynes", this is because probably the new user home is not properly definided system wide.

So in this case U1 is receiving as PROFILE (from the system) the folder mentioned.

Maybe this will helpful to create custom locations for the user home: http://paste.ubuntu.com/913130/

Regards