turning off "Send error reports to Canonical" prevents using ubuntu-bug

apport will first try using xdg-open and that also appears as being found in the strace output. What happens if your run 'xdg-open http://bugs.launchpad.net'?

xdg-open http://bugs.launchpad.net opens the page in Firefox.

I use zdg-open routinely.

x not z

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

I'm using ubuntu 18.04 with all updates installed.

When I type

ubuntu-bug gnome-applets

then it does not open the browser window when I click on the "send" button.

When i type

xdg-open http://bugs.launchpad.net

then the corresponding page opens perfectly fine in Firefox 67.0.4.

This is pretty much consistent with the previous description.

Documentation says (after having pressed the "send" button):

"Apport will then upload the problem information to Launchpad, and a new browser window will then open to inform you that the bug report is being processed."

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs

For this to work, I had to enable the error reporting switch in system settings/privacy protection.

With error reporting enabled, the browser window opened.

This is not a bug, but I'm not very happy with the behaviour:

- Having error reporting switched off, I should be able to enforce it via CLI. There should be a corresponding parameter like --ignore-reporting-disabled. (OPT-IN)
- OR: Ignoring the disabled reporting should be the default when executing ubuntu-bug manually. (OPT-OUT). If ubuntu-bug was _not_ started manually might require another parameter like --check-reporting-enabled.

Unwanted behaviour is:
- I have to switch error reporting on (plus, I have to know this by myself!)
- ... do my stuff with ubuntu-bug
- Switch error reporting off again

A quick fix could be to document at https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs that the error reporting must be switch on first.

On top of that, ubuntu-bug could output a warning message that the error reporting must be switched on first (and how/where this can be done).

This is still a UX bug, as thomas303 said, ubuntu-bug should still inform the user of what happened and why.

In privacy settings, it says I am enabling "Send error reports to Canonical... Send report *automatically*".

This does not have anything to do with NON-automatic error reporting.

This worked before, what changed?

What is the output of 'systemctl is-enabled whoopsie' and 'systemctl is-active whoopsie'? Thanks in advance.

Well if "automatic" sending is enabled in Settings->Privacy->Problem Reporting, then
  is-enabled is "enabled" and is-active is "active".

But if "automatic" sending is disabled in Settings, then
  is-enabled is "disabled" and is-active is "inactive"

Again, I don't think running ubuntu-bug explicitly has anything to do with "automatically" sending error reports! As others have said, ubuntu-bug should ignore those settings or, at least, tell the user it won't do anything useful unless those settings are changed.

Currently it silently fails (no message, zero exit status).

Clarification: By "settings" I meant the single setting (as seen by users) controlled by the "Send error reports to Canonical" switch in Settings->Privacy->problem

So, um, this has been broken since Bionic and still not fixed, despite the fact that ubuntu-bug is the only supported way for reporting bugs?

This seems highly sub-optimal.

It certainly caused me to waste some time trying to work out why it was not sending them.

This bug was fixed in the package apport - 2.20.11-0ubuntu19

---------------
apport (2.20.11-0ubuntu19) focal; urgency=medium

  * apport/report.py: do not return a duplicate signature when we are unable
    to access ProcMaps as that is necessary to create one. (LP: #1866347)
  * apport/ui.py: Always allow users to use ubuntu-bug or apport-collect
    regardless of the Problem Reporting setting as they are manually invoked
    and not automatically generated like a crash report. (LP: #1814611)

 -- Brian Murray <email address hidden> Mon, 09 Mar 2020 15:18:42 -0700

Hello jimav, or anyone else affected,

Accepted apport into eoan-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apport/2.20.11-0ubuntu8.7 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-eoan to verification-done-eoan. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-eoan. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

Hello jimav, or anyone else affected,

Accepted apport into bionic-proposed. The package will build now and be available at https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apport/2.20.9-0ubuntu7.13 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation on how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, what testing has been performed on the package and change the tag from verification-needed-bionic to verification-done-bionic. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed-bionic. In either case, without details of your testing we will not be able to proceed.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance for helping!

N.B. The updated package will be released to -updates after the bug(s) fixed by this package have been verified and the package has been in -proposed for a minimum of 7 days.

I installed the version of apport from bionic-proposed and was able to report a bug to Launchpad about gnome-terminal, so I'm setting this to verification-done for bionic.

bdmurray@clean-bionic-amd64:~$ apt-cache policy apport
apport:
  Installed: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.12
  Candidate: 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.13
  Version table:
     2.20.9-0ubuntu7.13 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-proposed/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu bionic-proposed/main i386 Packages

On an Ubuntu 19.10 system I installed the version of apport from eoan-proposed and I was able to report a bug to Launchpad about gnome-terminal, as such I'm setting this to verification-done for eoan.

bdmurray@clean-eoan-amd64:~$ apt-cache policy python3-apport
python3-apport:
  Installed: 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.7
  Candidate: 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.7
  Version table:
 *** 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.7 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu eoan-proposed/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu eoan-proposed/main i386 Packages

All autopkgtests for the newly accepted apport (2.20.9-0ubuntu7.13) for bionic have finished running.
The following regressions have been reported in tests triggered by the package:

apport/2.20.9-0ubuntu7.13 (i386)

Please visit the excuses page listed below and investigate the failures, proceeding afterwards as per the StableReleaseUpdates policy regarding autopkgtest regressions [1].

https://people.canonical.com/~ubuntu-archive/proposed-migration/bionic/update_excuses.html#apport

[1] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Autopkgtest_Regressions

Thank you!

The verification of the Stable Release Update for apport has completed successfully and the package is now being released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regressions.

This bug was fixed in the package apport - 2.20.11-0ubuntu8.7

---------------
apport (2.20.11-0ubuntu8.7) eoan; urgency=medium

  * apport/ui.py: Always allow users to use ubuntu-bug or apport-collect
    regardless of the Problem Reporting setting as they are manually invoked
    and not automatically generated like a crash report. (LP: #1814611)

 -- Brian Murray <email address hidden> Wed, 18 Mar 2020 15:21:14 -0700

This, apport/2.20.9-0ubuntu7.13 (i386), has passed after a retest.

This bug was fixed in the package apport - 2.20.9-0ubuntu7.13

---------------
apport (2.20.9-0ubuntu7.13) bionic; urgency=medium

  * apport/ui.py: Always allow users to use ubuntu-bug or apport-collect
    regardless of the Problem Reporting setting as they are manually invoked
    and not automatically generated like a crash report. (LP: #1814611)

 -- Brian Murray <email address hidden> Wed, 18 Mar 2020 15:35:23 -0700