apport-collect: login to launchpad impossible in text mode using w3m (elinks works)

Bug #556927 reported by Benjamin Kay
36
This bug affects 8 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Canonical SSO provider
New
Undecided
Unassigned
Launchpad itself
Triaged
Low
Unassigned

Bug Description

Sometimes it is necessary to run apport-collect in the absence of X (i.e. when reporting a bug on a headless server). In this scenario, apport-collect uses w3m to attempt to login to Launchpad. With w3m, it is impossible to "click" on the "Continue" button after entering one's Launchpad credentials. As a result, apport-collect is useless when run in text mode.

To workaround (from bug 645024):
apt-get install elinks
Login twice with elinks - once by using it to log into LP, and then once to get the cookie.

So - run apport-collect, login, abort apport-collect.

Run it (apport-collect) again, elinks will see that you have a cookie, and then launchpad will throw you to the oauth screen to authorise apport-collect to provide information.

Revision history for this message
Martin Erik Werner (arand) wrote :

Can also confirm for links2 and lynx
Theses are able to activate the continue button, yet gets stuck after that, returning over and over again to the continue screen.

Changed in launchpad:
status: New → Confirmed
Tim Penhey (thumper)
affects: launchpad → launchpad-foundations
Revision history for this message
Martin Erik Werner (arand) wrote :

One thing I saw was that the "submit form" shortcut key was undefined, it it still impossiblr to activate the submit "button" with it defined

It seems to work ok with elinks.

Revision history for this message
Benjamin Kay (benkay) wrote :

Thanks, arand. It's doable with elinks:

sudo apt-get install elinks
sudo apt-get remove w3m
sudo apport-collect bug-number

I got a few 403 Forbidden errors when Launchpad thought it detected a "cross-site scripting" attack, but eventually I was able to authenticate. Since I had to install elinks myself, and since login with elinks is still kind of bumpy, I'm leaving this bug open.

elinks 0.12~pre5-2ubuntu1

Gary Poster (gary)
Changed in launchpad-foundations:
status: Confirmed → Incomplete
Revision history for this message
Gary Poster (gary) wrote :

I think it is a high priority that we have at least one text browser working. My choice is to support lynx. I welcome others to support other text browsers.

I have added this page for us to collect helpful observations: https://help.launchpad.net/API/EndUserHints

I'll follow up further on https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/535456 , which is specific to lynx.

Changed in launchpad-foundations:
status: Incomplete → Triaged
importance: Undecided → Low
Revision history for this message
Bill Farrow (ubuntu-arrowsreach) wrote :

Just hit this situation while trying to use apport-collect for Bug #570517. This is pretty important to get working, and it has to work without the user having to hunt for solutions on the web. Most users will give up trying to log a bug report if they hit other bugs like this in the process.

Revision history for this message
Bill Farrow (ubuntu-arrowsreach) wrote :

I am running X but when I run apport-collect it launches w3m instead of firefox. So I have tied setting the browser environment variable but it still launches w3m

  export BROWSER=firefox
  apport-collect -p debian-installer 570517
    <launches w3m>

Revision history for this message
Leonard Richardson (leonardr) wrote :

Bill, can you run this little Python script and see which browser is opened?

import webbrowser
webbrowser.open("https://launchpad.net/")

Revision history for this message
stop (whoopwhoop) wrote :

I'm being asked to apport-collect on a headless server atm. It didn't work for me, searching for a solution got me here. So I guess I'm stuck now...
Shouldn't this report be on high or at least medium?

Revision history for this message
stop (whoopwhoop) wrote :

Well as a temporary workaround you can run apport-cli -f -p <packagename>, then opt to store the file to disk, so you can upload it with a different machine.
That's what I did, nobody complained (yet).

Revision history for this message
Benjamin Kay (benkay) wrote :

whoop: Please note that while this bug is rather annoying, it should still be possible to use apport-collect via the workaround arand mentions in the second comment. Please let us know if you still can't apport-collect after replacing w3m with elinks.

Revision history for this message
stop (whoopwhoop) wrote :

Well I ended up doing it with apport-cli -f -p, hope that's not a problem...

summary: apport-collect: login to launchpad impossible in text mode using w3m
+ (elinks works)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
Gary Poster (gary) wrote :

Adding canonical-identity-provider. Several people have reported that w3m does not support the <button type="submit" ... > . Fixing this may simply address the problem.

Changed in launchpad:
status: Triaged → Invalid
Changed in canonical-identity-provider:
assignee: nobody → MANUELA BELLO NAYA (m-bnaya)
status: New → Invalid
status: Invalid → Opinion
information type: Public → Private
Changed in launchpad:
status: Invalid → Opinion
assignee: nobody → MANUELA BELLO NAYA (m-bnaya)
information type: Private → Private Security
William Grant (wgrant)
information type: Private Security → Public
Changed in canonical-identity-provider:
status: Opinion → New
Changed in launchpad:
status: Opinion → Triaged
assignee: MANUELA BELLO NAYA (m-bnaya) → nobody
Changed in canonical-identity-provider:
assignee: MANUELA BELLO NAYA (m-bnaya) → nobody
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