Synaptic "Visit Homepage" not working

Hello. When I peruse packages on Synaptic, I'm given the option of visiting the package's website via a button labelled "Visit Homepage". However, when I press this it does not work. Anyone know how I can get this to work? I tried looking in Settings/Preferences, but couldn't find anything.

I just tried the "visit homepage" link on a random package in Synaptic on Debian and it crashed Synaptic with a segmentation fault.

I was able to triplicate the error.

I would like, just out of curriousity, to know specifically what packages you guys are looking at.

Rarely use Synaptic for actually installing things but do have it installed. Comes in handy. Have never, that I can recall, used a home page link from there. Seem to remember seeing them though.

So I open Synaptic and take a look. I am running only Wheezy(box in my sig died on me) on this antique laptop. 32 bit.

I spent only about 5 minutes looking for an actual link. Synaptic 0.75.12. Didn't find any.

There is no link to a Thunar homepage. Figured that would be there. There is a link in their "about" information box you get from the "help" button on Thunar. It works fine if that is your idea of fun.

Did find thing like "http://live.gnome.org/ThumbnailerSpec" and "<URL:http://www.X.org>" in the discription tab.

Another thing I would like to know is what version of Debian was tried out for this.

The Ubuntu version would be nice too.

I am wondering if this is a long known bug and Debian has removed the links in favor of addresses in Stable for this reason.

I have always prefered running a search for a package as it will give me all the links to problems people have with it as well as the home page.

Have you checked Launchpad for Ubuntu bugs on this problem? Have you filed a bug?

No, I have not filed a bug report. I do not know if this is a "known bug". Please see included screenshot which displays the "visit homepage" link of packages within synaptic that, on my computer, is not working. Also see included code. I hope this clarifies my initial question.

mark@mark-OptiPlex-755:~$ uname -a
Linux mark-OptiPlex-755 3.11.0-18-generic #32-Ubuntu SMP Tue Feb 18 21:11:14 UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

mark@mark-OptiPlex-755:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID:	Ubuntu
Description:	Ubuntu 13.10
Release:	13.10
Codename:	saucy
mark@mark-OptiPlex-755:~$ 
mark@mark-OptiPlex-755:~$ dpkg -s synaptic
Package: synaptic
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: admin
Installed-Size: 7672
Maintainer: Ubuntu Developers <ubuntu-devel-discuss@lists.ubuntu.com>
Architecture: amd64
Version: 0.80.2
Depends: libapt-inst1.5 (>= 0.8.16~exp12), libapt-pkg4.12 (>= 0.8.16~exp12), libc6 (>= 2.14), libept1.4.12 (>= 1.0.9), libgcc1 (>= 1:4.1.1), libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 (>= 2.22.0), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.14.0), libgtk-3-0 (>= 3.0.0), libpango1.0-0 (>= 1.14.0), libstdc++6 (>= 4.6), libvte-2.90-9 (>= 1:0.27.2), libx11-6, libxapian22, hicolor-icon-theme
Recommends: gksu | kdebase-bin | policykit-1, libgtk2-perl (>= 1:1.130), rarian-compat
Suggests: dwww, menu, deborphan, apt-xapian-index, tasksel, software-properties-gtk
Conflicts: menu (<< 2.1.11)
Description: Graphical package manager
 Synaptic is a graphical package management tool based on GTK+ and APT.
 Synaptic enables you to install, upgrade and remove software packages in
 a user friendly way.
 .
 Besides these basic functions the following features are provided:
  * Search and filter the list of available packages
  * Perform smart system upgrades
  * Fix broken package dependencies
  * Edit the list of used repositories (sources.list)
  * Download the latest changelog of a package
  * Configure packages through the debconf system
  * Browse all available documentation related to a package (dwww is required)
Original-Maintainer: Michael Vogt <mvo@debian.org>
Homepage: http://www.nongnu.org/synaptic/
mark@mark-OptiPlex-755:~$

Thanks a lot for that.

I have run Xfce for a while now and use screenshooter.

Checking in Wheezy 32 bit Synaptic I get no homepage link at all.

Note that the maintainer listed is an Ubuntu dev. This is the Ubuntu Synaptic you are using. It is probably about the same as anyother Synaptic out there but it is from the Ubuntu repos and therefore has to have an Ubuntu dev to maintain the package.

While that is usually mainly to deal with the install script which is part of the .deb file there are also some modifications that any distro may make in any package.

The easiest way for you to determine if this is a known bug is to log into Launchpad and file a bug. This should take you to a page that lists related bugs or duplicate bugs. You will then be given the option of filing a new bug or adding to an existing bug.

Both are very important. If I were to have this problem on an Ubuntu installation and file a bug there is going to be nothing done about it at all. This is because it has not be "verified". It becomes verified when someone else, you for instance, add your "me too" to the bug.

This is done at the top of the bug page, forget the actual wording, and is something like "this problem also effects me". Simple mouse click adds your "me too".

You can then add any extra info or comment you have at the bottom of the page, which on existing and active bugs can be quite a long ways down.

While hitting the "end" button to get there is tempting I would, assuming there is a current bug, scroll down the page and read the thing. There is often some very good information, or at least educational information, and sometimes suggestions of work arounds that have worked for some people.

If it is not an existing bug then there is no chance of it getting fixed unless you file a bug and someone else adds a Me Too to it.

You could also check Gnome bug tracking, don't remember exactly how anymore, I think they are the source package maintainers.

Keep in mind that Ubuntu discourages the use of Synaptic actively (for "experts" only) so their bug responce, never robust, is likely to be slow. The more bug filings and me toos will be some help there.

It's mentioned here. I added myself as someone that is also affected by the bug.

I just looked at some random packages--a couple of libraries and an application that I knew had a home page, but I can't remember which one.

The segfault was clearly produced locally. It never got so far as calling the browser.

Originally Posted by mark_alfred It's mentioned here. I added myself as someone that is also affected by the bug.

Bug filed 11 months ago. Priority low. Affects 9 people.

On the other hand it does say that a fix is committed.

This is one reason it is important to file bugs and mark existing bugs with your me too. If it affected, say, 90 people instead of 9, it likely would move faster.

Looks like all you need to do is upgrade to 14.04 or get the package from the 14.04 repo. You might want to wait for the 14.04 release before grabbing the package.

From my fairly extensive experience in running Ubuntu-testing releases in the past I would wait until around July to upgrade to 14.04. If you check the release dates for Ubuntu you should find that sometime around then they will release 14.04.1 which is simply a step release so that the ISO includes all bugs fixed since release of the version. They are considerably more stable at that point.

As someone that is probably noted as not being (anymore) a fan of Ubuntu I should add that this makes sense. The testing pool is small and currently not very experienced. So you have little diversity in hardware being represented. Once a release takes place you have a lot of people installing and using, of coarse, more various hardware configurations. This causes bugs to show up. On the LTS (14.04) the bug fixes are a bit faster and are available a bit faster.

If you are not one that needs to have the latest and greatest package releases 14.04 may be a good choice. Supported until release of 19.04