Ubuntu
libnotify package

notify-send doesn't work properly

Bug #497729 reported by Sasquatch on 2009-12-17

This bug report is a duplicate of: Bug #606994: xfce4-notify doesn't support notification specs 1.1. Edit Remove

This bug affects 5 people

	Status	Importance	Assigned to
Xfce4 Notifyd	New	Undecided	Unassigned
libnotify (Ubuntu)	New	Low	Unassigned
xfce4-notifyd (Ubuntu)	Triaged	Medium	Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: libnotify1

Applications and scripts that use notify-send do not show a notification when they supposed to. This method does work with Jaunty. I've tracked it down to the libnotify1 package by installing it from the Jaunty repo and perform a test. On Karmic, this is what happens instead:

$ notify-send "test"
libnotify-Message: GetServerInformation call failed: Too few arguments in reply
libnotify-Message: Error getting spec version

With the Jaunty version of libnotify1 (that is 0.4.5-0ubuntu1) on Karmic, the notification is shown properly. The problem is likely to be in Lucid too, considering it's the same build.

Additional packages for notifications on my system:
libnotify1 (0.4.5-0ubuntu1, Jaunty)
libnotify-bin (0.4.5-1ubuntu1, Karmic)
xfce4-notifyd (0.1.0-4ubuntu1, Karmic)

Problematic package:
libnotify1 (0.4.5-1ubuntu1, Karmic)

Revision history for this message

Sasquatch (sasquatch) wrote on 2010-05-10:

This bug is still not fixed in Lucid. This is the output:

$ notify-send "a test"
libnotify-Message: GetServerInformation call failed: Too few arguments in reply
libnotify-Message: Error getting spec version

** (notify-send:6229): CRITICAL **: dbus_g_proxy_connect_signal: assertion `DBUS_IS_G_PROXY (proxy)' failed

** (notify-send:6229): CRITICAL **: dbus_g_proxy_call: assertion `DBUS_IS_G_PROXY (proxy)' failed

This bug is a real show stopper in creating notification scripts, as the notification is not shown at all.

Revision history for this message

Sebastien Bacher (seb128) wrote on 2010-07-01:

thank you for your bug report, are you sure you don't have a local version installed? it works for everybody else...

Changed in libnotify (Ubuntu):
importance:	Undecided → Low

Revision history for this message

Lionel Porcheron (lionel.porcheron) wrote on 2010-07-01:

One of my coworker get the same problem, and he is running an xubuntu. I see that in your additional packages you have xfce4-notifyd. This issue may be xubuntu specific.

Revision history for this message

Sasquatch (sasquatch) wrote on 2010-07-03:

That could be possible, but shouldn't xfce4-notifyd just display the notification it gets from the actual notification system? I'll try it with a VM and Gnome's version of notifyd. I happen to have a netbookremix version and Lubuntu VM. After the Gnome version, I'll test with xfce4-notifyd and report back here.

Revision history for this message

Sasquatch (sasquatch) wrote on 2010-07-03:

Finished testing between notify-osd and xfce4-notifyd, and correct, it is xfce4-notifyd that is at fault here, in combination with libnotify1. There is no mutual support between the two. Such a pity, because xfce4-notifyd offers more functions for me than notify-osd does, like open the file/folder or certain dialogues with buttons one can use. And it doesn't hide when you move the mouse on it.

Revision history for this message

Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek) wrote on 2010-07-20:

Thanks for reporting this bug and any supporting documentation. Since this bug has enough information provided for a developer to begin work, I'm going to mark it as confirmed and let them handle it from here. Thanks for taking the time to make Ubuntu better!

This may be a duplicate of Bug #606994 and will be fixed by the actions being taken to fix that bug.

Changed in xfce4-notifyd (Ubuntu):
importance:	Undecided → Medium
status:	New → Triaged

Revision history for this message

Lionel Le Folgoc (mrpouit) wrote on 2010-07-20:

Indeed, thanks for noticing that. This bug is older than #606994, but I'm marking it as duplicate, since I started the SRU process there.

Revision history for this message

Sasquatch (sasquatch) wrote on 2010-07-20:

Please note the status of the bug here too when fixed so I get notified automatically and don't need to subscribe to the other report. Thanks.

Revision history for this message

Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek) wrote on 2010-07-27:

Accepted xfce4-notifyd into lucid-proposed, the package will build now and be available in a few hours. Please test and give feedback on Bug #606994. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Thank you in advance!