krakel commented 2026年04月08日 23:55:48 +02:00

Installation

AUR via yay

Version

eduvpn_client 4.7.1
eduvpn_common 5.0.1

OS/Distribution

Arch, KDE Plasma 6.6.4, wayland, systemd,

I have Librewolf and Firefox installed, with Librewolf as default browser and where I'm logged in to my institution. Yet it opens in Firefox each time, have used eduvpn for about three months. I have never had issues with the wrong browser opening when clicking an URL in other apps. I read here that it's supposed to check the default browser but for some reason this doesn't happen here. My spontaneous guess is that the paths somehow are too similar for eduvpn so the wrong app opens. Let me know if you need any logs or anything like that.

Thank you for your hard work!

# Installation AUR via yay # Version eduvpn_client 4.7.1 eduvpn_common 5.0.1 # OS/Distribution Arch, KDE Plasma 6.6.4, wayland, systemd, I have Librewolf and Firefox installed, with Librewolf as default browser and where I'm logged in to my institution. Yet it opens in Firefox each time, have used eduvpn for about three months. I have never had issues with the wrong browser opening when clicking an URL in other apps. I read here that it's supposed to check the default browser but for some reason this doesn't happen here. My spontaneous guess is that the paths somehow are too similar for eduvpn so the wrong app opens. Let me know if you need any logs or anything like that. Thank you for your hard work!

fkooman commented 2026年04月09日 07:56:42 +02:00

What happens when run this command from the terminal?

xdg-open https://www.example.org

Does it open LibreWolf, or Firefox?

What it the output of xdg-settings get default-web-browser?

What happens when run this command from the terminal? ``` xdg-open https://www.example.org ``` Does it open LibreWolf, or Firefox? What it the output of `xdg-settings get default-web-browser`?

krakel commented 2026年04月14日 13:47:37 +02:00

Hi,

Running the command opens in Librewolf, the output of the command is librewolf.desktop.

Thank you for replying!

Hi, Running the command opens in Librewolf, the output of the command is librewolf.desktop. Thank you for replying!

jwijenbergh commented 2026年04月15日 10:16:58 +02:00

can you try: python -c "import webbrowser; webbrowser.open('https://example.org')"

can you try: `python -c "import webbrowser; webbrowser.open('https://example.org')"`

krakel commented 2026年04月15日 10:22:17 +02:00

Ah, there's the culprit! It opens in Firefox. Thank you! How can I resolve this?

Ah, there's the culprit! It opens in Firefox. Thank you! How can I resolve this?

jwijenbergh commented 2026年04月15日 14:28:59 +02:00

can you post the output of:

echo $BROWSER

?

can you post the output of: `echo $BROWSER` ?

krakel commented 2026年04月15日 14:51:21 +02:00

It's blank, very blank!

It's blank, very blank!

jwijenbergh commented 2026年05月11日 12:09:16 +02:00

Did you ever manage to solve this? Did you try with a clean system?

Did you ever manage to solve this? Did you try with a clean system?

krakel commented 2026年05月12日 07:27:30 +02:00

Yes, actually today I discovered that I have a system variable called BROWSER which was set to firefox, and this override the default-web-browser. No idea how it ended up being registered, but I changed it to librewolf and now it's working. Thank you for your help!

Yes, actually today I discovered that I have a system variable called BROWSER which was set to firefox, and this override the default-web-browser. No idea how it ended up being registered, but I changed it to librewolf and now it's working. Thank you for your help!

krakel commented 2026年05月12日 07:30:23 +02:00

Wait, I spoke too soon, python -c "import webbrowser; webbrowser.open('https://example.org')" opens in librewolf, but eduvpn still opens it in firefox!
Is eduVPN running in a virtual environment with its own variables somehow?

Wait, I spoke too soon, `python -c "import webbrowser; webbrowser.open('https://example.org')"` opens in librewolf, but eduvpn still opens it in firefox! Is eduVPN running in a virtual environment with its own variables somehow?

krakel commented 2026年05月12日 08:33:26 +02:00

So...

This is kind of weird. I tried adding a specific call for librewolf in the code, though this didn't work, just gave an error that it couldn't find the browser.

@run_in_background_thread("open-browser")
 def open_browser(self, url):
 logger.debug(f"Opening web browser with url: {url}")
 _webbrowser.get(using='librewolf')_
 webbrowser.open(url)
 # Explicitly wait to not have zombie processes
 # See https://bugs.python.org/issue5993
 logger.debug("Running os.wait for browser")

Then I added librewolf as a mozilla class browser in /usr/lib/python3.14/webbrowser.py, but that just opened it in firefox instead. Similar issues has been reported a few places, but it's kind of weird.

I ended up doing a silly workaround which runs webbrowser.open_new(url) instead, and in webbrowser.py I changed that command to open a private firefox window lol. It will work until something updates.

So... This is kind of weird. I tried adding a specific call for librewolf in the code, though this didn't work, just gave an error that it couldn't find the browser. ``` @run_in_background_thread("open-browser") def open_browser(self, url): logger.debug(f"Opening web browser with url: {url}") _webbrowser.get(using='librewolf')_ webbrowser.open(url) # Explicitly wait to not have zombie processes # See https://bugs.python.org/issue5993 logger.debug("Running os.wait for browser") ``` Then I added librewolf as a mozilla class browser in /usr/lib/python3.14/webbrowser.py, but that just opened it in firefox instead. Similar issues has been reported a few places, but it's kind of weird. I ended up doing a silly workaround which runs webbrowser.open_new(url) instead, and in webbrowser.py I changed that command to open a private firefox window lol. It will work until something updates.

reneum commented 2026年05月12日 08:43:38 +02:00

@krakel wrote in #692 (comment):

Wait, I spoke too soon, python -c "import webbrowser; webbrowser.open('https://example.org')" opens in librewolf, but eduvpn still opens it in firefox! Is eduVPN running in a virtual environment with its own variables somehow?

Mainly for the sake of completeness:

How did you test it? How you did you set it?
export BROWSER=librewolf

When you set BROWSER=librewolf in a single bash window, that variable only exists in that shell process and its child processes. It doesn't propagate to other terminal windows, GUI or system-wide applications.

grep -r "BROWSER" ~/.bashrc ~/.bash_profile ~/.profile /etc/bash.bashrc /etc/profile /etc/profile.d/ 2>/dev/null
systemctl --user show-environment | grep BROWSER
~/.config/environment.d/ or ~/.config/plasmarc ?

etc.

If systemd, it might help to:

mkdir -p ~/.config/environment.d/
echo 'BROWSER=librewolf' > ~/.config/environment.d/90-prio_browser.conf

(and reboot for sure)

(削除) However, it is better to find out why this variable has a value on this system. (削除ここまで)
Oh, my fault, sorry... you've said was empty before. That's also true for my system (openSUSE 16.0 Gnome 48) which seems right to me...

PS: Hard-coding sounds very weird as solution...

@krakel wrote in https://codeberg.org/eduVPN/linux-app/issues/692#issuecomment-14696598: > Wait, I spoke too soon, `python -c "import webbrowser; webbrowser.open('https://example.org')"` opens in librewolf, but eduvpn still opens it in firefox! Is eduVPN running in a virtual environment with its own variables somehow? Mainly for the sake of completeness: How did you test it? How you did you set it? `export BROWSER=librewolf` When you set BROWSER=librewolf in a single bash window, that variable only exists in that shell process and its child processes. It doesn't propagate to other terminal windows, GUI or system-wide applications. ``` grep -r "BROWSER" ~/.bashrc ~/.bash_profile ~/.profile /etc/bash.bashrc /etc/profile /etc/profile.d/ 2>/dev/null systemctl --user show-environment | grep BROWSER ~/.config/environment.d/ or ~/.config/plasmarc ? ``` etc. If systemd, it might help to: ``` mkdir -p ~/.config/environment.d/ echo 'BROWSER=librewolf' > ~/.config/environment.d/90-prio_browser.conf ``` (and reboot for sure) ~~However, it is better to find out why this variable has a value on this system.~~ Oh, my fault, sorry... you've said was empty before. That's also true for my system (openSUSE 16.0 Gnome 48) which seems right to me... PS: Hard-coding sounds very weird as solution...

krakel commented 2026年05月12日 09:12:50 +02:00

I had no idea that environment variables were local to the shell process, sorry about that. I found the offending variable in /etc/environment and changed it. Awesome, thank you for the help!

TLDR; the offender in this case is Python who puts the BROWSER variable before xdg-settings.

I had no idea that environment variables were local to the shell process, sorry about that. I found the offending variable in /etc/environment and changed it. Awesome, thank you for the help! TLDR; the offender in this case is Python who puts the BROWSER variable before xdg-settings.