Bug#618639: gvfsd-http: cannot handle error codes and login pages

[Yves-Alexis Perez]

Package: gvfs-backends
Version: 1.7.2-1
Severity: important

Hey,

I have quite some issues with gio/gvfs based programs which display
links and can open them by clicking on them (mainly evolution and
xfce4-terminal right now). Even with the preferred browser set to
something, they won't try to open the link directly in the browser but
will try to pass through gio/gvfs http backend and in some case
fail miserably.

Take the LWN weekly pages (https://lwn.net/Articles/432758/
for example). If you open it in a browser, the server sends a 403
forbidden and display a login page. In some other cases it's a redirect
or something like that. But often, gvfs just can't handle that and
displays a popup “Could not open the link. HTTP Client Error: Forbidden”

I have to say I really don't care about gvfs opening an http link, what
I want is the page to be displayed in my browser so I don't even think
those apps should use gvfs, but at least gvfs should fall back
graciously on the browser when it can't handle the thing. The user
experience is right now really disappointive.

I hope you can do something about that (well, more upstream but still).

Regards,
-- 
Yves-Alexis

-- System Information:
Debian Release: wheezy/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'stable'), (101, 'experimental')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 2.6.32-5-grsec-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_US.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_US.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash

Versions of packages gvfs-backends depends on:
ii  gvfs                      1.7.2-1        userspace virtual filesystem - ser
ii  libarchive1               2.8.4-1        Single library to read/write tar, 
ii  libavahi-client3          0.6.29-1       Avahi client library
ii  libavahi-common3          0.6.29-1       Avahi common library
ii  libavahi-glib1            0.6.29-1       Avahi glib integration library
ii  libbluetooth3             4.87-2         Library to use the BlueZ Linux Blu
ii  libc6                     2.11.2-13      Embedded GNU C Library: Shared lib
ii  libcdio-cdda0             0.81-4         library to read and control digita
ii  libcdio-paranoia0         0.81-4         library to read digital audio CDs 
ii  libcdio10                 0.81-4         library to read and control CD-ROM
ii  libdbus-1-3               1.4.6-1        simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libdbus-glib-1-2          0.92-1         simple interprocess messaging syst
ii  libexpat1                 2.0.1-7        XML parsing C library - runtime li
ii  libglib2.0-0              2.28.2-1       The GLib library of C routines
ii  libgphoto2-2              2.4.10.1-5     gphoto2 digital camera library
ii  libgphoto2-port0          2.4.10.1-5     gphoto2 digital camera port librar
ii  libgudev-1.0-0            166-1          GObject-based wrapper library for 
ii  libimobiledevice2         1.1.0-1        Library for communicating with the
ii  libplist1                 1.3-2          Library for handling Apple binary 
ii  libsmbclient              2:3.5.8~dfsg-1 shared library for communication w
ii  libsoup-gnome2.4-1        2.30.2-1       an HTTP library implementation in 
ii  libsoup2.4-1              2.30.2-1       an HTTP library implementation in 
ii  libxml2                   2.7.8.dfsg-2   GNOME XML library

Versions of packages gvfs-backends recommends:
ii  gnome-keyring                 2.30.3-5   GNOME keyring services (daemon and

Versions of packages gvfs-backends suggests:
ii  obex-data-server              0.4.5-1+b1 D-Bus service for OBEX client and 

-- no debconf information