Amarok would not work -Newbie Gotchya; kde requests 4 passwords at login

[smile4yourself]

I must be a newbie. Wow, what a great job you folks have done to get it to work so well. I loaded Ubuntu on an older desktop and it ran without a flaw. Hardware was all found. I played music, installed VLC and watched videos. I can see all my data drives built up over the years with the "other" OS, and could see all my USB drives too. WOW.

them I decided to install kubuntu on my real desktop... but Amorok would not work.

I removed it and reloaded it without better success. Then, I decided to create a password for the vault that was being requested by another application ("kwallet"), and after doing so, by accident Amarok started to work.

It would be nice to add an error message in Amarok that it needs the "kwallet" before it will work.

I looked for the application error logs, but could not find them. If anyone knows where they are, maybe you can reply. If not, just receive a big hug from me.

[valoriez]

Re: Amarok would not work -Newbie Gotchya

Sometimes the request pops up behind something else, and people don't notice it. It's not a Vault, it's Kwallet, which conveniently stores your usernames and passwords for you, so that in Amarok, for instance, you are automatically signed into Last.fm if you want to "scrobble" your played tracks. It is very convenient, and one of my favorite parts of KDE.

But you are right that it should be more obvious that it needs to be used or dismissed before some apps will start.

All the best,

Valorie

[rfakhrai]

Re: Amarok would not work -Newbie Gotchya

If you don't want to get the KWallet screen every time amarok starts up, you can disable last.fm in the plugins (or something like that) section of the preferences. If you don't use the service, it's not necessary (and rather bothersome) to go through the authentication step.

Hope to help! Welcome to Kubuntu.

[smile4yourself]

Re: Amarok would not work -Newbie Gotchya

Thanks for the discussion on Kwallet folks, as It's an application that I do not yet understand.

I configured kubuntu with 4 desktops, using different activities in each, and this works quite well, but every time I start the system up, I get multiple requests for a password "to use the device" --not sure which device is asking for a password !!!

I then "cancel" each request for password, or simply click "ok" but without entering a password. The system then comes up as expected, but I don't know what the requests are -- a built-in Trojan to get my passwords? <smile>

I thought I should remove the application altogether and see what would happen. It would be nice to get a detailed log to see what device is asking for a password. Any idea how to get this?

I installed firestarter --a firewall for kubuntu and found that it works quite well but it does not run as a system service but rather a user application, so I need to start it manually every time I turn the system on. OK I can do it --I even configured the kubuntu desktop to restart the applications automatically that were running when I shut the system down.

But firestarter needs a password. When it starts, the request for a password gets buried under other requests for other device passwords (described above), but it it's case, kwallet (I'm assuming that kwallet is asking here) says in the request that the password is to start firestarter.

I then enter my user password and it starts up fine.

I read somewhere that kwallet had a bug in kubuntu so maybe the above is explainable... Can anyone confirm & or suggest some resolution for kwallet?

[The Liquidator]

Re: Amarok would not work -Newbie Gotchya

Hi and welcome!

On kwallet, on first running you are asked to assign a password. That is your password for kwallet and nothing else. There are a number of applications, however, (knetworkmanager, amarok etc) that require kwallets permission to run and so when you attempt to run one of them you will be asked for the password. when prompted, select the "always allow" option, and that application won't ask you again.

Firewalls. Where do I start! I assume you are comparing the linux firewalls with something like Zone Alarm, and it can be confusing. Whereas Zone Alarm asks for permission for applications to connect to the internet and blocks those you forbid, a linux firewall enables (or disables) services or ports. Install the firewall guarddog, for example, run it once without enabling services and you won't even connect to the net! Happily the default ubuntu installation (which running guarddog overrides) starts with being able to access main network services but from the outside world it's in full stealth mode. The net security is controlled by something called IP tables which firewall GUIs mainly tweak. As a result, many people consider a firewall application per se to be unnecessary in Linux and in the wrong hands there is the potential to do more harm than good (ie enabling the wrong thing).

Hope this helps, and don't worry we were all noobs once You have come to the right place.

Edit: Having re-read your post, firestarter is asking for your administrator (sudo) password as you cannot configure it without it - it's a system administration task which an ordinary user can't do. As a matter of interest it will be best not to use the same password for kwallet, given that that is a user password.

HTH

[smile4yourself]

Re: Amarok would not work -Newbie Gotchya

I thought I'd add some more findings to my findings above; I discovered that we can disable kwallet in the settings --so I did.

Since I still get the requests for a password when I boot up, it must NOT be caused by kwallet as suggested above.

I found another post that it may be caused by trying to mount windows file systems in fstab; but in my case this was not the cause.

Since no one has any ideas either, I'll let you know if I find out what's wrong.

[The Liquidator]

Re: Amarok would not work -Newbie Gotchya

My guess is it's the network manager trying to connect to the wifi. Assuming that to be the case, some points on that follow:

If you right click on the wifi icon in the system tray you can select manage connections.

In the resulting pane select your default connection and select "edit". You should then see an option to connect automatically. Is it checked? If not select it.

It may be that disabling kwallet is different to telling the network manager that the password isn't needed. In disabling the wallet you may ironically have disabled the ability to automatically connect as it's the wallet that supplies the required authorisation. I would enable it and from within the kwallet settings you can configure it to "always allow" the network manager. Alternatively having a blank kwallet password will do it.

OTOH you might want to go a different way and use wicd instead of the stock network manager which will eliminate this issue. If the above tips don't solve it then come back and get advice on installing wicd. Don't do it without help as the 2 conflict and if you don't completely remove network manager but install wicd you can wind up being unable to connect at all!

[smile4yourself]

Re: Amarok would not work -Newbie Gotchya

thanks for these ideas; I don't use wifi on this machine, and have no wireless card, but when I looked at the network manager as you suggested, there was no default connection specified, so the "connect automatically" button was not selected either. I created a default wired connection and set the "connect automatically" button to ON.

I'll have to reboot to see if this fixes it... I'll let you know, in the mean time, thanks for your help.

[smile4yourself]

Re: Amarok would not work -Newbie Gotchya

Success! You fixed it. No more password requests when I booted up. It was caused because there was no default connection set in the networkmanager. I simply added a default connection and clicked the button "connect automatically"

Thanks for taking the time to help!

[The Liquidator]

Re: Amarok would not work -Newbie Gotchya

Great stuff!

Can you please edit your first post to mark it solved, in case it will help others?

[smile4yourself]

Re: [SOLVED] Amarok would not work -Newbie Gotchya

I feel like someone who left their lover for a new one, only to realize that they were not really in love with the new lover. I need to confess the truth now.

Alas, I had to do "a recover" because the system did not boot. Kubuntu reloaded dozens of libraries, and then gave me the same problems I had before --along with all my old user preferences.

I was happy about the latter, but I continue to get requests for 4 passwords from Kde when I log in. --wouldn't it be nice to attach the actual error messages (pictures) to these posts. Maybe it's something to do with the drives I am mounting... as some of them are old windows drives.

I disabled kdewallet to see if I can narrow down the problem.

[smile4yourself]

[smile4yourself]

thanks much for your help. I don't see a "solved" button, but can add it to the title.