new version notification dialog: link is not active

[Maciej Pilichowski]

When the newer version is available VB shows notification dialog about this. It contains URL -- marked as blue, underlined. So it looks like valid link ready to be clicked, which should bring browser with web page.

However when you click on it, nothing happens.

[Frank Mehnert]

Which windowing system are you using? The following commands will be executed (in that order) to check if a valid browser exists:

• kfmclient exec URL
• gnome-open URL
• x-www-browser URL
• firefox URL
• konqueror URL

Does any of this commands work for you if you type it into an X terminal?

[Naruki]

Additionally, right click options to Select All, Copy, and Copy Link Location appear to work as expected, but nothing gets added to the clipboard.

[Naruki]

Replying to frank:

I am using a Windows XP host, and if that's what VB notification uses, it hasn't got a prayer of working.

[Frank Mehnert]

Naruki, didn't understand your last comment. Does that mean that clicking on the download link does not work for you on a Windows host? Note that selecting + copying the link does not work because copy'n'paste from GUI dialogs does not work (2.0 regression caused by the Qt4 migration, will be fixed soon).

[Naruki]

Sort of correct. Clicking the link does not work in Windows. (Sorry, I didn't realize macias had registered this as a Linux bug.) But that was not what my last comment was talking about.

It was talking about trying to launch a URL as you indicated, by trusting the browser executable to be in the system path.

Firefox happens to be my default browser, but it's set as such in the Windows registry, not in the path. Applications wishing to launch a link using my default browser (whatever it may be) cannot do so by using something like this:

firefox URL

So if that's how the notification dialog handles clicking on the links, it will not work in Windows. I just verified that even IE (iexplore.exe) is not in the path.

My first comment was to show that I tried other methods of getting the URL, but they also failed. Thanks for letting me know those are separate bugs.

[Frank Mehnert]

The method for calling the web browser was changed recently -- we are now using the Qt-provided method. Please reopen this ticket if you still have problems with the latest release 2.2.2.

[Naruki]

It's baaaaack.

I never really paid attention in the intervening upgrades, but today I am looking at the popup notice to upgrade to version 3.1.4 and clicking on the links does nothing.

Additionally, from the right-click menu I tried copying the link text, select all and copy, or just pressing Ctrl+C. In no case did my Windows clipboard get anything to paste.

Currently running 3.1.2 on Windows XP Host.

[Naruki]

Hmm, at home now with 64-bit Vista, and the update link worked just fine.

[Sue D. Nym]

Problem still occurring consistently on two different Macs (Catalina 10.15.6), VirtualBox 6.1.12 r139181 (Qt5.6.3). Link doesn't work, Cmd-c won't copy. This has been going on for years and I was hoping it would not occur on the new Mac, but it happens there too. One of our managers has the same issue on Windows 10. Same issue was reported by another individual on Mac in ticket 19733. This is clearly ongoing and spans multiple platforms.

[GuyR]

This has been happening to me for years on Windows 7 Pro 64-bit. Just got an update notification tonight, and it is still not clickable. I use Firefox 64-bit, though that seems irrelevant since the links in the message box are not clickable, so has nothing to do with any browser.

This used to work for me a couple years ago.

[Markus Schaber]

Happens since a few weeks on Windows 10 x64, VirtualBox version 6.1.14 r140239 (Qt5.6.2)

[paulson]

The root cause of the issue in ticket #2484 was resolved five years ago. Once this issue reappeared you should have opened a new ticket rather than update a ticket that has been closed for five years. Someone else did that already and created ticket #19959 which has now been resolved in VirtualBox 6.1.16. So for those seeing this issue today please upgrade to 6.1.16 for the fix.