[Tuturial] Gwibber, Ubuntu One, & Empathy Problems

Here's a possible fix for those who are having problems with Gwibber, Empathy, Ubuntu One or high CPU usage from a service called beam.  These 3 applications wouldn't launch at all from any menu or command line.  After some digging, I also noticed that I was getting very high CPU activity from a service called beam.



When I tried launching Gwibber from the command line I got something similar to this:

jochem@Artemis:~$ gwibber
** (gwibber:3091): WARNING **: Trying to register gtype 'WnckWindowState' as enum when in fact it is of type 'GFlags'
** (gwibber:3091): WARNING **: Trying to register gtype 'WnckWindowActions' as enum when in fact it is of type 'GFlags'
** (gwibber:3091): WARNING **: Trying to register gtype 'WnckWindowMoveResizeMask' as enum when in fact it is of type 'GFlags'
No dbus monitor yet
Updating...
Updating...
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/bin/gwibber", line 67, in
    client.Client()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/gwibber/client.py", line 447, in __init__
    self.w = GwibberClient()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/gwibber/client.py", line 58, in __init__
    self.setup_ui()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/gwibber/client.py", line 144, in setup_ui
    self.stream_view.set_state(self.model.settings["streams"] or DEFAULT_SETTINGS["streams"])
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/gwibber/gwui.py", line 438, in set_state
    self.update()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/gwibber/gwui.py", line 426, in update
    self.message_view.render([self.navigation.selected_stream["view"]])
  File "/usr/lib/python2.6/dist-packages/gwibber/gwui.py", line 706, in render
    message = item['doc']
KeyError: 'doc'

I checked the launchpad for bug reports and found many submissions but nothing that clearly outlined the fix and quite frankly made the whole thing more confusing. By luck I came across an article on fixmypcfree.com that stated a similar problem.  Difference being that the author did not state problems with Empathy or Ubuntu One.

So for the sake simplicity and completion here are the steps to get them working again if you have the same problem.  The information is from the blog post Ubuntu Lucid: I fix another problem (maybe), but questions about … but here I am making the point that it fixes the launch problems with Empathy and Ubuntu One also and paraphrasing for simplicity.

1. Delete all password related to Gwibber (applications > accessories > "Passwords and Encryption Keys"). But to get Empathy to work again. I deleted all my chat account passwords also.
2. Quit Gwibber then delete 3 files: /home/username/.cache/desktop-couch, /home/username/.config/desktop-couch, and /home/username/.local/desktop-couch.
3. Restart computer and then Gwibber, Ubuntu One, and Empathy should all request setup for user and passwords once you start them.

I actually had to do these steps twice for reasons unknown to me.  So if it doesn't work for you the first time, try the process again.

Note that I am using Ubuntu Lucid 10.04 with Gwibber, Ubuntu One, and Empathy integrated and launch-able from the notification area. Let me know in the comments section if this fix works for you in other releases of Ubuntu.