Bug 124238

Summary:	confusing connection error messages
Product:	[Unmaintained] knode	Reporter:	Robert Gomułka <robertg.123>
Component:	general	Assignee:	kdepim bugs <kdepim-bugs>
Status:	RESOLVED WORKSFORME
Severity:	normal
Priority:	NOR
Version:	unspecified
Target Milestone:	---
Platform:	Debian testing
OS:	Linux
Latest Commit:		Version Fixed In:
Sentry Crash Report:

Description Robert Gomułka 2006-03-25 17:08:41 UTC

Version: (using KDE KDE 3.5.1)
Installed from: Debian testing/unstable Packages
OS: Linux

I have been watching this bug for ages.
Problem: kdelibs error messages are very confusing and unhelpful, sometimes misleading.
Reproducible: always.
Steps to reproduce:
[A]
1. Open KNode
2. Add fake NNTP server - machine, which responds to ping, but has no 119 port open.
3. Try to fetch newsgroups from the server.
4. Bug appears - it says "Coonection can't be established\nNo such file or directory"

What file or directory does it refer to?
In fact, the same behaviour has been reported there: http://www.mail-archive.com/cooker%40linux-mandrake.com/msg114919.html
Command line says:
$ telnet localhost 119
Trying 127.0.0.1...
telnet: Unable to connect to remote host: Connection refused
[completely different reason]

[B]
1. Open KNode
2. This step is rather hard. I have DSL internet connection with terrible quality. From time to time it refuses external connections with ICMP messages "destination unreachable" or similar. When I want to get any message from server in such moment, I get "Couldn't connect[...]\nOperation now in progress", which is completely unrelated - I am sure no connection is being made at that moment.
Ok. Now I can also reproduce this. I have just put following command onto my command line:
$ iptables -I OUTPUT -p tcp --dport 119 -j REJECT --reject-with icmp-host-unreachable
It sends back ICMP host unreachable message when I want to connect to NNTP server. KNode says at that moment:
"Connection couldn't be established\nOperation now in progress"
Which is also misleading.
The same for port unreachable, tcp-reset.

I am not sure if this is kdelibs bug or just knode problem - can anyone reassign it, if appropriate?

Comment 1 Philip Rodrigues 2006-03-26 21:36:11 UTC

In the first case you mention, I get "connection refused". I haven't tried the second case. (SVN revision 520548 on FreeBSD).

Comment 2 Robert Gomułka 2006-03-26 22:11:47 UTC

Will try to verify this on incoming 3.5.2 then.
Small correction:
- when I want to fetch newsgroups from non-existant nntp server, I get "no such file or directory"
- when I want to fetch article and an error occurs, I get "operation is now in progress"

Comment 3 Robert Gomułka 2006-03-26 22:19:13 UTC

One more comment - just verified this on newly created, fresh user.

Comment 4 Robert Gomułka 2006-04-02 18:10:38 UTC

The same behaviour on 3.5.2.

Comment 5 Olivier Trichet 2009-08-14 10:36:51 UTC

With current version, the message is more sensible : "Could not connect to host news.example.org". Thus I'm closing this report.