Trouble with konqueror on http authentication

[Stefano Crocco]

On sabato 30 gennaio 2021 09:25:45 CET Erik Rull wrote:
> Stefano Crocco wrote:
> > On giovedì 28 gennaio 2021 23:39:00 CET Erik Rull wrote:
> >> Stefano Crocco wrote:
> >>> On martedì 26 gennaio 2021 22:04:15 CET Erik Rull wrote:
> >>>> Hi all,
> >>>> 
> >>>> I don't know how to get this working again. I just updated to 20.04
> >>>> from
> >>>> 16.04 (kubuntu LTS) and before the update this was working great:
> >>>> 
> >>>> I start my Linux box (just power on) and remote SSH into the system
> >>>> (X-Forwarding enabled). Then I open my applications and also konqueror.
> >>>> This works all fine and smoothly, websites are displayed fine. Until I
> >>>> try to access a website with HTTP-Authentication - there I directly get
> >>>> a 401 - no asking for a password, nothing, just the 401 page directly.
> >>>> Firefox prompts me for the username/password and shows me the page
> >>>> behind the
> >>>> authentication. So the server is fine. I tried multiple servers and
> >>>> konqueror behaves always the same.
> >>>> 
> >>>> Any idea what I broke during the update?
> >>>> 
> >>>> Best regards,
> >>>> 
> >>>> Erik
> >>> 
> >>> Hello Erik,
> >>> do you by any chance know whether your previous version of Konqueror
> >>> still
> >>> used the WebKit engine or had it already switched to QtWebEngine? In the
> >>> first case, I think you can have found yet another feature which stopped
> >>> working with the switch to the new engine.
> >>> 
> >>> If your current Kubuntu version still provides KWebKitPart, you could
> >>> also
> >>> try installing it, select it as default web engine in the General tab of
> >>> the Konqueror settings page and check whether the HTTP Authentication
> >>> works with it. If it does, the problem lies with QtWebEngine, otherwise,
> >>> we'll need to investigate somewhere else.
> >>> 
> >>> Stefano
> >> 
> >> Hi Stefano,
> >> 
> >> I don't know exactly. How can I check this and / or switch the engine?
> >> When opening konqueror and access e.g. google.com then a new process is
> >> listed with QtWebEngineProcess - so I assume this is the QtWebEngine.
> >> I tried to search for kwebkit in aptitude - nothing found...
> >> Maybe it is hidden in a different named package?
> >> 
> >> Best regards,
> >> 
> >> Erik
> > 
> > Hello Erik,
> > the current version of Konqueror uses QtWebEngine by default. I fear that
> > kwebkitpart may have been removed from it (for instance, I know it's been
> > removed from Gentoo). In the weekend, I'll try to install an Ubuntu
> > virtual
> > machine with both Ubuntu 20.04 and 16.04 to check what the situation is.
> > 
> > Stefano
> 
> Hi Stefano,
> 
> 
> Thanks a lot!
> Please try the SSH access before you logged in.
> 
> I found out something new meanwhile:
> When NOT logging in directly on the desktop - I get the 401 with konqueror
> directly via SSH - that I described already.
> BUT - When logging into the system directly (local screen and keyboard) and
> THEN open the konqueror remotely via SSH, konqueror does NOT display the
> 401 - it "waits". But what happens in parallel on the local screen: the
> authentication dialog of the requested website pops up!
> 
> So "something" is different when being logged in directly. But the behavior
> is still odd, because you have no chance to access the login dialog via
> SSH...
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> Best regards,
> 
> Erik

Hello Erik,
I can confirm that, unfortunately, KUbuntu 20.4 doesn't include KWebKitPart. If 
you are comfortable building programs from source, you can download it from 
https://invent.kde.org/libraries/kwebkitpart and install it (it requires 
kdewebkit which is available in KUbuntu). After installing it, in the General 
tab of Konqueror settings dialog, you'll be able to set KWebKit as default web 
browser engine. I'm not sure whether this will fix your issue or not, however.

As I've never used ssh with X-forwarding, could you please explain step by 
step what you did to in the two situations you described? I tried setting up a 
very minimalistic server with http authentication and accessing it with using 
Konqueror from ssh and I had no problems neither with the old KWebKit nor with 
the new QtWebEngine.

Stefano