Vivaldi apparently won't work with KDE Wallet disabled - any way around it?

[Goatmilk]

I have the problem that no chrome based browser works on my MX Linux 25 KDE system. After some searching in the webs, it seems the problem is that I've disabled KDE Wallet. I did that for a reason: first, I don't use it and therefore don't need it, and second, I've read everywhere about people getting annoyed by that little pest throwing prompts and popups around.

After several futile attempts to install Vivaldi and always ending up with a useless, greyed out screen I've uninstalled it (once more) and tried to install it via terminal. It didn't work any better, but at least the whole disgrace was annotated for posterity. That way, I at least had a chance to get an idea of what was going on (code down below, detailing the installation and the attempt to launch Vivaldi including the error messages it produced).

From what I can gather with my puny newbie skills, Vivaldi won't run without KDE wallet enabled. Some websites I've found seem to confirm that. And apart from the fact that I found several websites where folks complained about KDE Wallet spamming them with login prompts and other unwanted crap whenever they opened their stricken browsers, I absolutely and utterly HATE it when something tries to force some crap on me that I didn't want and didn't ask for.

The whole thing reminds me of the 90s when certain programs tried to sneak some shady spamware onto your system. But they at least had the basic decency to let you opt out of the unwanted "service", however hidden and easy to overlook that option was. Vivaldi obviously doesn't even have that. Rather shameful for a company that claims to "fight for a better web".

I used to like Vivaldi, happily ran it on my Windows 7 and the last Linux before this one (MX Linux 23) - and always without KDE Wallet. Since the other chrome-based browsers I've tried installing (Brave and Chromium) suffered the same "greyed-out screen"-syndrome I guess they also need kwallet. At least some websites seems to think that.

So my questions: Is there a way to use Vivaldi WITHOUT enabling KDE Wallet? Or, alternatively, is there a chrome-based browser - other than Google Chrome - that will function without KDE wallet?

As much as I always liked Vivaldi, in the end I just need any old chrome-based browser to check how my websites look in them - given that I usually go with Firefox and Librewolf.

Thanks in advance

owl@Sam:~

$ sudo apt install wget

[sudo] password for owl:

wget is already the newest version (1.25.0-2).

Summary:

  Upgrading: 0, Installing: 0, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 0

owl@Sam:~

$ wget -qO- https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/linux_signing_key.pub | gpg --dearmor | sudo dd of=/usr/share/keyrings/vivaldi-browser.gpg

4+1 records in

4+1 records out

2285 bytes (2.3 kB, 2.2 KiB) copied, 0.0877673 s, 26.0 kB/s

owl@Sam:~

$ echo "deb [signed-by=/usr/share/keyrings/vivaldi-browser.gpg arch=$(dpkg --print-architecture)] https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/deb/ stable main" | sudo dd of=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/vivaldi-archive.list

0+1 records in

0+1 records out

117 bytes copied, 6.8222e-05 s, 1.7 MB/s

owl@Sam:~

$ sudo apt update

Hit:1 http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie InRelease

Hit:2 http://security.debian.org/debian-security trixie-security InRelease

Hit:3 http://deb.debian.org/debian trixie-updates InRelease

Ign:4 https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/deb stable InRelease

Hit:5 https://repo.librewolf.net librewolf InRelease

Get:6 https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/deb stable Release [3,840 B]

Get:7 https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/deb stable Release.gpg [833 B]

Get:8 https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/deb stable/main amd64 Packages [1,342 B]

Get:9 https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/deb stable/main amd64 Contents (deb) [16.0 kB]

Hit:10 http://mirror.math.princeton.edu/pub/mxlinux/mx/repo trixie InRelease

Fetched 22.0 kB in 0s (75.8 kB/s)

All packages are up to date.

owl@Sam:~

$ sudo apt install vivaldi-stable

Installing:

  vivaldi-stable


Summary:

  Upgrading: 0, Installing: 1, Removing: 0, Not Upgrading: 0

  Download size: 125 MB

  Space needed: 444 MB / 69.5 GB available


Get:1 https://repo.vivaldi.com/archive/deb stable/main amd64 vivaldi-stable amd64 7.8.3925.74-1 [125 MB]

Fetched 125 MB in 18s (6,970 kB/s)

Selecting previously unselected package vivaldi-stable.

(Reading database ... 375350 files and directories currently installed.)

Preparing to unpack .../vivaldi-stable_7.8.3925.74-1_amd64.deb ...

Unpacking vivaldi-stable (7.8.3925.74-1) ...

Setting up vivaldi-stable (7.8.3925.74-1) ...

update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/vivaldi-stable to provide /usr/bin/x-www-browser (x-www-browser) in auto mode

update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/vivaldi-stable to provide /usr/bin/gnome-www-browser (gnome-www-browser) in auto mode

update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/vivaldi-stable to provide /usr/bin/vivaldi (vivaldi) in auto mode

Processing triggers for desktop-file-utils (0.28-1) ...

Processing triggers for mailcap (3.74) ...

owl@Sam:~

$ vivaldi

[15412:15412:0228/214000.335785:ERROR:chromium/dbus/object_proxy.cc:573] Failed to call method: org.kde.KWallet.isEnabled: object_path= /modules/kwalletd6: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Message recipient disconnected from message bus without replying

[15412:15412:0228/214000.335808:ERROR:chromium/components/os_crypt/sync/kwallet_dbus.cc:113] Error contacting kwalletd6 (isEnabled)

[15412:15412:0228/214000.336309:ERROR:chromium/dbus/object_proxy.cc:573] Failed to call method: org.kde.KLauncher.start_service_by_desktop_name: object_path= /KLauncher: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.kde.klauncher was not provided by any .service files

[15412:15412:0228/214000.336315:ERROR:chromium/components/os_crypt/sync/kwallet_dbus.cc:82] Error contacting klauncher to start kwalletd6

[15412:15412:0228/214000.539917:ERROR:chromium/dbus/object_proxy.cc:573] Failed to call method: org.kde.KWallet.close: object_path= /modules/kwalletd6: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Message recipient disconnected from message bus without replying

[15412:15412:0228/214000.539930:ERROR:chromium/components/os_crypt/sync/kwallet_dbus.cc:408] Error contacting kwalletd6 (close)

[15412:15412:0228/214000.950592:ERROR:chromium/components/dbus/xdg/request.cc:165] Request ended (non-user cancelled).

[15412:15438:0228/214003.982792:ERROR:chromium/google_apis/gcm/engine/registration_request.cc:291] Registration response error message: DEPRECATED_ENDPOINT

[15412:15435:0228/214013.201116:ERROR:extensions/api/guest_view/web_view_private_api.cpp:156] No image from backing store.

[15412:15447:0228/214013.270664:ERROR:chromium/content/browser/browser_main_loop.cc:290] GLib: g_main_context_pop_thread_default: assertion 'stack != NULL' failed

owl@Sam:~

$

 

[Condobloke]

What a bummer.

I have never used vivaldi. Took one look at all the options etc etc and opted out of there.

i am also not a frequent flyer of anything related to ai.

However, search assist in Duck duck go, provided the following summary which aligns well with your summation @Goatmilk ....so I have included it below.
In a nutshell it would appear you are quite correct.

Vivaldi and KDE Wallet Dependency​

Functionality Without KDE Wallet​

• Vivaldi can run without KDE Wallet, but issues may arise.
• Users have reported that disabling KDE Wallet can lead to problems, such as the browser not starting or rendering content properly.

Common Issues When Disabled​

• Error messages related to KDE Wallet appear when Vivaldi is launched without it.
• The browser may take longer to launch or show a blank window.
• Some users experience a password prompt when KDE Wallet is enabled, which can be annoying.

Recommendations​

• If you encounter issues with Vivaldi, consider re-enabling KDE Wallet.
• Alternatively, you can explore other password management solutions if you prefer not to use KDE Wallet.

In summary, while Vivaldi does not strictly require KDE Wallet to function, having it enabled can help avoid various operational issues.
Wikipedia forum.manjaro.org

 

[Goatmilk]

Sad, thus they went and ruined a nice browser.

If it is Vivaldi's fault... went and looked for a chrome-based browser that would work without KDE Wallet and Duckduckgo's ai recommended Ungoogled Chromium.

Installed it, it came up - but rather greyed and unresponsive.

$ ungoogled-chromium
[27023:27023:0228/235516.863875:ERROR:dbus/object_proxy.cc:572] Failed to call method: org.kde.KWallet.isEnabled: object_path= /modules/kwalletd6: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Message recipient disconnected from message bus without replying
[27023:27023:0228/235516.863947:ERROR:components/os_crypt/sync/kwallet_dbus.cc:113] Error contacting kwalletd6 (isEnabled)
[27023:27023:0228/235516.864276:ERROR:dbus/object_proxy.cc:572] Failed to call method: org.kde.KLauncher.start_service_by_desktop_name: object_path= /KLauncher: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.ServiceUnknown: The name org.kde.klauncher was not provided by any .service files
[27023:27023:0228/235516.864288:ERROR:components/os_crypt/sync/kwallet_dbus.cc:82] Error contacting klauncher to start kwalletd6
[27023:27023:0228/235517.063812:ERROR:dbus/object_proxy.cc:572] Failed to call method: org.kde.KWallet.close: object_path= /modules/kwalletd6: org.freedesktop.DBus.Error.NoReply: Message recipient disconnected from message bus without replying
[27023:27023:0228/235517.063832:ERROR:components/os_crypt/sync/kwallet_dbus.cc:408] Error contacting kwalletd6 (close)
[27023:27023:0228/235517.417492:ERROR:components/dbus/xdg/request.cc:169] Request ended (non-user cancelled).
[27078:27087:0228/235527.081919:ERROR:net/url_request/url_request.cc:655] Block URL in URLRequest: https://optimizationguide-pa.9oo91eapis.qjz9zk/v1:GetModels?key=AIzaSyCkfPOPZXDKNn8hhgu3JrA62wIgC93d44k
[27078:27087:0228/235527.082020:ERROR:net/url_request/trk_protocol_handler.cc:17] Blocked URL in TrkProtocolHandler: trk:https://optimizationguide-pa.9oo91eapis.qjz9zk/v1:GetModels?
key=AIzaSyCkfPOPZXDKNn8hhgu3JrA62wIgC93d44k

In spite of what Duckduckgo said, it also seems to call on kwallet - that little piece of effing crap seems to be a nasty piece of work.

How to get rid of it?

edit to add: Is it even a legitimate software? Or some nasty malware?

 

[Condobloke]

I believe kwallet is legit. Not because I use it or have any experience of it, but I see mention of it frequently.

Maybe in the vivaldi options etc....can you substitute another password manager in place of kwallet?

I am diving in the dark here...maybe @osprey has some experience of it ?

 

[Goatmilk]

Trouble is I cannot even open Vivaldi (or Ungoogled Chromium, or Brave). They are just greyed out and totally unresponsive.

Reading around, I'm beginning to wonder if I'm not a little too stuck on KDE. It looks nicer than the XFCE my first Linux had, and it's said it's extremely customizable.

But let's wait - maybe someone else will look in and know something that could be done about the whole issue.

 

[MikeWalsh]

Strange.

Amongst many other browsers, I also run Vivaldi. It runs absolutely fine in Puppy. No 'calls' for KDE wallet at all.

It must be some code in KDE itself that insists browsers must run with it enabled.

Curious...


Mike.

 

[osprey]

I believe kwallet is legit. Not because I use it or have any experience of it, but I see mention of it frequently.

Maybe in the vivaldi options etc....can you substitute another password manager in place of kwallet?

I am diving in the dark here...maybe @osprey has some experience of it ?

Vivaldi is not a browser used here, and is not installed, so I don't know if I can be helpful. I asked Gemini (AI): how to disable kwallet in vivaldi? and this was the answer:

To disable the KDE Wallet (KWallet) popup in Vivaldi,
disable it via System Settings > Account Details > KDE Wallet by unchecking "Enable the KDE wallet subsystem". Alternatively, launch Vivaldi with the command line flag --password-store=basic to skip KWallet integration entirely.
Methods to Disable KWallet for Vivaldi:
[code]

[*]System Settings (Recommended): Go to System Settings, find "KDE Wallet" (often under Account Details or Security), and uncheck "Enable the KDE wallet subsystem".
[*]KWallet Manager: Open kwalletmanager, go to Settings, and uncheck "Wallet System Active".
[*]Vivaldi Flag: Launch Vivaldi from the terminal using: vivaldi --password-store=basic. To make this permanent, edit the Vivaldi desktop entry to include this flag.
[*]Set Empty Password: In KWalletManager, set an empty password for your wallet. Note: This reduces security.
[*]Rename Config Folder: Rename ~/.local/share/kwalletd to ~/.local/share/kwalletd-old to reset it.
[/LIST]

This video demonstrates how to disable the KDE Wallet popup: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBmnpkhz0Go

I asked the same question a second time and the following was the output:

AI Overview
To disable KWallet in Vivaldi, either
disable the system-wide KWallet service via KDE System Settings ("Account Details" > "KDE Wallet" > uncheck "Enable") or, for a more targeted fix, launch Vivaldi with the command line flag --password-store=basic. Alternatively, you can disable it by setting Enabled=false in ~/.config/kwalletrc.
Here are the specific methods to disable KWallet:
Method 1: Via KDE System Settings (Recommended)
This disables the wallet service for all applications.

1.    Open System Settings.
2.    Navigate to Account Details > KDE Wallet.
3.    Uncheck "Enable the KDE wallet subsystem".
4.    Click Apply.

Method 2: Command Line Flag (Vivaldi Specific)
If you only want to stop Vivaldi from asking for a password, run it with the following flag:
vivaldi-stable --password-store=basic.

Method 3: Edit Configuration File
You can manually disable the KWallet service by editing the configuration file.

1.    Open ~/.config/kwalletrc in a text editor.
2.   Under the [Wallet] section, set Enabled=false.

Method 4: Reset KWallet
If the issue is caused by a broken wallet, you can force a reset by renaming the wallet folder:
bash
mv ~/.local/share/kwalletd ~/.local/share/kwalletd-old

This forces KWallet to create a new, empty configuration.
Note: Disabling KWallet may affect other applications that store secrets, such as Wi-Fi passwords.

It may be worth looking at just installing the .deb download of vivaldi after uninstalling what you have already installed, and then install the .deb file with dpkg. I think that may leave it outside the package management system, so it may be that you just update it when the browser itself tells you that a new vivaldi is released. That's a common behaviour for downloaded browsers in .deb format, but I can't say for certain that vivaldi follows that convention.

 

[Goatmilk]

Thank you, osprey - I already did everything except for the last point, "Method 4: Reset KWallet" in case the issue is a broken wallet".
Given that I never used KDE Wallet - it was disabled when I first set up MX Linux - there doesn't seem to be much point.

Also, I did have Vivaldi up and running on my last machine, that old Dell I just ditched. If I recall correctly, I also tried to set up Brave on that one, got the greyed out failure and thought, "Sod it...", scrapped Brave and never looked into it.

Been reading around in the webs and begin to surmise the most likely culprit is an update in my MX Linux KDE. Believe it or not, I actually found a discussion somewhere where people complained that the folks at KDE wouldn't manage to get KDE wallet to work with Mozilla browsers, only with Chrome browsers... yikes!

Reading around some more and thinking (happens once in a while), I'm reconsidering my resolve to stick to KDE at all. I got it because it was said to be more customizable - and after totally wrecking my very first Linux xfce in an ill-fated attempt to customize my menus. But frankly, other than getting new icons and shoving a few menu items around I haven't done much with it. Come to think of it, the only KDE native I really love is Kate.

My laptop is due to an update as it still runs with MX Linux 23.6, so I think I'll try to run it with MX Linux 25 xfce rather than KDE. Even though I'm notoriously resistant to learning useful things I might be a step further to where I was two years ago, and it might be worthwhile to compare the two systems again, side by side.

Let's hope MX Linux xfce won't come up with some bloody pesky "XFCE Wallet" crapola that'll infect my Firefox...

 

[kc1di]

I use Vivaldi 95% of the time and have never had to have Kwallet engaged when on KDE distros. Including MX-25. Ran perfectly without the wallet so what your experiencing is strange to me. What happens when you turn the wallet off?

 

[Goatmilk]

I use Vivaldi 95% of the time and have never had to have Kwallet engaged when on KDE distros. Including MX-25. Ran perfectly without the wallet so what your experiencing is strange to me. What happens when you turn the wallet off?

It is disabled.

 

[Goatmilk]

Well, after a short stint with xfce on the laptop I ditched it - again. While it ran nice and easy and even had a few nifty features that KDE lacks (like different wallpapers for different virtual desktops), it still had that godawful menu that one cannot seem to change. That's how I wrecked my first Linux - trying to customize that ugly menu.

So I took a snapshot from the big computer's KDE and that was that.

Vivaldi and Chromium still won't run, but I found a browser called "Falkon" who does, even though it is chrome-based. It's a KDE offspring, so it probably has congenital immunity against whatever crap is going on right now. In any case, it will do to check some websites. Here's hoping the whole thing might solve itself in one of the next updates - as I do remember that I ran Vivaldi on my KDE machine before, and I never had kwallet in use. It's one of the first things I disable.

I might mosey over to the MX Linux forum these days and ask, as I cannot believe I'm the only one having that problem.

 

[MikeWalsh]

@Goatmilk :-

Re: XFCE. With regard to the "godawful menu", umm.....which menu are we talking about here? Is this the "Whisker" menu.....or one of the others?

Just curious, really.


Mike.

 

[Goatmilk]

If only I knew... lol

I guess it was the Whiskers menu, even though it might have been the Application menu. Not to confuse with the application menu that jumps up on right-click. Where you have to right-click log off in order to get to shut down or restart. Or the jgmenu or what was the name of the other one? The one where you couldn't delete a shortcut in a subfolder because you did not have permission - and wouldn't get it, either.

KDE might have its faults, but at least I got used to it...