Fix Facebook Not Working With Gwibber In Ubuntu 12.10 Or 12.04

Facebook doesn't currently work with Gwibber (the Facebook feeds aren't updated - bug HERE) and this bug affects Ubuntu 12.10, 12.04 and probably older Ubuntu versions as well.

Update: This bug also affected Ubuntu 13.04 (currently under development), but a fix was pushed a few minutes after publishing this post. Hopefully the fix will make it into older Ubuntu versions soon.

There is, however, a work-around which I can confirm it works for Ubuntu 12.10 Quantal Quetzal and 12.04 Precise Pangolin - so here's how to apply it and get Facebook to work with Gwibber again!

1. Open /usr/share/gwibber/plugins/facebook/__init__.py as root with a text editor - we'll use Gedit so to open the file, run the following command in a terminal:

gksu gedit /usr/share/gwibber/plugins/facebook/__init__.py

2. In the newly opened file, search for the following code:

      m["privacy"]["description"] = data["privacy"]["description"]

It should be on line 329 for Ubuntu 12.10 (with Gwibber 3.6.0-0ubuntu1) and on line 210 for Ubuntu 12.04. The line number may be different on other Gwibber / Ubuntu versions.

And replace that line with the following code:

      if data["privacy"].has_key("description"):
        m["privacy"]["description"] = data["privacy"]["description"]
      else:
        m["privacy"]["description"] = "Unknown"

Make sure the code is pasted exactly as it's displayed above, including the spaces in the beginning, or else it won't work!

Then, save the file. Here's how the file should look after editing it:

3. Restart Gwibber Service:

killall gwibber-service
gwibber-service &

Then close Gwibber if it was running, start it again and Facebook feeds should now update in Gwibber under Ubuntu 12.10 or 12.04.

Thanks to Ruben Rocha for the tip and Björn Kautler for the fix!