I've got Python 2.3 installed on Mandrake Linux 10.1 with 
KDE 3.2 running.  When I run "pydoc -g" and search on 
any term, if I try to display the relevant documentation, 
pydoc throws an exception: 
 
Traceback (most recent call last): 
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/lib-tk/Tkinter.py", line 1345, in 
__call__ 
    return self.func(*args) 
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/pydoc.py", line 1970, in open 
    webbrowser.open(url) 
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/webbrowser.py", line 43, in 
open 
    get().open(url, new, autoraise) 
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/webbrowser.py", line 38, in get 
    raise Error("could not locate runnable browser") 
Error: could not locate runnable browser 
 
I did some research and found that the problem is that 
KDE sets the BROWSER environment variable to an 
unexpected value: 
BROWSER='kfmclient openProfile webbrowsing' 
 
The solution would be to test for this strange setting. I 
patched webbrowser.py on my system in an inelegant 
fashion by simply inserting the following code at the top 
of the file, just after the 'import' statements: 
 
#patch for KDE mangling of BROWSER environment 
variable 
#per: 
http://mail.python.org/pipermail/tutor/2004-September/032060.html 
 
if os.environ.has_key("BROWSER") and \ 
   os.environ["BROWSER"]=='kfmclient openProfile 
webbrowsing': 
    os.environ["BROWSER"] = 'konqueror' # set it to 
konqueror 
 
 
 

Logged In: YES 
user_id=11375

Or perhaps webbrowser.py should execute the command using
os.system() or some similar mechanism that would split on
the whitespace and treat the additional arguments correctly.

This should be fixed in 2.5's webbrowser.py.