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