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User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.7.3) Gecko/20041026 Firefox/1.0RC1

Description of problem:
The rhn applet icon displayed its red exclamation point, indicating the machine was out of date.
I clicked on the rhn icon and successfully downloaded and installed available updates.
Following completion of the updates, the applet icon image changed to a gray question mark.
Allowing the mouse pointer to hover over the icon displayed the message "Error connecting to RHN...".
When I clicked on the icon, an exception message dialog appeared. Following is the text of the message:

=====================================================
		Exception Occured
-----------------------------------------------------
An unhandled exception has occured. This is most likely a bug.
Please copy the full text of this exception into an email and send it
to applet@rhn.redhat.com. Thank you.
-----------------------------------------------------
Exception type exceptions.TypeError
 
Exception Handler Information
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/share/rhn/rhn_applet/rhn_applet.py", line 582, in refresh
    self.model.refresh(force)
  File "/usr/share/rhn/rhn_applet/rhn_applet_model.py", line 447, in refresh
    source.refresh(force)
  File "/usr/share/rhn/rhn_applet/rhn_applet_source.py", line 35, in refresh
    self._do_refresh()
  File "/usr/share/rhn/rhn_applet/rhn_applet_rpc.py", line 190, in _do_refresh
    server = self.create_server()
  File "/usr/share/rhn/rhn_applet/rhn_applet_rpc.py", line 80, in create_server
    s = apply(rpclib.Server, [], options)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages/rhn/rpclib.py", line 148, in __init__
    type, uri = urllib.splittype(uri)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.3/urllib.py", line 959, in splittype
    match = _typeprog.match(url)
TypeError: expected string or buffer
=====================================================

After closing the dialog the rhn applet icon changed to a blue check-mark. Allowing the mouse pointer to hover over the icon displayed the message "Waiting before checkin...".

About a minute later, the icon changed back to the gray question mark and the same exception was raised.


Version-Release number of selected component (if applicable):
rhn-applet-2.1.17-5

How reproducible:
Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Click on rhn icon when it's red.
2. Download and install updates.
3. Click on rhn icon when it's gray.
  

Actual Results:  Applet exception was raised as described above.

Expected Results:  The applet should change to blue check-mark and remain that way until updates are available.

Additional info:

A nearly identical server with an identical RHEL4 installation in another building (using a different Internet connection) does not exhibit this behavior. Each server connects through the Road Runner Business Class cable internet service in the building in which it resides.

I have submitted this exception twice to applet@rhn.redhat.com as requested but never got any feedback.