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I upgraded Org from the built-in 9.1.9 to the maint branch 9.3.3 (directions here). I now get this error when I clock in or out:

Debugger entered--Lisp error: (dbus-error "Emacs not compiled with dbus support")
  signal(dbus-error ("Emacs not compiled with dbus support"))
  dbus-call-method(:session "org.freedesktop.Notifications" "/org/freedesktop/Notifications" "org.freedesktop.Notifications" "Notify" :string "Emacs" :uint32 0 :string "/Applications/Emacs.app/Contents/Resources/etc/images/icons/hicolor/scalable/apps/emacs.svg" :string "Org mode message" :string "Task ‘zero email inbox’ should be finished by now. (0:30)" (:array) ((:dict-entry "urgency" (:variant :byte 0))) :int32 3000)
  notifications-notify(:title "Org mode message" :body "Task ‘zero email inbox’ should be finished by now. (0:30)" :timeout 3000 :urgency low)
  org-show-notification("Task ‘zero email inbox’ should be finished by now. (0:30)")
  org-notify("Task ‘zero email inbox’ should be finished by now. (0:30)" nil)
  org-clock-notify-once-if-expired()
  org-clock-update-mode-line()
  org-clock-in(nil)
  funcall-interactively(org-clock-in nil)
  call-interactively(org-clock-in nil nil)
  command-execute(org-clock-in)

From the depth of the error in the stack trace, I think this is a bug with Org mode or an incompatibility with my system (Emacs 26.3 (9.0) and macOS Mojave 10.14.6). I tried to catch the error with:

(condition-case nil
    (org-clock-in)
  (message "caught error clocking in"))

and I still get the error.

Is this a bug I should report? How can I silence it in the meantime?

miguelmorin
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  • /me prays for org mode to not turn into a bloatware – Flint Feb 12 '20 at 15:21
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    You can unbind `notifications-notify` with `(fmakunbound 'notifications-notify)`: that should stop the errors. For a more permanent fix, you could rebuild your emacs with dbus support: `./configure --with-dbus && make` but that assumes you build your emacs from source. It does look like a bug however that `notifications` is loaded even though the underlying emacs is not built with dbus support. A bug report to the [emacs bug list](https://www.gnu.org/software/emacs/manual/html_node/emacs/Bugs.html#Bugs) is probably a good idea. – NickD Feb 12 '20 at 16:23
  • @NickD I load the new Org mode with `(add-to-list 'load-path "~/code/org-mode/lisp") (require 'org-loaddefs) (fmakunbound 'notifications-notify)` and am still getting the same error. `notifications-notify` is not a variable or a function. How can I verify its value before and after that command? – miguelmorin Feb 16 '20 at 11:25
  • That's not the same error: this indicates that the symbol is not defined, so get rid of the `(fmakunbound 'notififications-notify)` and try again: it may be that whatever was causing `notifications.el` to be loaded is no longer doing that. – NickD Feb 16 '20 at 12:49
  • Actually, it probably means that at that point, `notifications.el` is not loaded yet, but it will probably be loaded later on and you'll have the original problem. If that's the case, then try `(eval-after-load 'notifications (fmakunbound 'notifications-notify))` in your init file. That will wait until `notifications.el` is loaded before trying to unbind the function cell of `notifications-notify`. But again, this is a band-aid: you'll need to find out how and why `notifications` is loaded. – NickD Feb 17 '20 at 03:32
  • I still get the same error with `(eval-after-load 'notifications (fmakunbound 'notifications-notify))` after loading the new version of org mode. I have fixed it temporarily by removing the property `:Effort: 0:30` from the task. – miguelmorin Feb 18 '20 at 20:23
  • I decided to roll back to 9.1.9 after I got yet another error in 9.3.3 that was absent in 9.1.9 (`(void-variable org-org-menu)` when loading an Org file). Maybe @Flint had a point about bloatware. – miguelmorin Feb 20 '20 at 08:31
  • @Flint does have a point - but it is too late :-) – NickD Mar 19 '21 at 14:53

1 Answers1

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At least in the more recent version of org-mode (9.4.4), one can fix this issue by modifying the variable org-show-notification-handler, e.g., by adding the following to the init file:

(setq org-show-notification-handler 'message)

org notifications (e.g., alerts related to clocking and effort) are then displayed at the bottom of the screen.

Paul Nelson
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