Certain Feeds won't work in RSSOwl!, Why & How To Fix This?

[JLChamberlain]

Firstly I know that there isn't a team behind RSSOwl that creates updates for the software since its been in version 2.2.1 since 2013. In my opinion RSSOwl is the only proper RSS Reader out at the moment that looks good and works smoothly, but I can't get all feeds to work with the software although I can get them to work in inferior RSS readers. Why is this and how can I get the software to allow the feeds to work?

Some of the feeds that I have found that don't work in RSSOwl are:

• https://www.sallysubs.com/feed/
• https://chihiro-subs.com/feed/
• https://www.shanaproject.com/feeds/subber/CBM/
• https://nyaa.pantsu.cat/feed?c=_&s=&sort=torrent_id&order=desc&max=50&q=kametsu

[war59312]

It's an SSL issue: https://sourceforge.net/p/rssowl/discussion/296910/thread/5df8a310/?limit=25#ac63

Workaround: http://albirew.fr/bordel/coto_rss.php

See #12

[JLChamberlain]

The SSL issue page you linked has a link to a Bug Fix. I was wondering do you know how to install that bug fix to the software?

[genodeftest]

Which version of Java are you using? The "Bug Fix" link in #12 (thanks to @war59312) sounds like the solution is to update your Java version to Java 8. You should do that anyway, since Java 7 is out of support for a while.

[JLChamberlain]

So the Bug Fix isn't for RSSOwl?, it's for the system?

[genodeftest]

So the Bug Fix isn't for RSSOwl?, it's for the system?

Just a guess, but from the "Bug Fix" link it looks like that.

[JLChamberlain]

So its for the operating system?, if thats the case then Java isnt the way to resolve this SSL Feed issue since i have another RSS reader that can use SSL RSS Feeds.

[genodeftest]

Ok, first, it is highly discouraged to run unsupported Java versions. If you are still running Java 7, you are putting yourself at risk.
Second, no, this is no fix for the operating system, but for the Java runtime.

if thats the case then Java isnt the way to resolve this SSL Feed issue since i have another RSS reader that can use SSL RSS Feeds.

The other RSS reader probably is not using Java, but some other programming language and thus does not suffer from bugs in Java 7.

[JLChamberlain]

So how do I fix the Java problem with RSSOwl?

[genodeftest]

So how do I fix the Java problem with RSSOwl?

Update your local Java installation.

[genodeftest]

It seems like this issue is caused by old Java versions. Please update your Java version. If that does not fix the issue for you, please report back.

[JLChamberlain]

Just updated my Java to latest version. I restarted my laptop and then added one of the feeds that wasn't working in RSSOwl and the feed is still not responding in RSSOwl!, It says in Status "The last attemp to load this feed failed. Reason: Recieved fatal alert: handshake_failure". Yet if i put the feed in another Reader like Feedly or QuiteRSS the feeds works perfectly.

[genodeftest]

Can you please give me the URL of this feed?

[JLChamberlain]

The feeds i mentioned in the description still don't respond and neither does this feed: https://jaiminisbox.com/reader/feeds/rss

[genodeftest]

Is it possible that you still have Java 6 installed? If yes, please uninstall it.

[JLChamberlain]

Not possible!, when i installed Java onto my laptop it uninstalled the previous version

[genodeftest]

In RSSOwl, main menu, under "Help → About RSSOwl", click on "Configuration Details", scroll down a bit and find java.runtime.version. What does it say?

RSSOwl has no specific code for SSL/TLS but fully relies on the Java runtime. I doubt RSSOwl is to blame.

[JLChamberlain]

It says "java.runtime.version=1.8.0_131-b11"

[genodeftest]

It says "java.runtime.version=1.8.0_131-b11"

Ok, in this case I'm out of explanations. Sorry.

[JLChamberlain]

anyone else got any solutions to this?

[caelad]

Hi. I have been researching the RSSOwl errors with https feeds, which seem to be more frequent these days as more sites switch to https, and have come up with a couple of possible answers:

1. In some cases downloading the Java Cryptography Extension (JCE) and copying its files to the appropriate subdirectory of your Java install location (overwriting the default files) will help.
   http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/java/javase/downloads/jce8-download-2133166.html

If you have 32-bit Java on Windows, the destination for the files will be something like C:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre1.8.0_131\lib\security\ and the files to replace are local_policy.jar and US_export_policy.jar.

2. It appears that some sites cause a handshake error because Server Name Identification (SNI) is not supported by the Apache httpclient client library that RSSOwl uses. I am not sure which httpclient is bundled with the last RSSOwl version, but based on the date of the newest files in the JAR (2013-12-30) I would guess it is 4.3.1 or older, and it will need to be updated to at least 4.3.2 to support SNI. I will try to get Eclipse set up with RSSOwl on my local PC so I can test this hypothesis, but I have never used Eclipse or programmed in Java, so if anyone else out there wants to try then please do so. I am using the build instructions at https://github.com/bpasero/rssowl-target.

[war59312]

@caelad Nice find. Good luck building.

Looking at org.rssowl.lib.httpclient_2.2.1.201312301258.jar in the plugins folder...

The build.xml on line 228 shows:

<include name="httpclient-3.1.jar"/>

So looks like much older httpclient.

[JLChamberlain]

Just move over to QuiteRSS, it has all the same features except the move to action in filter settings. I have plans to build my own feed reader but I'm only just learning to code.

[CatPlanet]

Changing trusted application just because one of hundred feeds doesn't work seems irrational to me. I'm working on my own rss-proxy solution for sites without official feeds and for those with seemingly broken ones. Anyway we're getting offtopic. I've deleted my previous message stating that I've managed to build RSSOwl with newest HttpClient because, after some more digging, it came to me how naive I was. Unfortunately, I have dozens of my own projects to maintain just to drop them and fix over 1,200 compilation errors in faulty eclipse environment - and all for just one feed.

[JLChamberlain]

It's not just for one though. Many feeds have SSL that's why I changed over to QuiteRSS, I kept adding new feeds but found out because of the SSL they weren't working in RSSOwl. I'm not trying to promote QuiteRSS but it does 99.99% of what RSSOwl can do but a lot smoother & quicker, the interface is also completely customisable so you change almost everything in the display. Just export all content from RSSOwl over to QuiteRSS, the only thing you will need to rebuild is filters.

[CatPlanet]

@JLChamberlain as I said: offtopic.