requestsync crashed with LPUrlError in _safe_urlopen()

It's likely that the required Launchpad cookie is missing.
I, for myself, had to create a cookie text file, containing the "lp" and "edge" cookie, using the curl method described at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/SponsorshipProcess/ppaput.
That won't help you with the current requestsync, because it only uses the old-style Firefox cookies (~/.mozilla/*/*/cookies.txt).

Try changing the following line in /usr/bin/requestsync from:
        cookiefile = glob.glob(os.path.expanduser('~/.mozilla/*/*/cookies.txt'))[0]
to:
        cookiefile = glob.glob(os.path.expanduser('~/.mozilla/*/*/cookies.sqlite'))[0]

and make sure, that you're logged into launchpad.net and edge.launchpad.net (if you're member of the launchpad-beta team).

But, as I've just seen on my system, that might also not work correctly:
$ ls -1 ~/.mozilla/*/*/cookies.sqlite
/home/daniel/.mozilla/firefox-3.0..abandoned/4cz7eaqf.default/cookies.sqlite
/home/daniel/.mozilla/firefox/4cz7eaqf.default/cookies.sqlite

The first match looks like some obsolete profile, which you might not have access to easily.

I have a local branch, where requestsync tries the following globs for setting the required cookie file:
1. ~/.lpcookie
2. ~/.mozilla/*/*/cookies.sqlite
3. ~/.mozilla/*/*/cookies.txt

Oh, does python-launchpad-bugs already support the Firefox 3.0 cookie files?
When this problem arised for me, I took a script from Kees Cook (http://people.ubuntu.com/~kees/scripts/cookies-sql2txt) to extract the LP cookie from the sqlite cookie file from Firefox 3.0 and stored it in a file and modified requestsync to use that file instead.

requestsync (which uses python-launchpad-bugs), did only support the Firefox 2 cookie. I've added support for ~/.lpcookie.txt and Firefox 3 in my bzr branch for ubuntu-dev-tools, which hopefully gets merged soon into trunk and then released.
I'll link the branch here, so you can take a look, if you're interested in the fix.

Using trunk @ commit 96, which contains Daniel's requestsync fixes, I get this:

Do you want to edit the report before sending [y/N]? Press Control-C to abort.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/u/mok/devel/ubuntu-dev-tools/requestsync", line 428, in <module>
    if post_bug(srcpkg, subscribe, mapping[status], title, report):
  File "/u/mok/devel/ubuntu-dev-tools/requestsync", line 289, in post_bug
    bug.commit()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/launchpadbugs/html_bug.py", line 1268, in commit
    result = i.component.commit(force_changes, ignore_lp_errors)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/launchpadbugs/html_bug.py", line 945, in commit
    self._add(i)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/launchpadbugs/html_bug.py", line 959, in _add
    raise ValueError, "Unknown error while subscribe %s to %s" %(lplogin, url)
ValueError: Unknown error while subscribe ubuntu-archive to https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/236260/+addsubscriber

The above action did indeed file the bug (#236260) but ubuntu-archive was not subscribed (I suppose this is what requestsync is attempting when it fails). I subsequently did that manually.

This bug was fixed in the package ubuntu-dev-tools - 0.31

---------------
ubuntu-dev-tools (0.31) intrepid; urgency=low

  [ Siegfried-Angel Gevatter Pujals (RainCT) ]
  * pbuilder-dist.new:
     - Rewrite the script in Python to make it more robust and faster.
  * what-patch:
     - If cdbs-edit-patch is used, output "cdbs (patchsys.mk)" instead of
       just "cdbs" (LP: #195795).
  * check-symbols:
     - Add a brief explanation about why sudo privilegies are required
       in order to run this script (LP: #194622).
     - End with exit code 1 if there's an error.
  * suspicious-source:
     - Whitelist C# files (LP: #225691): *.cs.
     - Whitelist manpages: *.[0-9].

  [ Daniel Hahler ]
  * requestsync:
     - Use debian_bundle.changelog.Version for version comparison in
       debian_changelog.
     - Fix --lp for Firefox 3 (LP: #208808):
       It now tries ~/.lpcookie.txt, ~/.mozilla/*/*/cookies.sqlite and
       ~/.mozilla/*/*/cookies.txt to find a Launchpad cookie file.
       Also added a hint that you can create a valid file, by logging into
       Launchpad with Firefox.
     - Added confirm loops, which displays the message to be send/posted and
       either allows to edit (or forces to, in case of Ubuntu changes).
       (LP: #194613, #194615)
       This adds a convient edit_report method, which gets used both from the
       Launchpad and mail code path.
     - Do not fallback to submitting by email, if posting to Launchpad failed.
       This hasn't been requested and therefore should not get done.
     - post_bug: Catch IOError when setting bug importance (LP: #190061)
     - mail_bug: Catch socket.error (LP: #190739)

  [ Kees Cook ]
  * mk-sbuild-lv
    - don't install recommended packages during chroot install.
    - allow customization of schroot.conf suffix and LV/snapshot sizes.
  * what-patch:
    - restore previous output behavior, added logic to verbose test instead.
    - added details for each patch system report.
  * pull-debian-debdiff:
    - parse .dsc file for required source files.
    - switch to GPLv3
  * debian/control: add Depends needed for pull-debian-debdiff.
  * debian/copyright:
    - updated pull-debian-debdiff, which is now GPLv3.
    - adjusted Copyright lines to make lintian happy.

 -- Kees Cook <email address hidden> Fri, 13 Jun 2008 11:43:24 -0700