More members/users with a broken firefox 3.0.11 update?

[blairm]

OK, still not working. Have just;

- deleted .mozilla
- completely uninstalled firefox
- reinstalled firefox

The problem remains as it was; When I try to start the browser I get the message in the task bar that the browser is starting but it gives up after a few seconds.

What's the next step? Should I try getting the source from the firefox site and compiling?
Think I've only compiled a couple of programs in the several years I've used linux, so it would at the very least be a learning experience

Blair

[blairm]

Sorry, unintentional double post.

Blair

[majamba]

or you could try firefox-3.5

aptitude install firefox-3.5

[albinootje]

I have got a fiefox security update, with comes with a broken xulrunner, so firefox did'n start.
-apt was in pain also.

Hmmm, which release was that ?

I updated my Jaunty desktop last night, and apt-get and Firefox didn't complain at all.
Tonight at work I updated some Hardy desktops and apt-get didn't complain at all.

[blairm]

Thanks for the suggestion Majamba - I just installed 3.5 and the issue remained the same.

Makes me wonder whether it's a hardware issue, but it doesn't seem likely since it's all pretty standard - 3.0Ghz intel core 2 duo, a gigabyte mobo and a 4850 graphics card.

On the verge of backing up everything and doing a reinstall, but would really prefer to avoid that if I can.

Also wonder whether I'm the only one in this position; my computer was working fine a few hours ago.
Firefox stopped immediately after the update, so I'm guessing the update probably caused the problem.

Is there a way to wind back an update?

Blair

[albinootje]

The problem remains as it was; When I try to start the browser I get the message in the task bar that the browser is starting but it gives up after a few seconds.

What happens if you try to start Firefox with the profile manager in a terminal ?

firefox -P

What's the next step? Should I try getting the source from the firefox site and compiling?

No. That will not help you to find the cause of your current problem, and will be a looooooong waste of time.

[blairm]

Think we're making some progress.

Followed albinootje's advice and entered sudo firefox -P in the terminal, A box titled firefox - choose user profile came up.
There were no profiles, so I created a default one.

If I click the start firefox button in the choose user profile box I can start firefox and it seems to work.

However, trying to start firefox from applications-internet-firefox gives the same behaviour I've been having for the past couple of hours - that is, the note in the task bar that firefox is starting but after a couple of seconds it gives up.

Blair

[blairm]

For what it's worth, I've solved my problem re being unable to open Firefox: used chown to change ownership of the .mozilla directory, which was only able to be accessed by root.
Thanks everyone for your help, and I hope this may be of some help to anyone else having problems.
Songbird is still knackered and the problem appears to be a different one there, but that's a whole new thread!

Blair

Right, seems the issue is related to permissions.
After some experimentation I tried running firefox from the terminal with the command sudo firefox and it worked.
Next, I restarted the machine. When I tried to start firefox via applications-internet-firefox the choose user profile box came up, but it was blank.
I tried to create a profile but got the following error message:


Profile couldn't be created. Probably the chosen folder isn't writable.
[Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED) [nsIToolkitProfileService.createProfile]" nsresult: "0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://mozapps/content/profile/createProfileWizard.js :: onFinish :: line 233" data: no]

However, not entirely sure how to change the file permision: tried doing so by highlighting .mozilla in the file browser and going to properties - permissions. Didn't work.

Still searching for an answer: looking on the bright side, I've learned more about firefox today than I have in 10 years of using it

Blair