Thunderbird, Chrome, Knime etc not working after upgrading to 14:04

[Wayne Twine]

Hi

I was running my PC on Ubuntu 12.04. After upgrading to 14:04 this weekend, key packages no longer open succesfully when I click on their icon in Unity launcher (or dash). For example:

Thunderbird: launcher icon pulses but nothing happens. Thunderbird appears in list of processes in System Monitor, with sleeping status. If I click on Thunderbird icon again, I get an error message saying that it is already running but not responding.

Chrome: launcher icon pulses but nothing happens. Absent from list of running processes in sys mon.

Knime: Starts loading, but then disappears, and absent from list of running processes in sys mon.

MS Office running in Wine (Crossover): launcher icon pulses but nothing happens. Absent from list of running processes in sys mon.

Othe programs, like Libre Office, Rstudio and Qgis work fine.

Also, a less serious irritation is that the System Monitor app indicator icon in the top panel has now been replaced by a red circle, crossed out.

Any suggestions?

Thanks
W

[ivan-janes]

You can try to fix broken packages from terminal

1.) Clean cache

sudo apt-get clean

2.) Check for updates

sudo apt-get update

3.) Install updates

sudo apt-get upgrade

4.) Fix broken packages

sudo apt-get -f install

[Wayne Twine]

Thanks Ivan-Janes for quick response.
Alas, I had already tried that (and I followed your steps again in case I had missed something) but to no avail.

[ivan-janes]

Did you try to run thunderbird from terminal ? What is the output ?

[Wayne Twine]

Thanks

Here is the output when I run Thunderbird in terminal:

(process:4281): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_slice_set_config: assertion 'sys_page_size == 0' failed

(thunderbird:4281): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: Attempt to add property GnomeProgram::sm-connect after class was initialised

(thunderbird:4281): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: Attempt to add property GnomeProgram::show-crash-dialog after class was initialised

(thunderbird:4281): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: Attempt to add property GnomeProgram::display after class was initialised

(thunderbird:4281): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: Attempt to add property GnomeProgram::default-icon after class was initialised
[calBackendLoader] Using libical backend at /home/wayne/.thunderbird/s4f56rex.default/extensions/{e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}/components/libical.manifest

(thunderbird:4281): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: cannot register existing type 'DbusmenuMenuitem'

(thunderbird:4281): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion 'result != 0' failed

(thunderbird:4281): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_param_spec_object: assertion 'g_type_is_a (object_type, G_TYPE_OBJECT)' failed

(thunderbird:4281): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_class_install_property: assertion 'G_IS_PARAM_SPEC (pspec)' failed

[Wayne Twine]

Another update:

I can get Thunderbird to start in safe mode from terminal. Although I still get the GLib error messages, at least TB launches in safe mode.

Chrome, Crossover and Knime are now work in Ubuntu 14.04, after I re-installed latest versions of these packages. However, removing and re-installing latest version of Thunderbird did NOT fix the TB issue.

[ivan-janes]

[calBackendLoader] Using libical backend at /home/wayne/.thunderbird/s4f56rex.default/extensions/{e2fda1a4-762b-4020-b5ad-a41df1933103}/components/libical.manifest

Start in safe mode and disable lightning plugin - https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=925840

[Wayne Twine]

Aha! Thanks.


I checked the "disable all add-ons" and then "make changes and restart" in the dialogue box that appears after running TB in safe mode from terminal. Now Thunderbird launches from Unity dash and launcher. I hope this gets fixed soon, because I rely heavily on lightning calendar, but at least I have my mail back!


Thanks again

[Wayne Twine]

Quick update:

Once all TB add-ons were disabled, I enabled one at a time and restarted each time to see which one is giving trouble. It turns out that lightning is not the issue. It was the "Messaging menu and Unity launcher" add-on that was causing TB not to launch. I have left that one disabled, but others like Lightning, Gnome Integration, GContactSync, Provider for Google Calendar, and Google Task Sync all work fine. If I run in TB in terminal (not safe mode), I still get the GLib error messages, but TB launches and functions fine.

[ivan-janes]

Strange. Plugin "Messaging menu and Unity launcher" is working for me. Which version of plugin do you have ? Mine is 1.3.1.