Google Gears crashes Firefox 3 Beta 3

[Ari]

It installs, shows up in my extensions menu, then crashes when I visit
a site like Google Reader. Oops? Don't know how to find logging
information. Running Windows XP SP2.

Also, just a suggestion: Can you make Google Notebooks the next thing
that Google Gears can handle? That'd be sweet :).

[Aaron Boodman]

How did you manage to install Gears on FF3? We explicitly disallow
this. Are you using the Firefox nightly testing tools or some other
Firefox tweak?

We haven't updated Gears for FF3 yet, but we're working on it.

- a

[Ari]

Oops, yeah, I guess I was using Nightly Tester Tools. Sorry! Glad to
hear it will be working on 3 at some point.

On Mar 5, 2:38 pm, "Aaron Boodman" <a...@google.com> wrote:
> How did you manage to install Gears on FF3? We explicitly disallow
> this. Are you using the Firefox nightly testing tools or some other
> Firefox tweak?
>
> We haven't updated Gears for FF3 yet, but we're working on it.
>
> - a
>

[ajkessel]

FYI, many people are using the "portable" Firefox 3 beta installer
(<http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable/test>) as
well as these lifehacker tips as to how to disable extension version
testing (<http://lifehacker.com/355973/make-your-extensions-work-with-
the-firefox-3-betax>). Thus far, Google Gears is the only one of my 20-
odd "non-compatible" extensions that doesn't work fine with FF3.

On Mar 5, 8:23 pm, Ari <ari.wil...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Oops, yeah, I guess I was using Nightly Tester Tools. Sorry! Glad to
> hear it will be working on 3 at some point.
>
> On Mar 5, 2:38 pm, "Aaron Boodman" <a...@google.com> wrote:
>
> > How did you manage to install Gears on FF3? We explicitly disallow

> > this. Are you using theFirefoxnightly testing tools or some other

[Aaron Boodman]

On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 9:28 AM, ajkessel <ajke...@gmail.com> wrote:
> FYI, many people are using the "portable" Firefox 3 beta installer
> (<http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable/test>) as
> well as these lifehacker tips as to how to disable extension version
> testing (<http://lifehacker.com/355973/make-your-extensions-work-with-
> the-firefox-3-betax>). Thus far, Google Gears is the only one of my 20-
> odd "non-compatible" extensions that doesn't work fine with FF3.

Yup, Mozilla does a really good job of being kind to extension
developers and being careful not to break them. Usually it is pretty
trivial to update an extension to be compatible with a new version of
Firefox, especially if the extension is written in JavaScript (as most
of them are).

However, Gears goes quite a long way beyond what typical extensions
do, and it is written in C++, so things are more complex. Many of the
internal interfaces that we must use to do what we do have changed.
There is also a deployment issue since C++ components for FF2 are not
compatible with FF3 and vice versa. We don't want to have to deploy
two different versions of Gears because many users will not know which
version of Firefox they use, or will not understand if Gears breaks
when they upgrade from FF2 to FF3.

So, we're working as quickly as possible to solve these issues and
will have FF3 support done before FF3 ships and probably even sooner
than that.

We all understand that FF3 is much better than FF2, so there are lots
of people upgrading to it before it's officially been released.

We'll post here, and on the Gears blog
(http://gearsblog.blogspot.com/) when FF3 support is complete.

Thanks,

- a

[ajkessel]

I suggest a little announcement there. I think there is a lot of
confusion about whether this is a Moz problem or a Google problem; or
more precisely, who is going to fix it.

On Mar 20, 12:42 pm, Aaron Boodman <a...@google.com> wrote:

[Aaron Boodman]

On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 11:09 AM, ajkessel <ajke...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I suggest a little announcement there. I think there is a lot of
> confusion about whether this is a Moz problem or a Google problem; or
> more precisely, who is going to fix it.

Thanks for the suggestion. I'll make sure the relevant bugzilla bugs
are updated so that Mozilla knows we're one it and see how that goes.

- a

[Bob Rowlands]

Thanks for letting us know whawt the story is, Aaron!

On Mar 20, 12:42 pm, Aaron Boodman <a...@google.com> wrote:

[defcon]

Yes, I totally agree, there is hundreds of thousands and probably a
couple million firefox users running firefox3, a nice little
announcement on the blog would be nice, the google gears blog was the
first site I looked for an explanation regarding this.

[defcon]

you have my thanks as well, keep up the good work!

[cfont]

I also think that the Google Gears FAQ should be updated to reflect
this rather than list "Firefox 1.5+" because the plus clearly doesn't
apply. Maybe something like "Firefox 1.5 - 2.x"

[arkannis]

Technically, 1.5+ is still true, for the simple fact that Firefox 3
has yet to be released in any supported form. Now, if it gets released
before Gears is updated, then you'll be correct.

Seriously, "Beta" still doesn't mean "1.0" (or in this case, 3.0) no
matter how much people would like it to.

[Bob Rowlands]

As far as I know, Google Gears *does* work with Firefox 2, which *is* released. Am I wrong?

--
Bob Rowlands <rowlan...@gmail.com>

[Nostril Damus]

I don't believe you are wrong.

I am, however, having no joy in making Google Gears work by trying to
remove FF3 in Hardy Heron and replace it with FF2.

Suggestions would be appreciated if anyone has cracked this nut.

> Bob Rowlands <rowlands....@gmail.com>

[jonlink]

A public beta release is still a release, technically. Not being a
"1.0" doesn't really enter into the equation.
FF 1.5+ just isn't true. Especially if you think about the difference
between theory and practice. In theory FF3 isn't out, in practice it is
— albeit in beta form. The fact that there are tons of people using
FF3 and that it is a public release (even if it is a beta) means it's
existence should be addressed. Or in other words, 1.5 - 2.x would be a
considerate update to the requirements.

[Rathlan]

Also, since Ubuntu 8.04 (Hardy Heron) is shipping with FF3 Beta 5 as a
default, it would be great if Google Gears would support it. Not only
are thousands of non-Ubuntu people using FF3, but now anyone with a
new Ubuntu installation/upgrade will be using FF3 "out the box".

On Apr 28, 5:49 am, jonlink <jonl...@gmail.com> wrote:
> A public beta release is still a release, technically. Not being a
> "1.0" doesn't really enter into the equation.
> FF 1.5+ just isn't true. Especially if you think about the difference
> between theory and practice. In theory FF3 isn't out, in practice it is
> — albeit in beta form. The fact that there are tons of people using
> FF3 and that it is a public release (even if it is a beta) means it's
> existence should be addressed. Or in other words, 1.5 - 2.x would be a
> considerate update to the requirements.
>
> On Apr 14, 1:17 pm, arkannis <arkan...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > Technically, 1.5+ is still true, for the simple fact thatFirefox3
> > has yet to be released in any supported form. Now, if it gets released
> > before Gears is updated, then you'll be correct.
>
> > Seriously, "Beta" still doesn't mean "1.0" (or in this case, 3.0) no
> > matter how much people would like it to.
>
> > On Apr 5, 12:23 pm, cfont <chris.fonte...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > I also think that the Google Gears FAQ should be updated to reflect

> > > this rather than list "Firefox1.5+"  because the plus clearly doesn't
> > > apply.  Maybe something like "Firefox1.5 - 2.x"

>
> > > On Apr 1, 8:34 am, defcon <defcon...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > you have my thanks as well, keep up the good work!
>
> > > > On Mar 24, 6:00 am, Bob Rowlands <rowlands....@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > > > Thanks for letting us know whawt the story is, Aaron!
>
> > > > > On Mar 20, 12:42 pm, Aaron Boodman <a...@google.com> wrote:
>
> > > > > > On Thu, Mar 20, 2008 at 9:28 AM, ajkessel <ajkes...@gmail.com> wrote:

> > > > > > >  FYI, many people are using the "portable"Firefox3 beta installer

> > > > > > >  (<http://portableapps.com/apps/internet/firefox_portable/test>) as
> > > > > > >  well as these lifehacker tips as to how to disable extension version
> > > > > > >  testing (<http://lifehacker.com/355973/make-your-extensions-work-with-
> > > > > > >  the-firefox-3-betax>). Thus far, Google Gears is the only one of my 20-
> > > > > > >  odd "non-compatible" extensions that doesn't work fine with FF3.
>
> > > > > > Yup, Mozilla does a really good job of being kind to extension
> > > > > > developers and being careful not to break them. Usually it is pretty
> > > > > > trivial to update an extension to be compatible with a new version of
> > > > > >Firefox, especially if the extension is written in JavaScript (as most
> > > > > > of them are).
>
> > > > > > However, Gears goes quite a long way beyond what typical extensions
> > > > > > do, and it is written in C++, so things are more complex. Many of the
> > > > > > internal interfaces that we must use to do what we do have changed.
> > > > > > There is also a deployment issue since C++ components for FF2 are not
> > > > > > compatible with FF3 and vice versa.  We don't want to have to deploy
> > > > > > two different versions of Gears because many users will not know which

> > > > > > version ofFirefoxthey use, or will not understand if Gears breaks

[Karsten W. Rohrbach]

On Apr 14, 6:17 am, arkannis <arkan...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Technically, 1.5+ is still true, for the simple fact that Firefox 3
> has yet to be released in any supported form. Now, if it gets released
> before Gears is updated, then you'll be correct.

It's not _exactly_ true.

For example, FF2.x on Linux x86_64 is not supported. Definately.
>> "Google Gears" could not be installed because it is not compatible with your Firefox build type (Linux_x86_64-gcc3). Please contact the author of this item about the problem. <<
You get this message when you try installing the XPI on Ubuntu 7.10
64bit.

This circumstance is also not reflected on the "details" page on
Linux, which is not really detailed [sic]
http://code.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=71866&topic=11630

or the "System requirements" page
http://gears.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=79875

So, technically, the "FF1.5+" claim might be about 50% true ;-)

Regards,
/k

[ju...@dsf.org.uk]

On Mar 20, 5:42 pm, Aaron Boodman <a...@google.com> wrote:
> We all understand that FF3 is much better than FF2, so there are lots
> of people upgrading to it before it's officially been released.
>
> We'll post here, and on the Gears blog
> (http://gearsblog.blogspot.com/) when FF3 support is complete.

Is there any movement on this? Have you considered releasing a beta
version of your FF3 version?

[xamox]

Ouch, your killing me. I figured most people who use google gears are
quite internet savvy and most probably do use FFv3. Release core 1 of
FFv3 just rolled out so my guess is it isn't long until there is an
official release.



On May 13, 6:32 pm, "jh314...@googlemail.com" <ju...@dsf.org.uk>
wrote:

[Pkid]

Especially seeing that Linux distributions like Ubuntu are now
shipping FF3!

[jonlink]

>  Release core 1 of FFv3 just rolled out so my guess is it isn't long until there is an official release.

"Release core"??? Do you mean Release Candidate?
If so I agree with you. I was hugely disappointed to see that GG
still doesn't work with FF3. It's making me doubt their claims of
having GG ready by or before FF3 is ready.

[cfont]

on another thread someone said you could download the source from
trunk, build it, and that will work with FF3. something about enough
things were changing between betas that they didn't release a build
and hopefully will now that FF3 RC1 has been released. i haven't
tried it yet, however.

[Bob Rowlands]

I find it extremely frustrating that on the one hand, Google is really
playing up Gears, and trying to draw attention to it, and on the other
hand, Gears doesn't support Firefox 3. Doesn't Google care???

Unfortunately this is causing me to lose interest in Gears. I'm
certainly not going to give up Firefox 3.

[Jeremy Moskovich]

Hi Bob,

I know that it's frustrating that Firefox 3 has been "out" for so long and that there isn't yet a public release of Gears that supports it.

Firefox 3 is a great browser and we're doing our best to get a version of Gears out as quickly as possible that has great support for it, this is something we really care about and are actively working on.

Unfortunately Firefox 3 is a moving target, the recent RC1 build introduced new issues for us yet again and pushed back our release date.

If you want to live on the bleeding edge, you can download the code off the repository, it works fine on Firefox 3RC1 (although I wouldn't recommend this if you aren't a developer).

We share your frustration in there not being a public release of Gears available for Firefox 3, and we're doing our best to get one out as quickly as possible.

Best regards,
Jeremy

[Bob Rowlands]

Thanks for the update, Jeremy. I'll check it out when I have a chance.

--
Bob Rowlands <rowlan...@gmail.com>

[Matt Rodkey]

So now that the official release date of FF 3 has been announced as
6/17 (less than a week away), are you still on target to have a
working implementation of Gears on FF3 by then?

On May 29, 11:27 am, Jeremy Moskovich <playmo...@google.com> wrote:
> Hi Bob,
>
> I know that it's frustrating that Firefox 3 has been "out" for so long and
> that there isn't yet a public release of Gears that supports it.
>
> Firefox 3 is a great browser and we're doing our best to get a version of
> Gears out as quickly as possible that has great support for it, this is
> something we really care about and are actively working on.
>
> Unfortunately Firefox 3 is a moving target, the recent RC1 build introduced
> new issues for us yet again and pushed back our release date.
>
> If you want to live on the bleeding edge, you can download the code off the
> repository, it works fine on Firefox 3RC1 (although I wouldn't recommend
> this if you aren't a developer).
>
> We share your frustration in there not being a public release of Gears
> available for Firefox 3, and we're doing our best to get one out as quickly
> as possible.
>
> Best regards,
> Jeremy
>

> On Thu, May 29, 2008 at 10:18 AM, Bob Rowlands <rowlands....@gmail.com>

[Aaron Boodman]

Yup, it's actually already out ;-). Check what version you have, if
it's 0.3.24.0, you are already compatible with FF3. If not, go to
gears.google.com to upgrade.

- a

[cfont]

Aaron, is the update still in a limited deployment? I haven't received
the update and I've tried to re-download the .exe and re-install but
continue to get the older version.

On Jun 12, 12:03 am, "Aaron Boodman" <a...@google.com> wrote:
> Yup, it's actually already out ;-). Check what version you have, if
> it's 0.3.24.0, you are already compatible with FF3. If not, go to
> gears.google.com to upgrade.
>
> - a
>

[Aaron Boodman]

That is odd. 0.3.24.0 is now turned on for 100% of users. According to
our stats, about 85% of users had been updated as of yesterday. By
today it should be getting close to 100.

But what's weird in your case is that you said you have redownloaded
and run the exe. That should "kick" the updater and force you to get
the new version.

Keep in mind that the browsers don't get updated with the new version
until they have been restarted. Maybe try restarting your computer to
be sure? If neither of those work, let me know and I'll put you in
touch with someone on the team who is an expert on the updater
component.

BTW, to be certain what version you have the easiest way to check is
to go to gears.google.com. The blue box on the right shows the version
you have installed. It should say 0.3.24.0.

Thanks,

- a

[cfont]

Ok, interesting... the blue box just says "Install Gears" for me.
When I look in the Add-ons window, it reports 0.3.14.2 still. So, I
will restart Firefox and check again. If that doesn't work I'll
restart my computer. If that doesn't work I'll report back - actually,
I'll report back either way. Thanks for being so responsive. I'm sure
this is a PBKAC.

On Jun 12, 11:40 am, "Aaron Boodman" <a...@google.com> wrote:
> That is odd. 0.3.24.0 is now turned on for 100% of users. According to
> our stats, about 85% of users had been updated as of yesterday. By
> today it should be getting close to 100.
>
> But what's weird in your case is that you said you have redownloaded
> and run the exe. That should "kick" the updater and force you to get
> the new version.
>
> Keep in mind that the browsers don't get updated with the new version
> until they have been restarted. Maybe try restarting your computer to
> be sure? If neither of those work, let me know and I'll put you in
> touch with someone on the team who is an expert on the updater
> component.
>
> BTW, to be certain what version you have the easiest way to check is
> to go to gears.google.com. The blue box on the right shows the version
> you have installed. It should say 0.3.24.0.
>
> Thanks,
>
> - a
>

[cfont]

Restarting Firefox didn't work. Restarting the computer didn't work.
However, uninstalling the old version of Google Gears and installing
Gears (with a fresh download of the exe just to be sure), did the
trick. I am now using the gears that power the tubes. Thanks for the
app, for the patience, and now I will begin thinking of great ways to
use this tool.

[shoofy]

I've been trying to install the new version in FF3 on Linux and the
extension seems to install, but Gears is not being recognized even on
its own homepage and when I try to open the preferences form the tools
menu it doesn't do anything and the error console shows:
Error: Components.classes['@google.com/gears/ui-utils;1'] is undefined
Source File: chrome://gears/content/browser-overlay.js
Line: 33

I tried this on a clean Firefox profile, just to make sure it wasn't a
problem with my profile, and it had the same problem.

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9pre) Gecko/2008061204
Firefox/3.0 - Build ID: 2008061204

[Chris Prince]

When you said you tried on a new profile, did you mean you created a
new profile but left the old ones in place?

If so, could you try the following? Shut down Firefox, temporarily
rename the entire Firefox data directory (to start with a clean
slate), run Firefox, and install Gears.

[shoofy]

Same symptoms when I do that, but different error message. In the
error console this time it says:
Failed to load XPCOM component: /{path-removed}/extensions/{000a9d1c-
beef-4f90-9363-039d445309b8}/components/libgears.so
Failed to load XPCOM component: /{path-removed}/extensions/{000a9d1c-
beef-4f90-9363-039d445309b8}/components/libgears_ff2.so

I've filed a bug on this: http://code.google.com/p/gears/issues/detail?id=542

On Jun 15, 3:48 am, "Chris Prince" <cpri...@google.com> wrote:
> When you said you tried on a new profile, did you mean you created a
> new profile but left the old ones in place?
>
> If so, could you try the following?  Shut down Firefox, temporarily
> rename the entire Firefox data directory (to start with a clean
> slate), run Firefox, and install Gears.
>
> On Sun, Jun 15, 2008 at 2:02 PM, shoofy <sho...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > I've been trying to install the new version in FF3 on Linux and the
> > extension seems to install, but Gears is not being recognized even on
> > its own homepage and when I try to open the preferences form the tools
> > menu it doesn't do anything and the error console shows:

> > Error: Components.classes['...@google.com/gears/ui-utils;1'] is undefined

[cenda]

Dear Aaron,
I use Firefox for mac, and Gears worked fine until I updated to
firefox 3. I downloaded the lastest Gears version available (3.24.3)
but when I try to open Docs, it just stays there "opening" forever.
By the way, the Google bar doesn't work either in Firefox 3.
Thanks beforehand.
Manuel

On Jun 12, 12:40 pm, "Aaron Boodman" <a...@google.com> wrote:
> That is odd. 0.3.24.0 is now turned on for 100% of users. According to
> our stats, about 85% of users had been updated as of yesterday. By
> today it should be getting close to 100.
>
> But what's weird in your case is that you said you have redownloaded
> and run the exe. That should "kick" the updater and force you to get
> the new version.
>
> Keep in mind that the browsers don't get updated with the new version
> until they have been restarted. Maybe try restarting your computer to
> be sure? If neither of those work, let me know and I'll put you in
> touch with someone on the team who is an expert on the updater
> component.
>
> BTW, to be certain what version you have the easiest way to check is
> to go to gears.google.com. The blue box on the right shows the version
> you have installed. It should say 0.3.24.0.
>
> Thanks,
>
> - a
>

[Ben Lisbakken]

Cenda --

Can you go into your Firefox preferences and try allowing third party cookies and then trying it again?

-Ben

[Ben Lisbakken]

As for your Toolbar problem, try getting the newest Toolbar at http://toolbar.google.com/

Let me know if that helps!

Thanks,
Ben

On Sat, Jul 19, 2008 at 8:28 PM, cenda <riesco...@gmail.com> wrote:

[cenda]

Ben Lisbakken wrote:

Cenda -- Can you go into your Firefox preferences and try allowing
third party cookies and then trying it again?

As for your Toolbar problem, try getting the newest Toolbar at
http://toolbar.google.com/

Let me know if that helps!

Thanks,
Ben

Dear Ben,

It did help!!! I am truly amazed!!
Both the Google Gears suggestion (turn on third party cookies) and the
new Google bars are now working perfectly.
I guess you have a new friend from Chile, which will remember you
quite frequently, at least when bookmarking any interesting page and
when using off line doc updating each time I ride a train.

Thank you very much indeed.

Manuel Riesco
CENDA
Chile