Firefox install failing silently? Please help me debug.

[Aaron Boodman (Google)]

A number of people on different platforms are seeing installs where
Firefox claims that Gears is installed (via tools > addons), but no
Gears samples work and the tools > Google Gears Settings menu does
nothing.

I have not had success reproducing this bug locally, so I'm asking for help.

Firefox can be coaxed into logging some information that will be
useful to me. Please add these two environment variables:

NSPR_LOG_FILE=<full path to log file>
NSPR_LOG_MODULES=nsHttp:5;gears:5

On windows, it's easiest to create a bitch file containing this:

set NSPR_LOG_MODULES="nsHttp:5;gears:5"
set NSPR_LOG_FILE=c:\log.txt
"c:\program files\mozilla firefox\firefox.exe"

On linux, make sure that you have these set as global environment
variables because otherwise Firefox won't see them. The way I do this
is by modifying .bashrc like so:

# firefox logging
export NSPR_LOG_FILE=<full path to log file>
export NSPR_LOG_MODULES=nsHttp:5;gears:5

and then running source ~/.bashrc

There are probably better ways, but you run linux so you probably
already know what they are.

You will know when you have this working because nsHttp generates tons
of log entries. Once you see this you can remove the "nsHttp:5;"
portion of the variable so that we only get the Gears entires.

Then, please, do this:
* Uninstall Gears
* Restart Firefox
* Install Gears
* Restart Firefox

Add your log file to this thread. What we should see at the top is
something like this:

-1211099456[8a55eb0]: RegisterSelf()
-1211099456[8a55eb0]: CacheIntercept: registration complete
-1211099456[8a55eb0]: CacheIntercept::CreateSession [image-chrome]
-1211099456[8a55eb0]: CacheIntercept::CreateSession [HTTP]
-1211099456[8a55eb0]: CacheIntercept::CreateSession [HTTP-memory-only]

Thanks for your help,

- a

[dnick]

Tried creating with windows batch file, but it doesn't write anything
to the log itself. does it only write while installing gears? Had to
change the path to e: by the way

On Jun 7, 5:51 pm, "Aaron Boodman (Google)" <gears.team...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Kyoto]

Aaron,

I've tried this but the log file stays blank. I'm running Firefox
2.0.0.4 and also have Gran Paradiso 3.0a4 installed, and IE
7.0.5730.11 on Korean Windows XP Home. Gears doesn't work in either
Firefox or IE - Gran Paradiso doesn't work either but I wasn't
expecting it to.

When I run the GoogleGearsSetup.exe (0.1.47.0) it starts three
separate GoogleUpdate.exe processes (is this correct?!), one of which
disappears fairly quickly, the second takes longer, and one remains
and has to be killed manually. I get an installed confirmation, and
Google Gears Settings appears on the Firefox Tools menu, which tells
me there are no allowed sites and no denied sites, the Save button is
greyed out. In the Add-ons window, Google Gears is shown with the
Options button and Uninstall(!) greyed out, the Disabled button works
and changes to Enable when pressed but it doesn't enable the Uninstall
button.

I tried uninstalling using the Windows Uninstaller which appeared to
remove Gears from Firefox, and rebooting my machine for a fresh start.
This is where it gets a bit disturbing, because with Gears allegedly
removed, my Task List on rebooting shows three GoogleUpdate.exe
processes running. Two eventually disappear, but again the third does
not. Using Software Explorers from the Control Panel doesn't show any
GoogleUpdate.exe or anything else obviously Google at all, let alone
start-up permissions, so at best it makes Google look like they're
trying to do something under the radar. So after writing this message
I'll have to work out how to delete Google's new spyware-like
GoogleUpdate.exe process, which I'm not very impressed about.

I am running the following extensions:

Adblock Plus 0.7.5.1
Adsense Notifier 0.9.3
British English Dictionary 1.19
BugMeNot 1.3
Chickenfoot 0.9.20070430
DOM Inspector 1.8.1.4
Download Manager Tweak 0.7.2
Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer 1.0.1
GMail Manager 0.5.3
Greasemonkey 0.6.9.20070507.0
IE Tab 1.3.3.20070528
NoScript 1.1.4.8.070523
ScrapBook 1.2.0.8
Smart Digg Button 1.01
Talkback 2.0.0.4
TextAloud Firefox Plugin 1.0.5

I've tried without NoScript on the off-chance that might be
conflicting, I've tried installing from an empty cache and I even had
a go installing without my firewall running even though there were no
obvious signs of problems there, but no success

So I hope the information above is of some help even though it all
looks like a bit of a mess frankly, especially with this persistent
GoogleUpdate.exe processes.

On Jun 8, 7:51 am, "Aaron Boodman (Google)" <gears.team...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[dnick]

Ok, i was able to add the environment variables through the computer
properties screen, adding the nsHttp:5 by itself generated a ton of
log entries just opening firefox, but removing that and leaving the
variable as gears:5 did not generate anything in the log.txt file.
the log file still generates when starting firefox, but stays at 0 kb
with nothing inside.

The first time i tried, i was able to uninstall gears through the
tools > addons > uninstall button. After reinstalling, that uninstall
button, and the setting button is greyed out, leaving the disable
button still functional. On subsequent attempts I used the Add/Remove
Programs through Control Panel.

I've installed, uninstalled, restarted, rebooted a number of times
while troubleshooting over the last few days, and other than the
greyed out 'uninstall' button in tools > addons, i haven't noticed
much change. I go to Reader, click the Offline link, brings up the
install window, that brings up the download window, which brings up
the terms of service, downloads the installer. Opening that goes
through a pretty brief install. I close out of firefox, check task
manager to close out of anything firefox or google related, and
anything else that might be using a bunch of resources (this is an
optional step, i don't always do this part), and restart Firefox.

Basically nothing changes, except that there is a Google Gears
Settings option under Tools which does nothing when I click on it
other than making the Tools menu collapse (nothing unusual, but
nothing comes up), and the add on available in the Tools > Add-Ons. I
can disable / enable it here, but again, nothing seems to change.
Going to the Reader, or other sites with Gears enables simply displays
the 'Offline' link, but no icon to go into offline mode.

I have Firefox Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:
1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070515 Firefox/2.0.0.4, Windows XP Version 2002
Service Pack 2, AMD Athlon 1.16 GHz, 512 MB ram.

I should be able to test any other options you have, if you let me
know of any available. (really want to get this working before Docs
gets offline enabled ;) )

On Jun 7, 5:51 pm, "Aaron Boodman (Google)" <gears.team...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[jdesb...@gmail.com]

Tried that on Linux (Fedora 7, Firefox 2). With nsHttp I get lots of
log info, but with just gears:5 it remains empty.

My export commands look like this:
export NSPR_LOG_FILE=/var/tmp/firefox-debug.log
export NSPR_LOG_MODULES="gears:5"

Joe.

On Jun 7, 11:51 pm, "Aaron Boodman (Google)" <gears.team...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Aaron Boodman (Google)]

Thanks Joe and Kyoto.

The fact that the log remains empty is actually useful information, it
means that our components are not getting registered. So now I need to
track down what can cause that to happen.

- a

[dnick]

I also end up with 2 GoogleUpdate.exe processes running, after
installing and restarting, one taking about 10 Mb and the other about
2.6 Mb of memory, though now while writing this, the smaller one
closed on it's own.

On Jun 7, 9:04 pm, "Aaron Boodman (Google)" <gears.team...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks Joe and Kyoto.
>
> The fact that the log remains empty is actually useful information, it
> means that our components are not getting registered. So now I need to
> track down what can cause that to happen.
>
> - a
>

[dnick]

Also, are the components something we could try registering manually?

On Jun 7, 9:04 pm, "Aaron Boodman (Google)" <gears.team...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks Joe and Kyoto.
>
> The fact that the log remains empty is actually useful information, it
> means that our components are not getting registered. So now I need to
> track down what can cause that to happen.
>
> - a
>

[Aaron Boodman (Google)]

Deleting the file xpti.dat from your Firefox profile should cause that
to happen upon restart. You could try doing that and seeing if
anything gets written to the log.

On windows, the components are supposed to be unpacked by the
installer to \program files\Google\Google Gears\Firefox\components.
You should have:

bootstrap.js
gears.dll
gears.xpt

If for some reason gears.xpt or gears.dll were not there, or Firefox
could not read it because it didn't have the right permissions, then
that would explain what we're seeing. Try making those files readable
and executable by everyone.

- a

[Guru Prasath]

Did you try the batch file running from the console? Does the batch file contains a call to open the Firefox application? Basically in windows the environment variables will go off if you set it though console and close the console.

For permanently applying the environment variables goto "My computer > Properties > Advanced > Environment Variables" and set it.

-- Guru Prasath
http://mandriva.blogspot.com

[Octav]

Hello!

I have the same problem (XP, Firefox 2.0.0.4, works fine in IE but
keeps saying it's not installed in Firefox, Tools->Google Gears
Settings is present in the menu, but won't work etc).

Tried your trick with the env vars, but no luck, log is empty.

So I started playing with the .js files in C:\Program Files\Google
\Google Gears\Firefox\ and added an alert( ) at the top of each .js
file.

bootstrap.js gets loaded and gives an error saying alert( ) is not
defined, so no message box (the error is in the error console).
updater.js is not loaded at all I guess
browser-overlay.js is loaded and shows the alert( ). What is more, I
added another alert( ) in gears$openSettingsDialog( ) and the function
fires up when I go to Tools->Google Gears Settings.

Next, I checked the array Components.classes to see if Google Gears
classes are loaded. Only "@google.com/gears/updater" showed up in the
list. So the class "@google.com/gears/ui-utils" is definitely not
loaded nor any other classes Gears might have. I suppose they are
defined in gears.dll.

I used Filemon to see if gears.dll/xpt were even accessed. gears.xpt
is read by firefox, but gears.dll is not touched.
So basicly, the problem is caused by gears.dll not being loaded.

I also downloaded Firefox 2.0.0.5pre (something with Bon Echo) and it
won't work there either.

Hope this helps you slay the bugs. If there's anything I can help you
with, just let me know.

On Jun 8, 7:24 am, "Aaron Boodman (Google)" <gears.team...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Deleting the file xpti.dat from your Firefox profile should cause that
> to happen upon restart. You could try doing that and seeing if
> anything gets written to the log.
>
> On windows, the components are supposed to be unpacked by the
> installer to \program files\Google\Google Gears\Firefox\components.
> You should have:
>
> bootstrap.js
> gears.dll
> gears.xpt
>
> If for some reason gears.xpt or gears.dll were not there, or Firefox
> could not read it because it didn't have the right permissions, then
> that would explain what we're seeing. Try making those files readable
> and executable by everyone.
>
> - a
>

> > > > > - a- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

[Aaron Boodman (Google)]

On 6/8/07, Octav <octavia...@gmail.com> wrote:
> I used Filemon to see if gears.dll/xpt were even accessed. gears.xpt
> is read by firefox, but gears.dll is not touched.
> So basicly, the problem is caused by gears.dll not being loaded.

That is great information! So it seems like in this case Firefox is
finding something it doesn't like in the xpt file and not even trying
to load the dll.

Perhaps I can look through the component registration code in Firefox
to see what would cause that.

Did you double-check that the permissions on the dll? Also what type
of CPU does your computer have? I want to eliminate 64 bit chips as
the potential cause.

I feel like we are narrowing in on this. Good work.

Thanks,

- a

[Aaron Boodman (Google)]

I found an interesting page on devmo that may help us:

http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Troubleshooting_XPCOM_components_registration

Unfortunately the good logging is only available for Firefox 3. Gears
does not currently work on Firefox 3. But it seems to me that it may
be a DLL dependency problem. Can you follow the instructions under
Windows/Linux/Mac-specific hints.

I ran the dependency walker on my installation of Gears (which works)
and the only thing it reported missing was DWMAPI.dll. I'm not sure
why, but apparently that doesn't matter.

Thanks,

- a

[dnick]

Not exactly sure what we're running this on, but when i run it on
firefox.exe, i get the DWMAPI.DLL missing, and when I run it on
gears.dll it get the same, plus MSVCR71.DLL missing as well.

On Jun 8, 2:12 pm, "Aaron Boodman (Google)" <gears.team...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> I found an interesting page on devmo that may help us:
>

> http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Troubleshooting_XPCOM_components...

>
> Unfortunately the good logging is only available for Firefox 3. Gears
> does not currently work on Firefox 3. But it seems to me that it may
> be a DLL dependency problem. Can you follow the instructions under
> Windows/Linux/Mac-specific hints.
>
> I ran the dependency walker on my installation of Gears (which works)
> and the only thing it reported missing was DWMAPI.dll. I'm not sure
> why, but apparently that doesn't matter.
>
> Thanks,
>
> - a
>

> On 6/8/07, Aaron Boodman (Google) <gears.team...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Aaron Boodman (Google)]

Can the others having this problem on windows confirm that msvcr71.dll
is not in c:\windows\system32.

We appear to be incorrectly linking against this. Thanks everyone for
the help debugging this.

- a

On 6/8/07, dnick <dnick...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

[Aaron Boodman (Google)]

Yup, I was just emailing about this. We found this at the same time
here. You can this DLL here:
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=200B2FD9-AE1A-4A14-984D-389C36F85647&displaylang=en

Follow the instructions and verify that you end up with msvcr71.dll in
system32. Then uninstall/reinstall again and you should be working.

- a

On 6/8/07, dnick <dnick...@gmail.com> wrote:
>

[Chris Prince (Google)]

> I found an interesting page on devmo that may help us:

Good find. I checked the gears.dll dependencies using "dumpbin /imports".

Required by Firefox but not IE:
xpcom.dll, nspr4.dll, js3250.dll, msvcr71.dll
Required by IE but not Firefox:
user32.dll, gdi32.dll, shlwapi32.dll, oleaut32.dll, urlmon.dll

I wasn't expecting to see "msvcr71.dll" in the Firefox list.

Can somebody seeing the problem run the following test?
* Open a command prompt.
* For each of the "Firefox but not IE" DLLs listed above:
- run "regsvr32 FOO.DLL"
- see if it returns "module not found" or "entry point not found"

[Chris Prince (Google)]

We expect to be static-linking with the MSVC runtime (to avoid exactly
this kind of problem), so we should track down why the dynamic-load
version is getting pulled in too.

So just to clarify, manually installing msvcr71.dll is fine for
developers on this list, but we won't make end users do this.

[Aaron Boodman (Google)]

Yep, miket found the problem in the code that is causing us to link
again msvcr71.dll. And we are 99% sure that it is causing the problem
people on this thread are describing and we are working to fix it and
do a build. I just wanted to confirm to be 100% sure.

So again, if you're seeing this issue on Windows, install the dll by
following the instructions here:

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=200B2FD9-AE1A-4A14-984D-389C36F85647&displaylang=en

Let me know if this works. In the meantime, we will be working to fix
the installer so you don't need this manual workaround.

Thanks,

- a

[1beb]

I'm still suffering from the same problem after trying the work around
that you specified Aaron.

On Jun 8, 7:27 pm, "Aaron Boodman (Google)" <gears.team...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Yep, miket found the problem in the code that is causing us to link
> again msvcr71.dll. And we are 99% sure that it is causing the problem
> people on this thread are describing and we are working to fix it and
> do a build. I just wanted to confirm to be 100% sure.
>
> So again, if you're seeing this issue on Windows, install the dll by
> following the instructions here:
>

> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=200B2FD9-AE1...

[Aaron Boodman (Google)]

Thanks for replying brandon,

It's strange that the workaround didn't work. Do you see msvcr71.dll
in your system32 directory? Did you make sure to uninstall/reinstall
Gears after you ran the program from Microsoft?

If so, are we talking about the same bug? The one we are trying to
debug here is pretty specific.

* It happens on firefox/windows.
* Gears claims that it is installed in the addons panel, and a menu
item labeled 'Google Gears Settings' shows up, but when you click it,
nothing happens (no error, nothing).
* Additionally, no Gears samples or applications work. They all claim
that Gears is uninstalled.

Thanks for the additional information. I will keep looking into this
over the weekend.

- a

[1beb]

Hi Aaron,

In order:

* Yes, I see msvcr71.dll
* Almost, but gears has never installed at all for me. I just keep
getting the initial response which is the two GoogleUpdater.exe
processes that run, die and don't do anything.
* I used the program provided by MS, restarted and attempted to
install gears again - no dice.
* It's quite possible that this is another bug entirely.

* Yes, I'm using firefox/windows
* No it doesn't show up in the add-ons panel for me
* The last part is unfortunately true it doesn't seem to install, just
opens the processes.

Cheers,

BEB

On Jun 8, 10:24 pm, "Aaron Boodman (Google)" <gears.team...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks for replying brandon,
>
> It's strange that the workaround didn't work. Do you see msvcr71.dll
> in your system32 directory? Did you make sure to uninstall/reinstall
> Gears after you ran the program from Microsoft?
>
> If so, are we talking about the same bug? The one we are trying to
> debug here is pretty specific.
>
> * It happens on firefox/windows.
> * Gears claims that it is installed in the addons panel, and a menu
> item labeled 'Google Gears Settings' shows up, but when you click it,
> nothing happens (no error, nothing).
> * Additionally, no Gears samples or applications work. They all claim
> that Gears is uninstalled.
>
> Thanks for the additional information. I will keep looking into this
> over the weekend.
>
> - a
>

[dnick]

I went through the download and install (Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 SP1
Redistributable Package) listed above, but I didn't end up with the
msvcr71.dll in e:\windows\system32\. (windows installed on e:, but i
assume it should figure that out). There is a msvcr70.dll listed
there, but that was there before running the file downloaded from the
above link.

Would it help if it just found that file and saved it to the \system32
folder and registered it manually?

as for the above request to run regsvr32 FOO.dll, the first 3 firefox
dependant .dll files returned an 'entry point not found' message, and
the last one (msvcr71.dll) returned the 'module not found' message.

On Jun 8, 6:27 pm, "Aaron Boodman (Google)" <gears.team...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Yep, miket found the problem in the code that is causing us to link
> again msvcr71.dll. And we are 99% sure that it is causing the problem
> people on this thread are describing and we are working to fix it and
> do a build. I just wanted to confirm to be 100% sure.
>
> So again, if you're seeing this issue on Windows, install the dll by
> following the instructions here:
>

> http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=200B2FD9-AE1...

>
> Let me know if this works. In the meantime, we will be working to fix
> the installer so you don't need this manual workaround.
>
> Thanks,
>
> - a
>

> On 6/8/07, Chris Prince (Google) <gears.team.cpri...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > We expect to be static-linking with the MSVC runtime (to avoid exactly
> > this kind of problem), so we should track down why the dynamic-load
> > version is getting pulled in too.
>
> > So just to clarify, manually installing msvcr71.dll is fine for
> > developers on this list, but we won't make end users do this.
>

> > On 6/8/07, Aaron Boodman (Google) <gears.team...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > > Yup, I was just emailing about this. We found this at the same time
> > > here. You can this DLL here:

> > >http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=200B2FD9-AE1...

>
> > > Follow the instructions and verify that you end up with msvcr71.dll in
> > > system32. Then uninstall/reinstall again and you should be working.
>
> > > - a
>

[dnick]

sorry, skipped over this question i guess. i ended up setting the
variables throught the Properties > Advanced > Environment Variables
originally, when I had trouble getting them set through the batch
file, so they've been persistent through the test mentioned above (the
one with nothing being written when set to gears:5 only).

Also, i checked the permissions on the bootstrap.js, gears.dll and
gears.xpt files. all looked okay, though the only setting i checked
was to make sure they weren't hidden or read-only through the
properties window. Could check attributes in the console if this is
still a question.

On Jun 8, 1:30 am, "Guru Prasath" <apras...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Did you try the batch file running from the console? Does the batch file
> contains a call to open the Firefox application? Basically in windows the
> environment variables will go off if you set it though console and close the
> console.
>
> For permanently applying the environment variables goto "My computer >
> Properties > Advanced > Environment Variables" and set it.
>
> -- Guru Prasathhttp://mandriva.blogspot.com
>

[dnick]

Running the Dependency Walker on gears.dll, I'm now getting e:\program
files\google\google gears\firefox\components\xxx.dll was not found.
messages on js3250.dll, msvcr71.dll, nspr3.dll, xpcom.dll and
dwmapi.dll.

[pere]

Hello,

I think I'm in the same case as Brandon. I am running Firefox 2.0.0.4
and Internet Explorer 6 on Windows XP SP1 and the install fails in
both cases.

Thanks,
Pere.

[pere]

[pere]

Sorry for double post :)

Pere.

[Aaron Boodman (Google)]

On 6/8/07, 1beb <bra...@bertelsen.ca> wrote:

> * Almost, but gears has never installed at all for me. I just keep
> getting the initial response which is the two GoogleUpdater.exe
> processes that run, die and don't do anything.

Aha. Ok then, this is a different bug :-/. I am going to forward this
to some different Gears developers who know more about
GoogleUpdater.exe.

Thanks,

- a

[Aaron Boodman (Google)]

On 6/8/07, dnick <dnick...@gmail.com> wrote:

> Would it help if it just found that file and saved it to the \system32
> folder and registered it manually?

Yes, that is what we are trying to get to. I wanted to point you to
the official location, but it's a little bit hard to find on
Microsoft's website.

> as for the above request to run regsvr32 FOO.dll, the first 3 firefox
> dependant .dll files returned an 'entry point not found' message, and
> the last one (msvcr71.dll) returned the 'module not found' message.

Ok, then that confirms that the missing DLL is a problem for you.

- a

[Octav]

First of all, my configuration for the earlier tests:

Windows XP (32 bits), Firefox 2.0.0.4.

I forgot to mention earlier, I also inspected the .dll with Dependency
Viewer from msvc++ 6.0 tools and also found that some dlls were not in
the path (part were in C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox (does that
have to do with XPCOM, Gecko and stuff, but also msvcr71.dll was not
in the path, so I copied all the dlls in the same dir as the .dll and
used some msvcr71.dll from some other program. Dep Viewer no longer
reported problems, even tried regsvr32 on the dll, but nothing
changed.

Anyway, only mscr71.dll would cause problems, the other are already
loaded in the Firefox application on runtime. Static linking should
fix that, or compile against an older version. But this had nothing to
do with the problem we are facing. I told you earlier I used Filemon
(http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/
Filemon.mspx) to see if there was any attempt to load the dll, and the
file was never even read, so dependency problems at that level
wouldn't matter, you could put a text file instead of the .dll and
still change nothing. There were a few calls to list files in the
directory and the .dll showed up there, but so would any file that
would have been located in that directory.

I am not familiar with the way XPCOM works, but the problem is
definitely in the .xpt file. Maybe some incompatibility or some sanity
checks that detect some possible errors and don't load the .dll at
all. I'm investigating the problem on another XP machine and I'm going
to report the results here.

Keep up the good work, Google! :)

Octav

On Jun 9, 5:24 am, "Aaron Boodman (Google)" <gears.team...@gmail.com>
wrote:
> Thanks for replying brandon,
> http://groups.google.com/group/google-gears/browse_thread/thread/37529c3e36120c41/#
Firefox install failing silently? Please help me debug. - Google Gears
| Google Groups

> It's strange that the workaround didn't work. Do you see msvcr71.dll
> in your system32 directory? Did you make sure to uninstall/reinstall
> Gears after you ran the program from Microsoft?
>
> If so, are we talking about the same bug? The one we are trying to
> debug here is pretty specific.
>
> * It happens on firefox/windows.
> * Gears claims that it is installed in the addons panel, and a menu
> item labeled 'Google Gears Settings' shows up, but when you click it,
> nothing happens (no error, nothing).
> * Additionally, no Gears samples or applications work. They all claim
> that Gears is uninstalled.
>
> Thanks for the additional information. I will keep looking into this
> over the weekend.
>
> - a
>

[Aaron Boodman (Google)]

On 6/9/07, Octav <octavia...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Anyway, only mscr71.dll would cause problems, the other are already
> loaded in the Firefox application on runtime. Static linking should
> fix that, or compile against an older version.

It is actually intended to be statically linked, but a bug in our
compile config caused this dll to become a dependency anyway :-/.

> But this had nothing to
> do with the problem we are facing. I told you earlier I used Filemon
> (http://www.microsoft.com/technet/sysinternals/FileAndDisk/
> Filemon.mspx) to see if there was any attempt to load the dll, and the
> file was never even read, so dependency problems at that level
> wouldn't matter,

Right, I remembered that you said that, and it makes sense. But I know
that a dependency on a DLL that wasn't fulfilled would cause the
problem we're seeing. And we have one. So it seemed like maybe the DLL
not getting read was a red herring.

> you could put a text file instead of the .dll and
> still change nothing. There were a few calls to list files in the
> directory and the .dll showed up there, but so would any file that
> would have been located in that directory.
>
> I am not familiar with the way XPCOM works, but the problem is
> definitely in the .xpt file. Maybe some incompatibility or some sanity
> checks that detect some possible errors and don't load the .dll at
> all. I'm investigating the problem on another XP machine and I'm going
> to report the results here.

That is what I'm thinking. I'm hoping that the underlying cause is the
bad linkage. There may very well be multiple things at work here
however.

The actual xpt is the same whether or not the client machine has the
dll. So I still think that it may just start working if the DLL is on
the machine and the extension is reinstalled.

I'm not an (XP?)COM expert either. Unfortunately our resident expert
is out of the office until next Thursday. I'm just pulling on loose
strings here :-).

On monday we're going to retest everything on clean machines (duh, I
can't believe we didn't see this in the first place) and hopefully
that will flush out any remaining related issues.

[Aaron Boodman (Google)]

Here is the DLL in question so that you can try dropping in system32.
I don't know how exactly caching works, so it's probably safest to
restart the machine after putting this in system32, then
uninstall/reinstall Gears.

I renamed the DLL with a .bin extension to defeat Gmail's unsafe
attachment feature. Please rename back to.dll.

- a

[Octav]

Ok, I was wrong.

compreg.dat caches the registration stuff, so after subsequent runs,
if the .dll did not register itself properly, it won't show up in the
cache so it won't be loaded. This also means that for any test we
make, we have to delete those two files so we know all steps of the
registration processes are even attempted.

I deleted compreg.dat and xpti.dat and after running Firefox,
gears.dll was indeed read by firefox.exe. Anyway, on my home computer
(Windows XP 32 + same firefox) it works. One theory would be that it's
because I installed MSVC++ 8.0 which comes with all the runtime
libraries that won't come with XP. But this would go down if somebody
with Vista for example encountered the same bug (and I think somebody
said that it did), because Vista definitely ships with msvcr7.dll (I
don't have Vista, but it would seem logical to have it).

..................

Ok, I just found a way to fix it. Looks like if I put msvcr71.dl in
the directory with gears.dll, it will NOT work. But if I move
msvcr71.dll in \windows\system32 and delete compreg.dat it works like
magic. So I moved the dll back in the gears.dll directory and deleted
compreg.dat and tested again, and it did not work, same symptoms. Move
the file back in system32 and deleted compreg.dat and it worked.

So either linking statically or making the Google installer also
install the dll in \windows\system32 should fix the problem.

Btw, msvcr71.dll doesn't need to be registered with regsvr32, it has
nothing to register I guess. It just needs to be there for programs
that link to the standard c library dinamically.

On Jun 9, 9:19 pm, "Aaron Boodman (Google)" <gears.team...@gmail.com>
wrote:

[Aaron Boodman (Google)]

On 6/7/07, Kyoto <infos...@gmail.com> wrote:
> When I run the GoogleGearsSetup.exe (0.1.47.0) it starts three
> separate GoogleUpdate.exe processes (is this correct?!), one of which
> disappears fairly quickly, the second takes longer, and one remains
> and has to be killed manually. I get an installed confirmation, and
> Google Gears Settings appears on the Firefox Tools menu, which tells
> me there are no allowed sites and no denied sites, the Save button is
> greyed out. In the Add-ons window, Google Gears is shown with the
> Options button and Uninstall(!) greyed out, the Disabled button works
> and changes to Enable when pressed but it doesn't enable the Uninstall
> button.

Kyoto, I didn't realize this at first, but the fact that the Google
Gears Settings menu item works for you means that you are seeing a
different bug. Perhaps also different than this one:

http://groups.google.com/group/google-gears/browse_thread/thread/19bd4025c640b0b3/d4801dbb74584e7f

The fact that the uninstall button doesn't work isn't an issue. Gears
on windows can only be uninstalled via add/remove programs. This is
because it's not a profile-based extension, it's installed globally.
I'm not particularly stoked about this either, but that's the way it
is.

When you say that Gears doesn't work, what do mean? You didn't
actually list that in this message. I mean, do the samples work?

http://code.google.com/apis/gears/sample.html

Thanks,

- a

[dnick]

I think we got it. I'd actually found the msvcr71.dll from another
computer and had tried it earlier, both registering (which failed, as
you noted above it does not need to be registered) and not
registering. This time I used the file you sent, and deleted
compreg.dat and xpti.dat at Octav mentioned below (didn't reboot the
computer, btw), uninstalled/reinstalled gears, and it popped right up
with the 'enable gears' prompt when going to Reader, and i'm able to
access the Google Gears setting.

Now just to make Reader automatically save to the Gears local db while
i'm connected so it's available for unexpected off-line usage (or at
least make Docs and Spreadsheets that way) and i'll be a happy user.
(Sorry, shameless 'feature' plug, but it think i did enough work here
to earn the opportunity ;) )

Thanks for the work helping to figure this out, and if you need
anything else tested, please let me know. Kind of cool working with
you guys.

On Jun 9, 1:28 pm, "Aaron Boodman (Google)" <gears.team...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Here is the DLL in question so that you can try dropping in system32.
> I don't know how exactly caching works, so it's probably safest to
> restart the machine after putting this in system32, then
> uninstall/reinstall Gears.
>
> I renamed the DLL with a .bin extension to defeat Gmail's unsafe
> attachment feature. Please rename back to.dll.
>
> - a
>

> msvcr71.bin
> 459KDownload

[pri]

Aaron, thanks for helping all of us out. I've been desperately trying
to get gears to work but haven't succeeded yet. Here's answers to your
questions you've asked previously.

Do you see msvcr71.dll in your system32 directory?

*Yes I have the dll.

Did you make sure to uninstall/reinstall Gears after you ran the
program from Microsoft?

*Yes, installed MS program. Uninstalled. Reinstalled. No luck.

If so, are we talking about the same bug? The one we are trying to
debug here is pretty specific.

*I'm not sure, it could be different. I have posted details about my
problem in some other posts. (http://groups.google.com/group/google-
gears/msg/02a22b34d0998300)

It happens on firefox/windows.
* Yes FF 2.0.0.4. BUT I also have problem with IE7 not working.

Gears claims that it is installed in the addons panel, and a menu item
labeled 'Google Gears Settings' shows up, but when you click it,
nothing happens (no error, nothing).

*That is correct. Sometimes the percentages increase but the highest I
have seen is 20%. Usually IE and FF have the same numbers but other
times they do not. I do see it installed on the addons menu.

Additionally, no Gears samples or applications work. They all claim
that Gears is uninstalled.

*The gear samples DO work for me. Both in IE7 and FF.

Trying to register .dll's:
Following error "Loadlibrary (FOO.dll) failed. The specified module
could not be found." for xpcom.dll, nspr4.dll, and js3250.dll
For msvcr71.dll I get a different error- "msvcr71.dll was loaded, but
the DLLRegisterservice entry point was not found. The file cannot be
registered."

Thanks for the help.

On Jun 8, 10:24 pm, "Aaron Boodman (Google)" <gears.team...@gmail.com>
wrote:

> Thanks for replying brandon,
>
> It's strange that the workaround didn't work. Do you see msvcr71.dll
> in your system32 directory? Did you make sure to uninstall/reinstall
> Gears after you ran the program from Microsoft?
>
> If so, are we talking about the same bug? The one we are trying to
> debug here is pretty specific.
>
> * It happens on firefox/windows.
> * Gears claims that it is installed in the addons panel, and a menu
> item labeled 'Google Gears Settings' shows up, but when you click it,
> nothing happens (no error, nothing).
> * Additionally, no Gears samples or applications work. They all claim
> that Gears is uninstalled.
>
> Thanks for the additional information. I will keep looking into this
> over the weekend.
>
> - a
>

[Chris Prince (Google)]

If the Gears samples are working for you, this is a different problem.
Have you tried asking in the Reader forum?
http://groups.google.com/group/Google-Labs-Reader

They will probably be better able to help you out.
--Chris

[David Bullock]

I copied the msvcr71.dll into my c:\windows\system32 - uninstalled
gears, deleted the two files (compreg/xpti) and reinstalled gears and
restarted FF and everything works now.

Dave

[Dustin]

Not sure if any of this helps, but i'm on Vista Ultimate and I did not
have msvcr71.dll. Its a fairly new install, only a few weeks old, but
i have some development software installed.

When i run regsvr32...
xpcom.dll fails to load
nspr4.dll fails to load
js3250.dll fails to load
msvcr32.dll "was loaded but the entry-point DllRegisterServer was not
found"

This confuses me because I never had msvcr32.dll so how would it be
loaded?
I have the dll that you sent now tho, i have saved it in my system32
folder but theres no change. I havent restarted yet, i'll have to wait
a day or so before i can restart, i have some networked rendering i
need to let finish.

[Fireworm]

I ran the test

Required by Firefox but not IE:
xpcom.dll, nspr4.dll, js3250.dll, msvcr71.dll

xpcom.dll - module not found
nspr4.dll - module not found
js3250.dll - module not found
msvcr71.dll - entry point not found (I know that have this file in the
sys32)

On Jun 8, 11:56 pm, "Chris Prince (Google)"

<gears.team.cpri...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > I found an interesting page on devmo that may help us:
>
> Good find. I checked the gears.dll dependencies using "dumpbin /imports".
>
> Required by Firefox but not IE:
> xpcom.dll, nspr4.dll, js3250.dll, msvcr71.dll
> Required by IE but not Firefox:
> user32.dll, gdi32.dll, shlwapi32.dll, oleaut32.dll, urlmon.dll
>
> I wasn't expecting to see "msvcr71.dll" in the Firefox list.
>
> Can somebody seeing the problem run the following test?
> * Open a command prompt.
> * For each of the "Firefox but not IE" DLLs listed above:
> - run "regsvr32 FOO.DLL"
> - see if it returns "module not found" or "entry point not found"
>

> On 6/8/07, Aaron Boodman (Google) <gears.team...@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
>
> > I found an interesting page on devmo that may help us:
>

> >http://developer.mozilla.org/en/docs/Troubleshooting_XPCOM_components...

>
> > Unfortunately the good logging is only available for Firefox 3. Gears
> > does not currently work on Firefox 3. But it seems to me that it may
> > be a DLL dependency problem. Can you follow the instructions under
> > Windows/Linux/Mac-specific hints.
>
> > I ran the dependency walker on my installation of Gears (which works)
> > and the only thing it reported missing was DWMAPI.dll. I'm not sure
> > why, but apparently that doesn't matter.
>
> > Thanks,
>
> > - a
>

> > On 6/8/07, Aaron Boodman (Google) <gears.team...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Fireworm]

I btw am running XP Pro and firefox 2.0.0.4

[Aaron Boodman]

Build 0.50 has the dll dependency problem fixed. It sounds like there
are still other problems that result in the same symptom, but I'll
start new threads for those when I learn more.

- a

[Richard Schwarting]

Hello.

I was wondering whether there was any progress with regards to this
problem on Linux.

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.8.1.4) Gecko/20070603
Fedora/2.0.0.4-2.fc7 Firefox/2.0.0.4
indicating Fedora 7, Firefox 2.0.0.4

I have the same symptoms, with the log appearing empty for gears:5
too, and oddly, I don't imagine the Windows issues apply :)

Cheers,
Richard Schwarting

On Jun 25, 11:59 pm, "Aaron Boodman" <a...@google.com> wrote:
> Build 0.50 has the dll dependency problem fixed. It sounds like there
> are still other problems that result in the same symptom, but I'll
> start new threads for those when I learn more.
>
> - a
>

[Richard Schwarting]

So, I tested a couple scenarios:
1) create a fresh Fedora 7 account, thus getting a really fresh
profile for Firefox 2.0.0.4, but using the installed Firefox 2.0.0.4
2) in that new account, try using a fresh version of Firefox 2.0.0.4
from Mozilla.org

The fresh profile from 1) did not help me. However, even with a
profile created through 1), using the Firefox 2.0.0.4 package from
Mozilla.org gave me a functional Google Gears!

If there isn't anything really weird having been done to my local
package by Fedora, perhaps it is a conflict with a plugin installed
for it (eg. Flash)? I am using the nspluginwrapper so I can use the
32-bit Flash plugin with my 64-bit Firefox browser. The Firefox page
says that the download was for i686, if that's relevant.

Cheers.

[pri]

Have you tried using firefox error console in the tools menu or
Firebug (FF extension)? see if you are getting any errors.

[Richard Schwarting]

Thanks Pri.

I could see those helping if Google Gears seemed to be registered at
all, but it doesn't even display any output of its own using Aaron's
recommended settings, and the extension won't display any UI when I
try to access its option under Tools. So, I haven't bothered to
install Firebug, but briefly, the error console doesn't display
anything relevant going through a reinstall of Google Gears, in trying
to launch its dialogue, or in trying to use Google Reader (which
believes I don't have Google Gears installed, anyway).

Also of interest, does Google Groups frequently misattribute
comments? For instance, I see your (Pri's) comment as being
attributed to Aaron Boodman, Jun 8th, which is 21 days off, anyway, at
the threads creation.

Cheers,
Richard

On Jun 8, 10:24 pm, "Aaron Boodman (Google)" <gears.team...@gmail.com>

[asimov]

I think I have find a way to deal with this trouble..
my situations is: ie 7.0 windows xp.
when i use firefox download googlegears setup.exe again and again...pc
just executive silently...there's no evidence that the installment is
in process..

I turn to IE 7.0..It give the popup from the windows firewall...there
is a file namely googlegearsetup.exe or googlesetup from TMP
document(temporary file)......you should add this file to trust file
through kav.exe or windows firewall till it's update succeed..

It's a big pig bug. It's a kinda bug belongs to Kav or Windows xp or
Firefox or google gear.....

On 6月8日, 上午6时51分, "Aaron Boodman (Google)" <gears.team...@gmail.com>
wrote: