FF on Linux - "bookmarks and history system will not be functional..."
Chris Barnes
I performed a routine "apt-get update", which apparently upgraded
firefox to 3.6.14. If I start FF from the root account, everything
works just fine. However, if I start FF from any normal user account,
I get the error message:
"The bookmarks and history system will not be functional because one of
Firefox's files is in use by another application. Some security software
can cause this problem"
I looked at
http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/The%20bookmarks%20and%20history%20system%20will%20not%20be%20functional
And renamed the places.sqlite to places.sqlite.old as instructed.
Same error.
So I quit FF and completely wiped out the .mozilla folder. FF dutifully
created a new .mozilla folder, then promptly gave me the exact same
error message again.
Suggestions?
g
<>
> So I quit FF and completely wiped out the .mozilla folder. FF dutifully
> created a new .mozilla folder, then promptly gave me the exact same
> error message again.
>
> Suggestions?
create a new user, log in as new user, open firefox to see if problem
repeats.
post back.
--
peace out.
tc.hago,
g
.
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clay
First thought is Firefox is trying to write to somefile and user doesn't
have permissions.
Would think dumping .mozilla and creating a new one (as user) would fix
that.
iirc, running Firefox as root is a bad idea. I probably tried it once,
anyway, just because I like to do bad things to good computers. Don't
recall if it resulted in somefiles getting their permissions changed.
Could happen though.
Next, I'd try creating a new profile using profile manager:
$ firefox -P
and create a new profile.
No joy, I'd download the tarball from ftp.mozilla.org. Extract somewhere
in ~/ then cd into the folder and ./firefox
If it runs from there that would point to some other system (non
profile) file has a permissions issue... or something.
fwiw, I run Firefox and Thunderbird this way since I don't like either
offering in the repositories.
Chris Ilias
> OS: Ubuntu 10.4
>
> I performed a routine "apt-get update", which apparently upgraded
> firefox to 3.6.14.
You sure about that version number? 3.6.14 has not been released yet.
There are candidates being tested for release. Maybe you're on a beta
test update channel?
> If I start FF from the root account, everything works
> just fine. However, if I start FF from any normal user account, I get
> the error message:
>
> "The bookmarks and history system will not be functional because one of
> Firefox's files is in use by another application. Some security software
> can cause this problem"
>
>
> I looked at
> http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/kb/The%20bookmarks%20and%20history%20system%20will%20not%20be%20functional
>
>
> And renamed the places.sqlite to places.sqlite.old as instructed.
>
>
> Same error.
>
> So I quit FF and completely wiped out the .mozilla folder. FF dutifully
> created a new .mozilla folder, then promptly gave me the exact same
> error message again.
That's a permissions issue. Places.sqlite contains your history and
bookmarks, and if for some reason it cannot be written to, that message
will appear.
Your places.sqlite file is stored in your profile folder, not the
application folder. To find your profile folder, go to
Help-->Troubleshooting_Information, and in the resulting page, click
[Open Containing Folder]. Check to see if your Ubuntu account has write
permissions to that folder (or its parent folders).
--
Chris Ilias <http://ilias.ca>
Mailing list/Newsgroup moderator
Chris Barnes
> On 01/24/2011 06:11 PM, Chris Barnes wrote:
>
>> So I quit FF and completely wiped out the .mozilla folder. FF
>> dutifully created a new .mozilla folder, then promptly gave me the
>> exact same error message again.
>>
>> Suggestions?
>
> repeats.
>
> post back.
I'm pretty sure that dumping the .mozilla directory has that same effect.
On 1/24/2011 1:38 PM, clay wrote:
> iirc, running Firefox as root is a bad idea. I probably tried it once,
> anyway, just because I like to do bad things to good computers. Don't
> recall if it resulted in somefiles getting their permissions changed.
> Could happen though.
I normally don't run anything as root. I just did it as a test *AFTER*
I got the error for normal user accounts.
Just fyi - I looked at the permissions of the .mozilla folder:
drwx------ 4 cbarnes staff 4.0k 2011-01-24 15:14 ./
> Next, I'd try creating a new profile using profile manager:
> $ firefox -P
> and create a new profile.
There are 400+ users who could use this computer, so that isn't
practical to do for all of them. But just for grins, I did it on one
account.
It dutifully created a new profile. Then gave me the same error.
> No joy, I'd download the tarball from ftp.mozilla.org. Extract somewhere
> in ~/ then cd into the folder and ./firefox
> If it runs from there that would point to some other system (non
> profile) file has a permissions issue... or something.
>
> fwiw, I run Firefox and Thunderbird this way since I don't like either
> offering in the repositories.
I'm just the opposite - I *hate* compiling my own as I much prefer to
keep things clean using apt-get. In this case, I note that installing
apt-get install firefox-3.5
installed version 3.6.14pre (Namoroka) (taken off of the Help | About).
I have to believe that the problem is the fact that this is a "pre"
version.
On 1/24/2011 1:47 PM, Chris Ilias wrote:
> Your places.sqlite file is stored in your profile folder, not the
> application folder. To find your profile folder, go to
> Help-->Troubleshooting_Information, and in the resulting page, click
> [Open Containing Folder]. Check to see if your Ubuntu account has
> write permissions to that folder (or its parent folders).
Yes - I know. I was dealing with the one in my user's home directory.
--
Chris
clay
>...[tries snipped]
>
>> No joy, I'd download the tarball from ftp.mozilla.org. Extract somewhere
>> in ~/ then cd into the folder and ./firefox
>> If it runs from there that would point to some other system (non
>> profile) file has a permissions issue... or something.
>>
>> fwiw, I run Firefox and Thunderbird this way since I don't like either
>> offering in the repositories.
>
> I'm just the opposite - I *hate* compiling my own as I much prefer to
One of the beauties of Firefox and Thunderbird. No compiling required.
Extract it and run.
For sure though, installing from the repos is most tidy.
Chris Barnes
As a test, I ran Firefox (as the normal user) from the command line. I
still got the same error message. But I also got the error message:
lock: No locks available
on the command line. This last bit of information was what I needed in
order to SOLVE THE PROBLEM!
Googling (this is a word) the lock issue resulting in virtually every
hit talking about NFS. Well... it turns out we are NFS mounting the
users /home from another server. Now recall that I said we ran
upgrades....
Apparently now the new kernel of Ubuntu now wants to attempt to do file
locking w/ NFS.
Modifying the /etc/fstab on the client workstations from :
server:/home/users /home/users nfs rw,auto,nosuid,nodev 0 0
to
server:/home/users /home/users nfs rw,nolock,auto,nosuid,nodev 0 0
SOLVED the problem.
Oh happy day.
clay
> SOLVED
>
>
> As a test, I ran Firefox (as the normal user) from the command line. I
> SOLVED the problem.
> Oh happy day.
Danm.
That would have been one of my first suggestions except I assumed you
were already running Firefox from a terminal when you posted you ran it
as root.
Good news, anyway.
btw, how do you launch Firefox as root without using the terminal?
Have you enabled the root user in Ubuntu? [shudder]
»Q«
Chris Barnes <chris-...@tamu.edu> wrote:
> > fwiw, I run Firefox and Thunderbird this way since I don't like
> > either offering in the repositories.
>
> I'm just the opposite - I *hate* compiling my own as I much prefer to
> keep things clean using apt-get.
As someone else pointed out, Mozilla distributes binaries. But it can
be annoying to go outside the package manager to install stuff.
> In this case, I note that installing
>
> apt-get install firefox-3.5
>
> installed version 3.6.14pre (Namoroka) (taken off of the Help |
> About).
>
> I have to believe that the problem is the fact that this is a "pre"
> version.
Maybe so, or it may be a problem the Ubuntu folks have introduced. As
well as asking here, you should search their bug system and ask about
it in their forum(s).
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Chris Barnes
I only get the lock message when running FF from the terminal *as a
normal user*. Iow, to start FF as root, I did initiate it from the
command line. But to start FF as the normal user, I had been using the
icon in the menu.
Hopefully future google searches for this issue will find my solution
(posted here, and on LinuxForums and UbuntuForums).
--
Chris
clay
> On 1/25/2011 7:25 PM, clay wrote:
>> Chris Barnes wrote:
>>> SOLVED
>>>
>>>
>>> As a test, I ran Firefox (as the normal user) from the command line. I
>>> ...[solution]...
>>> SOLVED the problem.
>>> Oh happy day.
>>
>> Danm.
>> That would have been one of my first suggestions except I assumed you
>> were already running Firefox from a terminal when you posted you ran it
>> as root.
>>
>> Good news, anyway.
>>
>> btw, how do you launch Firefox as root without using the terminal?
>> Have you enabled the root user in Ubuntu? [shudder]
>
>
> I only get the lock message when running FF from the terminal *as a
> normal user*. Iow, to start FF as root, I did initiate it from the
> command line. But to start FF as the normal user, I had been using the
> icon in the menu.
That would make sense.
When I'm tinkering with or troubleshooting an ap I generally work from
the terminal. Many interesting 'behind the scenes' features can be found
that way. Clues to look for config settings when running from the GUI.
Even Mozilla programs have other rudimentary --help files and switches,
aside from -P and --no-remote.
>
> Hopefully future google searches for this issue will find my solution
> (posted here, and on LinuxForums and UbuntuForums).
>
Maybe it will even find its way into Mozillazine since many users share
profiles and some of those use Linux.