Urgent: Zotero beta does not start for me on ubuntu

[Emiliano Heyns]

Since today I am getting

Sandbox: CanCreateUserNamespace() unshare(CLONE_NEWPID): EPERM

On Ubuntu on my own system and on github actions. This is preventing my tests from running, which means I cannot release test or release builds. Is there a workaround for this?

[Emiliano Heyns]

This is not (only) the debs, this is also with the tarball

[Dan Stillman]

The beta tarball is starting for me on stock Ubuntu 25.10 (ARM).

I don't think anything has changed that would affect this.

- Dan

[Emiliano Heyns]

Still - this is failing for me in the controlled environment of GitHub actions. I can fix it locally by adding an app armor config. 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "zotero-dev" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/zotero-dev/ZF0SVrg-MLw/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to zotero-dev+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/zotero-dev/0100019d259981ae-3b519d75-b015-4a46-b662-6e8698fe2c48-000000%40email.amazonses.com.

[Dan Stillman]

You're welcome to try older betas to see if there was a change, but it's more likely this is some change to your GitHub Actions environment.

Zotero CI runs on ubuntu-latest on GitHub Actions, and we're not seeing a problem there.

- Dan

[Emiliano Heyns]

Can you point me to the action yaml you use for that? I'll add it to the debs build test. I believe you when you say they run for you, but for me this error is new , and specifically for 9b, not 8

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "zotero-dev" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/zotero-dev/ZF0SVrg-MLw/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to zotero-dev+...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/zotero-dev/0100019d25b4ffbc-65d83a3f-5f6d-4cc2-ba64-21ec3dcafea4-000000%40email.amazonses.com.

[Dan Stillman]

On 3/25/26 12:39 PM, 'Emiliano Heyns' via zotero-dev wrote:
> Can you point me to the action yaml you use for that?

https://github.com/zotero/zotero/blob/main/.github/workflows/ci.yml

[Emiliano Heyns]

And just like that, the problem is gone.

Weird.

[Emiliano Heyns]

Nope, am still seeing the problem, but it seems to be related to how I set up the profile, not directly a problem with Zotero not starting. The CanCreateUserNamespace is not an actual error, I am seeing the same in Z8, it is just that in Z9b, nothing follows that line.

I'm trying to put together a minimal reproduction. From what I could cobble together from the firefox docs (https://docs.telemetry.mozilla.org/concepts/profile/profile_creation) and the zotero sources (commandLineHandler.js), I had expected this to work:

./zotero --profile ~/Z9TEST -datadir ~/Z9TEST/zotero -ZoteroDebugText

but that also just logs that one line and then hangs, on both Z8 and Z9b. Suggestions?

[Emiliano Heyns]

And says "Your Zotero profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible"

[Emiliano Heyns]

Ah the directory needs to exist

[Emiliano Heyns]

OK so Zotero starts up, that was an error on my side, but on Linux I am now stuck at my plugins being deemed incompatible on Linux



I have unpacked the xpi I tried to install and its manifest says

{

"

manifest_version

":

2

, "

name

": "

Better BibTex for Zotero

", "

version

": "

9.0.10.emile.blueberry

", "

description

": "

Make Zotero useful for us LaTeX holdouts.

", "

icons

":

{

"

48

": "

content/skin/better-bibtex.svg

", "

96

": "

content/skin/better-bibtex.svg

"

}

, "

applications

":

{

"

zotero

":

{

"

id

": "

better...@iris-advies.com

", "

update_url

": "

https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-better-bibtex/releases/download/release/updates.json

", "

strict_min_version

": "

8.0.1

", "

strict_max_version

": "

9.*

"

}

}

}

that looks alright no?

[Xiangyu Wang]

What exact error in console/debug log did you get when trying to install the plugin?

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "zotero-dev" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to zotero-dev+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/zotero-dev/92e7840b-9c36-4236-b9fc-081fbebebed1n%40googlegroups.com.

[Emiliano Heyns]

I only see one warning about the version number but that has been there for ages:

1774535867802 addons.xpi WARN Force scan SCOPE_ALL locations on empty XPIStates locations data

[JavaScript Error: "Error: Failed to load resource://services-settings/remote-settings.sys.mjs"]

While creating services from category 'profile-after-change', could not create service for entry 'RemotePermissionService', contract ID '@mozilla.org/remote-permission-service;1'

[JavaScript Error: "Error: Failed to load resource://services-settings/remote-settings.sys.mjs" {file: "resource://gre/modules/EssentialDomainsRemoteSettings.sys.mjs" line: 41}]

[JavaScript Error: "Error: Failed to load resource://services-settings/remote-settings.sys.mjs" {file: "resource://gre/modules/SimpleURIUnknownSchemesRemoteObserver.sys.mjs" line: 45}]

[JavaScript Error: "TypeError: this.ownerGlobal.gBrowser.getTabForBrowser is not a function" {file: "chrome://global/content/elements/browser-custom-element.mjs" line: 932}]
getTabBrowser@chrome://global/content/elements/browser-custom-element.mjs:932:54
onPageHide@chrome://global/content/elements/browser-custom-element.mjs:958:27


[JavaScript Error: "TypeError: this.ownerGlobal.gBrowser.getTabForBrowser is not a function" {file: "chrome://global/content/elements/browser-custom-element.mjs" line: 932}]
getTabBrowser@chrome://global/content/elements/browser-custom-element.mjs:932:54
onPageHide@chrome://global/content/elements/browser-custom-element.mjs:958:27


1774536528363 addons.webextens...@iris-advies.com WARN Loading extension 'better...@iris-advies.com': Reading manifest: Warning processing version: version must be a version string consisting of at most 4 integers of at most 9 digits without leading zeros, and separated with dots

1774536528370 addons.xpi-utils WARN Add-on better...@iris-advies.com is not compatible with application version.

1774536528370 addons.xpi-utils WARN Add-on better...@iris-advies.com is not compatible with application version.

1774536528373 addons.xpi-utils WARN Add-on better...@iris-advies.com is not compatible with application version.

1774536528373 addons.xpi-utils WARN Add-on better...@iris-advies.com is not compatible with application version.

[JavaScript Error: "TypeError: this.ownerGlobal.gBrowser.getTabForBrowser is not a function" {file: "chrome://global/content/elements/browser-custom-element.mjs" line: 932}]
getTabBrowser@chrome://global/content/elements/browser-custom-element.mjs:932:54
onPageHide@chrome://global/content/elements/browser-custom-element.mjs:958:27


appName => Zotero-beta, version => 9.0-beta.16+6140088b0 (x64), os => Linux 6.17.0-19-generic #19-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Fri Mar  6 14:02:58 UTC 2026, locale => en-US, extensions => 

You received this message because you are subscribed to a topic in the Google Groups "zotero-dev" group.
To unsubscribe from this topic, visit https://groups.google.com/d/topic/zotero-dev/ZF0SVrg-MLw/unsubscribe.
To unsubscribe from this group and all its topics, send an email to zotero-dev+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/zotero-dev/CAJfCUr%3DqHRAH3CtCx4gmyaP3wGcZ9B35BxWsxM03_JsQ_%2BuL2g%40mail.gmail.com.

[Xiangyu Wang]

Could you please share the XPI file so that I can test? Somehow I cannot reproduce.

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/zotero-dev/CAHOSGO4a9AAfUsnQt06VMNK%2BsV9fu3rKfkUbav%2Bgki%2BDo3X8gw%40mail.gmail.com.

[Emiliano Heyns]

https://files.catbox.moe/ijx9ro.xpi

[Emiliano Heyns]

But also this much smaller xpi https://files.catbox.moe/u7n2om.xpi

[Emiliano Heyns]

Best with the smaller xpi. I have just removed all profiles on linux, created a new one, tried to install u7n2om.xpi, and that failed

[Emiliano Heyns]

... on the deb. The tarball works.

So this is still a problem for me, but I guess I'll have to figure out what is going wrong here.

[Emiliano Heyns]

Well. That will teach me.

It was me messing with the application.ini to have the application identify differently so the icon shows properly under wayland. That is now reverted.