firefox becomes orphaned during system updates on KDE3.x, AMD64

[robotblackdebbie]

Binary package hint: adept-updater

When the system update tool (Adept, on KDE3.x, Ubuntu 8.04.2) runs with an updated version of firefox, it clobbers the existing installation without warning the user. The result is that the currently running firefox process becomes unusable and unstable. It becomes necessary to issue a SIGKILL to purge the running firefox process and restart.
The calling card of this condition is a dialog box that comes up when attempting to open a new tab or perform some other operations; I have attached a screenshot for reference.

It would seem to me that the fix would be to scan for running instances of firefox during the update, and prompt the user to manually close firefox before the update continues (or offer an option to forcibly kill firefox before continuing).

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

In Kubuntu 8.10 or greater update-notifier-kde handles restart notifications that tell users to restart firefox upon upgrade.

[robotblackdebbie (richarddowne)]

I haven't tried Kubuntu 8.10, but I would say a) 8.04 is supposed to be an
LTS release, no? This is why I chose it for my office machine, so it seems
like the sort of thing that might get backported?b) I HAVE tried regular
Ubuntu 8.10 on my laptop (the horrid state of kde4 tempted me towards the
dark side...). On this particular system, while it advises the user to quit
firefox AFTER updating, it should do so before -- by waiting until the
previous installation has been clobbered to notify the user, they lose all
their tabs. This is irritating. Hence usability bug.
Thus your response to me looks like something of a cop out.
--Richard

On Fri, Mar 6, 2009 at 10:06 PM, Jonathan Thomas <email address hidden>wrote:

> In Kubuntu 8.10 or greater update-notifier-kde handles restart
> notifications that tell users to restart firefox upon upgrade.
>
> ** Changed in: update-notifier-kde (Ubuntu)
> Sourcepackagename: adept => update-notifier-kde
> Status: New => Fix Released
>
> --
> firefox becomes orphaned during system updates on KDE3.x, AMD64
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/328192
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “update-notifier-kde” source package in Ubuntu: Fix Released
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: adept-updater
>
> When the system update tool (Adept, on KDE3.x, Ubuntu 8.04.2) runs with an
> updated version of firefox, it clobbers the existing installation without
> warning the user. The result is that the currently running firefox process
> becomes unusable and unstable. It becomes necessary to issue a SIGKILL to
> purge the running firefox process and restart.
> The calling card of this condition is a dialog box that comes up when
> attempting to open a new tab or perform some other operations; I have
> attached a screenshot for reference.
>
> It would seem to me that the fix would be to scan for running instances of
> firefox during the update, and prompt the user to manually close firefox
> before the update continues (or offer an option to forcibly kill firefox
> before continuing).
>