thunderbird no longer starts since upgrage to unity 5

[Bequia Ubuntu]

Hi team,

This is my second bug report on unity 5, related to thunderbird. Upgrading to unity 5 broke it so that it can now only be started in safe mode. This happens in gnome-shell as well. I've done some searching thinking it was a thunderbird problem but i'm now sure it's the upgrade that broke it.
Running thunderbird from terminal gives:

(thunderbird-bin:13663): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: cannot register existing type `DbusmenuMenuitem'

(thunderbird-bin:13663): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed

(thunderbird-bin:13663): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_param_spec_object: assertion `g_type_is_a (object_type, G_TYPE_OBJECT)' failed

(thunderbird-bin:13663): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_class_install_property: assertion `G_IS_PARAM_SPEC (pspec)' failed

How do I workaround this?

Thanks

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

which version of Ubuntu are you using? Are you using Unity5 from a ppa?

[Bequia Ubuntu (jose.b)]

On 01/31/2012 10:32 AM, Omer Akram wrote:
> which version of Ubuntu are you using? Are you using Unity5 from a ppa?
>
> ** Changed in: unity
> Status: New => Opinion
>
> ** Changed in: unity
> Status: Opinion => Incomplete
>
Yes, i'm using unity 5 from ppa in ubuntu 11.10 64-bit

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[rangerek (rangerek)]

same situation:
mpolak@mpolak-desktop:~$ thunderbird

(thunderbird-bin:13208): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: cannot register existing type `DbusmenuMenuitem'

(thunderbird-bin:13208): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed

(thunderbird-bin:13208): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_param_spec_object: assertion `g_type_is_a (object_type, G_TYPE_OBJECT)' failed

(thunderbird-bin:13208): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_class_install_property: assertion `G_IS_PARAM_SPEC (pspec)' failed

[Omer Akram (om26er)]

thanks for the bug report. This version of Unity was only distributed to 11.10 for testing purpose and is not supported so any issues caused by it less likely to ever get fixed in 11.10. Please either use Ubuntu 12.04 or revert to older unity/

[frankster (wtfrank)]

I get this exact same error with thunderbird in 12.04:

(thunderbird:14459): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: cannot register existing type `DbusmenuMenuitem'

(thunderbird:14459): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `result != 0' failed

(thunderbird:14459): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_param_spec_object: assertion `g_type_is_a (object_type, G_TYPE_OBJECT)' failed

(thunderbird:14459): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_class_install_property: assertion `G_IS_PARAM_SPEC (pspec)' failed

[frankster (wtfrank)]

I am able to start it with: thunderbird -safe-mode

[frankster (wtfrank)]

Solved as per: https://lists.ubuntu.com/archives/ubuntu-mozillateam-bugs/2012-April/132383.html

* start thunderbird in safe mode (thunderbird -safe-mode )
* don't tick any boxes in the window that comes (don't permanently reset anything)
* once thunderbird starts, go to Tools->Addons and disable "Messaging Menu and Unity Launcher integration 0.8"
* close thunderbird
* start it in normal mode
-> thunderbird works fine.

So I think the problem actually lies in this extension rather than unity. I'm not sure if the extension is bundled with thunderbird, unity or a separate package, but its a confirmed issue in 12.04.

[Andrea Azzarone (azzar1)]

Closing as per comment #8.