Eclipse may need libxpcom.so from libxul-dev

[David O'Callaghan]

Binary package hint: eclipse

I have upgraded from Gutsy to Hardy (while it was still in beta).

Eclipse crashes in various cases with the error:

    /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.5.0-sun/bin/java: symbol lookup error: /home/ocalladw/.eclipse/org.eclipse.platform_3.2.0/configuration/org.eclipse.osgi/bundles/44/1/.cp/libswt-mozilla-gtk-3236.so: undefined symbol: NS_StringContainerInit2

This occurs with both java-1.5.0-sun and java-6-sun (and possibly other JVMs).

ldd on libswt-mozilla-gtk-3236.so gives

 linux-gate.so.1 => (0xb7faf000)
 libxpcom.so => not found
 libplds4.so.0d => /usr/lib/libplds4.so.0d (0xb7f84000)
 libplc4.so.0d => /usr/lib/libplc4.so.0d (0xb7f7f000)
 libnspr4.so.0d => /usr/lib/libnspr4.so.0d (0xb7f4c000)
 libpthread.so.0 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libpthread.so.0 (0xb7f34000)
 libdl.so.2 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libdl.so.2 (0xb7f30000)
 libstdc++.so.6 => /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6 (0xb7e3d000)
 libm.so.6 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libm.so.6 (0xb7e18000)
 libgcc_s.so.1 => /lib/libgcc_s.so.1 (0xb7e0c000)
 libc.so.6 => /lib/tls/i686/cmov/libc.so.6 (0xb7cbd000)
 /lib/ld-linux.so.2 (0xb7fb0000)

Note: libxpcom.so not found

libxul0d provides /usr/lib/libxpcom.so.0d (so I guess this is related to bug 199271) but not /usr/lib/libxpcom.so.
I installed libxul-dev and this provided /usr/lib/libxpcom.so. Eclipse now runs without these previous crashes.

[David O'Callaghan (david-ocallaghan)]

Never mind. I found that if I removed the bundle directory (/home/ocalladw/.eclipse/org.eclipse.platform_3.2.0/configuration/org.eclipse.osgi/bundles/44) I could then also remove libxul-dev and eclipse works fine.

[Daniel Bonniot de Ruisselet (bonniot-users)]

I had the same problem. Unfortunately the specific error message is only visible when eclipse is started from the console.

I disabling removing the offending libswt-mozilla-gtk-3236.so, and it does seem to fix the problem. I have no idea how that got there, but it would be nice if this could be fixed somehow by the package, especially if it concerns many more users.

[Christian Mertes (cmertes)]

I had the same problem. I went for Davids first solution and installed libxul-dev as adding some files seemed safer to me than removing some others. I noticed the line "Removing mozilla-browser ..." by apt though. I second the opinion that someone understanding what's going on here (which rules me out) should fix the package.