Firefox fails to work after an update

[Jarno Suni]

Binary package hint: firefox-3.0

Xubuntu 8.04, just updated to Firefox 3.0.1.

When I select e.g. Tools > Add-ons or Help > About Mozilla Firefox, I get new small empty window. Same thing, if I enter any address to location field and press enter.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Jul 28 14:37:59 2008
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 8.04
Package: firefox-3.0 3.0.1+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.2
PackageArchitecture: i386
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/scripts
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: firefox-3.0
Uname: Linux 2.6.24-19-generic i686

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

Firefox did not quit, so I killed Firefox and restarted and now it did not finish "Checking Compatibility of Add-ons", so I clicked cancel and now Firefox works normally.

[Michael Rooney (mrooney)]

Hi Jarno, thanks for using Ubuntu and thanks for taking the time to file this bug report! The issue was most likely because Firefox was not restarted after it was updated, as is recommended after the update completes. Since you say Firefox behaves properly after a restart I will close this bug. Feel free to re-open it (by clicking the arrow next to the Status and selecting "New" and then "Save Changes") if the issue persists. Thanks again!

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Mike Rooney wrote:
> Hi Jarno, thanks for using Ubuntu and thanks for taking the time to file
> this bug report! The issue was most likely because Firefox was not
> restarted after it was updated, as is recommended after the update
> completes. Since you say Firefox behaves properly after a restart I will
> close this bug. Feel free to re-open it (by clicking the arrow next to
> the Status and selecting "New" and then "Save Changes") if the issue
> persists. Thanks again!
>
> ** Changed in: firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu)
> Status: New => Invalid
>
>
This has been reported already in our bug tracker. please dont close
bugs without user input that he didnt restart the application as it is
just a guess. When i find other report i will mark as such unless
someone else looks for it and does same. reopening bug report.

status incomplete

--
Sincerely Yours,
    John Vivirito

https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito
Linux User# 414246

[Michael Rooney (mrooney)]

Hi John. The only time Jarno mentioned restarting Firefox was after the problem occurred, at which point Firefox checked Add-ons for compatibility, which is what happens the first time you restart Firefox after an update, and not again afterwards. That means it was very likely not restarted before the bug occurred. Am I missing something?

Jarno, can you confirm or deny whether you had restarted Firefox after the update, before you were having this issue? Was your restart that you mention the first one?

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

I am not sure, if it was the first one or not, but note that I couldn't even quit Firefox normally. Maybe it would be wise to prompt user to quit Firefox before updating it, and skip updating Firefox, if user decides to continue running it. Is Firefox more likely than other applications to malfunction after update? If it is, why?

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

Hello, this happened again after Firefox was updated to 3.0.2 in background; in my configuration security updates are downloaded and installed without separate user confirmation and I actually was not aware that Firefox was updated while I was using it. I should be prompted to restart Firefox after update!

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

Even better would be, if update-notifier or whatever would ask me to quit Firefox before it _installs_ a Firefox update, notifying me about a possible security update.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Jarno Suni wrote:
> Hello, this happened again after Firefox was updated to 3.0.2 in
> background; in my configuration security updates are downloaded and
> installed without separate user confirmation and I actually was not
> aware that Firefox was updated while I was using it. I should be
> prompted to restart Firefox after update!
>
> ** Changed in: update-notifier (Ubuntu)
> Sourcepackagename: firefox-3.0 => update-notifier
> Status: Invalid => New
>
>
Everyone should get notice to restart. Its in terminal and a lightbulb
in upper right gnome panel. I see both of them on every upgrade, please
attach /var/log/apt/term.log.
This goes for anyone that had this problem.

--
Sincerely Yours,
    John Vivirito

https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito
Linux User# 414246

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

Please, note that I am using Xfce desktop environment, and panel positions may vary. How can a notice be in terminal, if you don't run Firefox in terminal?

Anyway, there is this in the log file (which requires superuser permission to be viewed):
<clip>
Log started: 2008-09-24 09:45:36
(Reading database ... 178700 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace xulrunner-1.9 1.9.0.1+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.3 (using .../xulrunner-1.9_1.9.0.2+build6+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement xulrunner-1.9 ...
Preparing to replace firefox-3.0 3.0.1+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.3 (using .../firefox-3.0_3.0.2+build6+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1_i386.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement firefox-3.0 ...
Preparing to replace firefox 3.0.1+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.3 (using .../firefox_3.0.2+build6+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1_all.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement firefox ...
Setting up xulrunner-1.9 (1.9.0.2+build6+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1) ...

Setting up firefox-3.0 (3.0.2+build6+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1) ...
Please restart all running instances of Firefox-3.0, or you will experience problems.

Setting up firefox (3.0.2+build6+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1) ...
Log ended: 2008-09-24 09:46:04
</clip>

[Michael Vogt (mvo)]

I added a firefox task because its a bug IMO that firefox can not be upgraded without falling over.

As for the update-notifier task, is the bug here that no "lightbulb" was shown ? Or that update-notifier should prompt the user about quiting firefox?

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

I am nowdays getting used to xubuntu 8.10. I am not sure about the lightbulb thing in 8.04 anymore, but I am looking forward to new Firefox updates in 8.10. Firefox should behave better after update or if that is not possible, Firefox should be closed before an update. Note that Firefox update may be automatic depending on update settings in Software Sources.

[Charlie Kravetz (cjkgeek)]

The task for update-notifier is a duplicate of bug 274468.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

browser was not at fault use did not restart browser correctly instead killed it for what ever reason. The bug you stated is not the same as this one

[Jarno Suni (jarnos)]

John Vivirito, I am not sure what do you mean. After an (automatic) update I did not see any notification even if there is one in /var/log/apt/term.log, quitting Firefox did not work (at least by using the menu item) so it had to be killed. Killing and restarting firefox was a workaround.

Actually I reproduced the bug just in conjunction with an automatic update to Firefox 3.5.2 from jaunty-updates.

Bug 274468 may not be the same but fixing it prevents this from happening.

[hackel (hackel)]

This is a really frustrating bug. Basically, Firefox needs to be fixed so that you can update it without affecting a *running* instance of FF, just like every other Linux program. One should only ever need to restart if they want to run the new version that was just installed. It's just bad, bad design that FF goes all to hell when a few of its files are replaced, opening empty windows, search stops working, etc. etc. I would consider this a serious issue, and popping up a little balloon to tell people to restart is a bad hack of a work-around for this problem. There is also a potential for data loss if Firefox does not save the session properly when it is in this half-working state after an update.

[drew212 (mstngdrew212)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. This particular bug has already been reported and is a duplicate of bug 338785, so it is being marked as such. Please look at the other bug report to see if there is any missing information that you can provide, or to see if there is a workaround for the bug. Additionally, any further discussion regarding the bug should occur in the other report. Feel free to continue to report any other bugs you may find.