Mint 13: Firefox 39.0 crashes right on startup

[Karlchen]

Mint 13 32-bit: Firefox 39.0 crashes right on startup
with the error message printed twice:
" [NPAPI 8734] ###!!! ABORT: Aborting on channel error.: file /build/firefox-ALgUKk/firefox-39.0+build5/ipc/glue/MessageChannel.cpp, line 1597"

This affects the Firefox package Firefox 39.0-build5-0ubuntu0.12.04.1 provided by the Ubuntu Mozilla Security team.

The problematic file in the firefox package seems to be the file libxul.so. This is where the crash actually occurs.

Note:
--------
This crash seems to happen on any 32-bit version of Linux Mint 13.
It does not seem, however, to affect Ubuntu 12.04.x 32-bit, on which Mint 13 32-bit is based.

The file libxul.so installed as part of Firefox 39.0-build5-0ubuntu0.12.04.1 is dated 29-Jun 2015 14:19.
The file libxul.so that comes as part of the genuine Mozilla tarball has got the date 01-Jul-2015 02:49.

Replacing the libxul.so installed through the PPA by the genuine Mozilla file solves the isse, as far as I can test and tell.

For more details, please, see this report in the Linux Mint forum:
http://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=199433 (Mint 13: Firefox 39.0 crashes right on startup)

It would be greatly appreciated if this problem could by investigated and hopefully solved before Firefox 39.0 will be made available on the normal Ubuntu repos, because this is where Mint13, too, like Ubuntu 12.0.4x, fetches most of it software from.
And up to Firefox 38.0, the Ubuntu provided Firefox has always run perfectly fine on Mint 13, too.

---
Requested details:

(1) ~$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Linux Mint 13 Maya
Release: 13
~$ cat /etc/os-release
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="12.04.5 LTS, Precise Pangolin"
ID=ubuntu
ID_LIKE=debian
PRETTY_NAME="Ubuntu precise (12.04.5 LTS)"
VERSION_ID="12.04"
~$

(2) ~$ apt-cache policy firefox
firefox:
  Installiert: 39.0+build5-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
  Kandidat: 39.0+build5-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
  Versionstabelle:
 *** 39.0+build5-0ubuntu0.12.04.1 0
        500 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa/ubuntu/ precise/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     38.0+build3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main i386 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security/main i386 Packages
     11.0+build1-0ubuntu4 0
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main i386 Packages

(3) Firefox 39 should start up as Firefox 38 did

(4) Yet, instead it crashes on startup
      all you can do is decide to send a bug report or not. No chance of using Firefox 39.

[heiko (heikosch)]

This bug affects me as well. In my case FF is starting but all actions like opening a new tab or requesting a web address are refering to an app crash.
Solution up to now: Downgrading to FF 38.0

--
Linux Mint 13 - 32Bit, kernel 3.2.0-87, nvidia 304 graphics driver

[israel (maciejrobert)]

The same on Linux Mint 17.2 Rafaela, FF 39 :(

[Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)]

Please stop installing packages from http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa/ubuntu/!

[Karlchen (karlchen)]

Hello, Chris.
I know which risk I run when installing Firefox and Thunderbird from the Ubuntu Mozilla Security PPA, http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa/ubuntu. ;-)
Today this PPA brought me firefox 39.0+build5-0ubuntu0.12.04.2.
On Mint13 32-bit xfce, based on Ubuntu 12.04.5 32-bit, the reported problem seems to have been solved.
Firefox 39.0 started up without crashing.
Thanks a lot for all your time and efforts.
(And I know this is only a duplicate of report https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/1471949 )
Cheers,
Karl

[israel (maciejrobert)]

Hello,

If you are facing simillar issue on Mint 17.2 and FF 39, for me solution was to compile FF 40 from scratches. I'm not sure why but FF40 from packages was not working :(

# if you didn't compile anything before
sudo apt-get install build-essential fakeroot devscripts

sudo apt-add-repository ppa:mozillateam/firefox-next
sudo apt-get update

sudo apt-get build-dep fdupes

# unfortunately on my side FF was still asking to install gstreamer, so finally I've choose everything from gstreamer*dev in the name
sudo apt-get install libgstreamer-plugins-bad0.10-dev libgstreamer0.10-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base1.0-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev libgstreamer0.10-dev libgstreamer1.0-dev libgstreamer0.10-dev libgstreamer-plugins-bad0.10-dev libgstreamer-plugins-bad1.0-dev libgstreamer0.10-cil-dev

# make that and wait about hour ;)
sudo apt-get -b source firefox

# remember to choose correct locale
sudo dpkg --install firefox_40.0\~b3+build1-0ubuntu0.14.04.1_amd64.deb firefox-globalmenu_40.0\~b3+build1-0ubuntu0.14.04.1_amd64.deb firefox-mozsymbols_40.0\~b3+build1-0ubuntu0.14.04.1_amd64.deb firefox-locale-[YOUR_LOCALE]_40.0\~b3+build1-0ubuntu0.14.04.1_amd64.deb

I've test it on two different PCs with Mint 17.2 and crash issue gone.

Regards

[surfmlot (surfmlot-yahoo)]

I happens to me as well with XUbuntu .

Randomly crash with message: ABORT: Aborting on channel error.: file /build/firefox-tTIB1h/firefox-39.0+build5/ipc/glue/MessageChannel.cpp, line 1597

> lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 14.10
Release: 14.10
> apt-cache policy firefox
firefox:
  Installed: 39.0+build5-0ubuntu0.14.10.1
  Candidate: 39.0+build5-0ubuntu0.14.10.1
  Version table:
 *** 39.0+build5-0ubuntu0.14.10.1 0
        500 http://ftp.uni-stuttgart.de/ubuntu/ utopic-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://ftp.uni-stuttgart.de/ubuntu/ utopic-security/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     33.0+build2-0ubuntu0.14.10.1 0
        500 http://ftp.uni-stuttgart.de/ubuntu/ utopic/main amd64 Packages