User profile won't load after upgrade - prompt to create new profile

[schollsky]

Did upgrade to focal fossa from standard Ubuntu 19.10. Existing firefox profile won't load on starting, instead application wants new default profile.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 20.04
Package: firefox 70.0.1+build1-0ubuntu2
Uname: Linux 5.3.9-050309-generic x86_64
AddonCompatCheckDisabled: False
ApportVersion: 2.20.11-0ubuntu9
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: stefan 1861 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: stefan 1861 F.... pulseaudio
BuildID: 20191031000133
Channel: Unavailable
CurrentDesktop: ubuntu:GNOME
Date: Sat Nov 9 14:49:28 2019
DefaultProfileIncompatibleExtensions:
 Deutsch (DE) Language Pack - <email address hidden>
 English (GB) Language Pack - <email address hidden>
 English (South Africa) Language Pack - <email address hidden>
 Default - {972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd}
DefaultProfilePrefErrors: Unexpected character ',' before close parenthesis @ /usr/lib/firefox/omni.ja:greprefs.js:930
DefaultProfilePrefSources: prefs.js
ForcedLayersAccel: False
IfupdownConfig:
 # interfaces(5) file used by ifup(8) and ifdown(8)
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationDate: Installed on 2019-05-02 (190 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 18.04.2 LTS "Bionic Beaver" - Release amd64 (20190210)
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.178.1 dev enp30s0 proto dhcp metric 100
 169.254.0.0/16 dev enp30s0 scope link metric 1000
 192.168.178.0/24 dev enp30s0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.178.44 metric 100
MostRecentCrashID: bp-926e6dc8-5f4b-4cfe-9446-ace131180317
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm-256color
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 XDG_RUNTIME_DIR=<set>
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
Profile1Extensions: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing
Profile1IncompatibleExtensions: Unavailable (corrupt or non-existant compatibility.ini or extensions.sqlite)
Profile1Locales: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing
Profile1PrefErrors: Unexpected character ',' before close parenthesis @ /usr/lib/firefox/omni.ja:greprefs.js:930
Profile1PrefSources: prefs.js
Profile1Themes: extensions.sqlite corrupt or missing
Profiles:
 Profile1 - LastVersion=70.0.1/20191031000133 (In use)
 Profile0 (Default) - LastVersion=70.0.1/20191031091608 (Out of date)
RunningIncompatibleAddons: True
SourcePackage: firefox
SubmittedCrashIDs: bp-926e6dc8-5f4b-4cfe-9446-ace131180317
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to focal on 2019-11-09 (0 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 04/23/2019
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: P5.80
dmi.board.name: AB350M-HDV
dmi.board.vendor: ASRock
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrP5.80:bd04/23/2019:svnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:pvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:rvnASRock:rnAB350M-HDV:rvr:cvnToBeFilledByO.E.M.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.family: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.name: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.sku: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.product.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.sys.vendor: To Be Filled By O.E.M.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

This seems similar to bug 1830096

I observed this when upgrading Firefox for the first time after upgrading Ubuntu from 19.10 to 20.04. I saw no such prompt when upgrading Firefox on Ubuntu 20.04 which had been upgraded from 19.10 several weeks previously and had presumably already seen several Firefox upgrades.

[Dan Watkins (oddbloke)]

From bug 1852790, the issue appears to be that the focal version was built before the eoan version. My current profile's compatibility.ini (from eoan):

[Compatibility]
LastVersion=70.0.1_20191031091608/20191031091608
LastOSABI=Linux_x86_64-gcc3
LastPlatformDir=/usr/lib/firefox
LastAppDir=/usr/lib/firefox/browser

vs. an upgraded profile's compatibility.ini:

[Compatibility]
LastVersion=70.0.1_20191031000133/20191031000133
LastOSABI=Linux_x86_64-gcc3
LastPlatformDir=/usr/lib/firefox
LastAppDir=/usr/lib/firefox/browser

You can see that the created-on-focal profile's LastVersion is about 9 hours older than the created-on-eoan profile's.

[Dan Watkins (oddbloke)]

A workaround which I've just used is to replace LastVersion in your profile's compatibility.ini with the one that the current version of firefox uses (70.0.1_20191031000133/20191031000133).

(I suspect in the short term this could be fixed by a no-change rebuild of firefox.)

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Dan, you're right, the focal version was built before the eoan version. I have uploaded firefox 70.0.1+build1-0ubuntu3 to focal to work around the problem.

[Dan Watkins (oddbloke)]

Thanks Olivier! Do we/you need to consider any process improvements to avoid this happening again in future?

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Dan, yes, something clearly needs to be done to prevent similar problems from happening again with future updates. This was discussed in the upstream bug report https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1553554, but no consensus was reached.

I am considering replicating what the Debian maintainers do, i.e. set MOZ_BUILD_DATE to the timestamp of the last debian/changelog entry (https://salsa.debian.org/mozilla-team/firefox/blob/release/master/debian/upstream.mk#L33). This is not foolproof though, as it will still require making sure that the changelog timestamp is exactly the same for all Ubuntu releases.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

I came up with a more robust solution that involves using the upstream Build ID for all Ubuntu releases: https://bazaar.launchpad.net/~mozillateam/firefox/firefox-beta.focal/revision/1321.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package firefox - 71.0+build5-0ubuntu0.16.04.1

---------------
firefox (71.0+build5-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) xenial; urgency=medium

  * New upstream stable release (71.0+build5)

  * Update test expectation
    - debian/tests/html5test
  * Fix build failures on armhf and s390x with clang 8
    - debian/patches/armhf-clang-no-integrated-as-for-neon.patch
    - debian/patches/s390x-fix-hidden-symbol.patch
  * Temporarily hardcode MOZ_BUILD_DATE to ensure the build ID is strictly less
    than the one for the bionic build already in bionic-updates (LP: #1851936)

 -- Olivier Tilloy <email address hidden> Wed, 11 Dec 2019 21:51:56 +0100

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Not quite released yet, just worked around in the xenial 71.0 update that was just published.
The next major update has a proper fix though.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package firefox - 72.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.19.10.1

---------------
firefox (72.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.19.10.1) eoan; urgency=medium

  * New upstream stable release (72.0.1+build1)

  * Fix creating the source tarball with recent versions of cargo
    - debian/build/create-tarball.py

 -- Olivier Tilloy <email address hidden> Wed, 08 Jan 2020 15:53:48 +0100

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package firefox - 72.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.16.04.1

---------------
firefox (72.0.1+build1-0ubuntu0.16.04.1) xenial; urgency=medium

  * New upstream stable release (72.0.1+build1)

 -- Olivier Tilloy <email address hidden> Wed, 08 Jan 2020 10:33:51 +0100

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Thunderbird appears to be similarly affected, according to some reports.

[Michał Sawicz (saviq)]

The same seems to happen with Thunderbird:

Przygotowywanie do rozpakowania pakietu .../608-thunderbird_1%3a68.4.1+build1-0ubuntu1_amd64.deb ...
Rozpakowywanie pakietu thunderbird (1:68.4.1+build1-0ubuntu1) nad (1:68.4.1+build1-0ubuntu0.19.10.1) ...

And then the dialog pops up.

The compatibility.ini file diff:

--- compatibility.ini.bup 2020-01-17 12:38:36.891947696 +0200
+++ compatibility.ini 2020-01-20 13:44:26.270351824 +0200
@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
 [Compatibility]
-LastVersion=68.4.1_20200110143530/20200110143530
+LastVersion=68.4.1_20200110122930/20200110122930
 LastOSABI=Linux_x86_64-gcc3
 LastPlatformDir=/usr/lib/thunderbird
 LastAppDir=/usr/lib/thunderbird

[Iain Lane (laney)]

Pasting this for SEO:

The error is:

"A newer version of Thunderbird may have made changes to your profile which are no longer compatible with this older version. Use this profile only with that newer version, or create a new profile for this installation of Thunderbird. Creating a new profile requires setting up your accounts, calendars and add-ons again."

I think running with --allow-downgrade is also a workaround, in addition to the edit mentioned in comment #15

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Thanks Michał and Iain for the details. This is indeed the very same problem that I recently fixed in the firefox packages, so I'll replicate the fix for thunderbird.

In the meantime there are thunderbird packages in focal-proposed that were rebuilt after the ones in eoan, so once they migrate to the release pocket (which should happen soon as nothing is blocking) the issue will go away.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Fixed with https://bazaar.launchpad.net/~mozillateam/thunderbird/thunderbird.focal/revision/518.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package thunderbird - 1:68.4.2+build2-0ubuntu1

---------------
thunderbird (1:68.4.2+build2-0ubuntu1) focal; urgency=medium

  * New upstream stable release (68.4.2build2)

  * Use the upstream Build ID, to ensure it is the same across Ubuntu releases
    for a given thunderbird version (LP: #1851936)
    - debian/build/create-tarball.py
    - debian/build/rules.mk
    - debian/config/mozconfig.in

 -- Olivier Tilloy <email address hidden> Fri, 24 Jan 2020 15:05:19 +0100

[hornetster (hornetster)]

I am trying to run both Opensuse Leap 15.1, and Feren OS on the same PC as dual boot.
Am getting this exact issue with Thunderbird - Version is 68.4.1 on both....
Solution?

[hornetster (hornetster)]

Have upgraded both to 68.4.2.
Still get the message occasionally if trying to run from existing link. If I break and remake (ie Pin) link, still get the error??
Thanks.

[Dan Watkins (oddbloke)]

hornetster, this is a bug specifically for Ubuntu, so it's unlikely anyone reading it will be able to help you. I would suggest filing a bug upstream, or perhaps asking a question in Stack Overflow (or similar). Thanks!

[schollsky (schollsky)]

Dear Sirs,

bug reappears with single home directory under dual boot condition with Manjaro. Could this be fixed or do I have to reinstall package and/or config file?

Kind regards

schollsky

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

This would happen if manjaro and your Ubuntu version have two different versions of firefox/thunderbird. There's no easy way out of this, other than separate profile directories, I'm afraid.