[MASTER] Updates while firefox is running cause various problems until restart

Bug #338785 reported by Rilium
506
This bug affects 50 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
Mozilla Firefox
New
Undecided
Unassigned
firefox (Ubuntu)
Triaged
High
Unassigned
firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu)
Won't Fix
High
Unassigned
thunderbird (Ubuntu)
Triaged
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Workaround: if you see this, ensure that you properly restarted firefox. unfortunately only way to be sure is to re-login or restart your system

===
Summary:
After updating firefox to 3.0.7, i'd got assertion failed on startup, and later if i try to access any website
Assertion is showed in GUI window.
Error text:
ASSERT: *** Search: _installLocation: engine has no file!
Stack Trace:
0:ENSURE_WARN(false,_installLocation: engine has no file!,2147500037)
1:()
2:()
3:()
4:epsGetAttr([object Object],hidden)
5:()
6:()
7:currentEngine()
8:get_currentEngine()
9:updateDisplay()
10:init()
11:([object XULElement],6)

LANG=C apt-cache policy firefox-3.0
firefox-3.0:
  Installed: 3.0.6+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1
  Candidate: 3.0.7+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1
  Version table:
     3.0.7+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1 0
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/main Packages
 *** 3.0.6+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1 0
        500 http://ru.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.0.3+nobinonly-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://ru.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages

Note: At this moment i were downgraded firefox version, installed were: 3.0.7+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1

WORKAROUND (If Firefox won't quit):
1. killall -HUP firefox
or
2. restart your computer

Tags: metabug
Revision history for this message
In , Jruderman (jruderman) wrote :

Can you try with a clean profile? If you don't see the bug while using a clean profile, please try to figure out what extension(s) or other settings are necessary to trigger the bug.

Revision history for this message
In , Ed-membled (ed-membled) wrote :

I believe this bug is triggered by upgrading Firefox when it is running. I installed Fedora Linux 9, which includes Firefox 3.0b5, and started Firefox and opened some tabs and web pages. Then I ran the Fedora 'yum update' command which upgraded Firefox to 3.0 using the rpm package system. After that, trying to use Firefox kept triggering assertion failures when entering text in the search box or switching between tabs. The assertion failures are similar to that at the top of this bug report. Here are two of them:

ASSERT: *** Search: _installLocation: engine has no file!
Stack Trace:
0:ENSURE_WARN(false,_installLocation: engine has no file!,2147500037)
1:()
2:()
3:()
4:epsGetAttr([object Object],alias)
5:()
6:SRCH_SVC_getEngineByAlias(https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=445158)
7:getEngineByAlias(https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=445158)
8:getShortcutOrURI(https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=445158,[object Object])
9:canonizeUrl([object KeyboardEvent],[object Object])
10:handleURLBarCommand([object KeyboardEvent])
11:anonymous(textentered,[object KeyboardEvent])
12:fireEvent(textentered,[object KeyboardEvent])
13:onTextEntered()
14:handleEnter(false)
15:onKeyPress([object KeyboardEvent])
16:onxblkeypress([object KeyboardEvent])

ASSERT: *** Search: _installLocation: engine has no file!
Stack Trace:
0:ENSURE_WARN(false,_installLocation: engine has no file!,2147500037)
1:()
2:()
3:()
4:epsGetAttr([object Object],hidden)
5:()
6:()
7:currentEngine()
8:get_currentEngine()
9:doSearch(firefox bugzilla,current)
10:handleSearchCommand([object KeyboardEvent])
11:onTextEntered()
12:handleEnter(false)
13:onKeyPress([object KeyboardEvent])
14:onxblkeypress([object KeyboardEvent])

The only addons I have installed are the various language packs that ship with Fedora Linux 9.

It appears from the message that some file Firefox uses has been removed as part of the upgrade. If this is the case, then perhaps assertion failures should not be used as the mechanism to report missing files (after all a file can go away for all sorts of reasons, and an assertion failure indicates a completely 'impossible' condition). Instead if a file is missing the user could be prompted to restart Firefox.

Revision history for this message
In , Mak77 (mak77) wrote :

is this still reproducible?
Looks like a problem in the Fedora upgrade package though...

Revision history for this message
In , Ed-membled (ed-membled) wrote :

I have seen this several times since reporting the bug. It does seem to occur when Firefox is upgraded while it's still running.

I haven't tried to reproduce it, but in general, surely assertions should not be used to check for missing files? An assertion should be an impossible, 'cannot happen' condition based on program logic, not something that checks the state of the world external to the program. After all filesystems can be unmounted, files can be deleted, and while this is certainly an error condition it is not an impossible condition.

I suppose you could talk to the Fedora guys about what is the supported way to upgrade Firefox, and if the user should be prompted to restart the browser when a new rpm package is pushed out.

Revision history for this message
Rilium (rilium) wrote : Update to 3.0.7 breaks firefox

After updating firefox to 3.0.7, i'd got assertion failed on startup, and later if i try to access any website
Assertion is showed in GUI window.
Error text:
ASSERT: *** Search: _installLocation: engine has no file!
Stack Trace:
0:ENSURE_WARN(false,_installLocation: engine has no file!,2147500037)
1:()
2:()
3:()
4:epsGetAttr([object Object],hidden)
5:()
6:()
7:currentEngine()
8:get_currentEngine()
9:updateDisplay()
10:init()
11:([object XULElement],6)

LANG=C apt-cache policy firefox-3.0
firefox-3.0:
  Installed: 3.0.6+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1
  Candidate: 3.0.7+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1
  Version table:
     3.0.7+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1 0
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/main Packages
 *** 3.0.6+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1 0
        500 http://ru.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.0.3+nobinonly-0ubuntu2 0
        500 http://ru.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages

Note: At this moment i were downgraded firefox version, installed were: 3.0.7+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1

Revision history for this message
Lee Boynton (lboynton) wrote :

Did you restart Firefox after updating?

Revision history for this message
Rilium (rilium) wrote :

Yes, i did.
At this moment, this bug doesn't affects me, upgrade and full reboot of my computer helped to get it work.
I assume, it were happened, becouse other firefox copy has been started in background that downloaded files (this behavior is achieved with extra addition to firefox), but i'm not sure about it.
Anyway, i think i t will be better to avoid such thing's during updates of system. It really bad when updates are run in backgorud, and such errors halt your work.

If any more information is nessary, feel free to ask me for it.

Revision history for this message
Tom Metro (tmetro+ubuntu) wrote :

This is a dupe of Bug #299393. I'd mark it as such, but apparently I don't have adequate privileges to do that, given that several other bugs are marked as duplicates of this one.

Revision history for this message
In , John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

Can someone please mark this as a duplicate of bug #457434.

Revision history for this message
In , Shawn Wilsher (sdwilsh) wrote :

*** Bug 457434 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Revision history for this message
Tom Metro (tmetro+ubuntu) wrote : Re: Update to 3.0.7 breaks firefox

Added link to upstream bug.

To summarize the upstream ticket, the problem is a side effect of the version upgrade process. Restarting FF will work around the problem. I'd infer from that, that the problem lies in the packaging, and not with the upstream project.

One of the duplicate tickets here contains a developer comment stating that this isn't an easy problem to resolve.

Although the current upgrade process does include a user notification that a FF restart is required, maybe a stop-gap solution would be to make that notification more forceful and intrusive, prompting the user to restart FF immediately before continuing to use it.

Changed in firefox:
status: Unknown → New
Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

I asked them to mark
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=427028
as a duplicate of the bug we have tracking.

Changed in firefox-3.0:
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote : Re: [MASTER] Update to Firefox causes errors

Update title to better fit it and hope to catch all this bug to this one.

Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

Changed due to upstream dulicates

Changed in firefox:
status: New → Unknown
Changed in firefox:
status: Unknown → New
Revision history for this message
Zoubidoo (zoubidoo) wrote :

I too have observed this problem several times. For me, the problems occurs at every firefox upgrade.
It looks like a packaging problem.

When firefox is upgraded with apt-get, a firefox restart is required. But *between* the upgrade and the (firefox) restart, firefox behaves abnormally. It is not always practical to restart firefox immediately, e.g. the user might be writing an email or filling in a form. Errors include: assertion failed when a URL is entered in the URL bar, right click not giving context-sensitive menus (e.g. save image when over an image). Expected behaviour: Firefox should continue to work normally.

For further details see my bug report:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox/+bug/365434

Revision history for this message
Bob Harvey (bobharvey) wrote :

This happened to me after accepting today's update, and restarting firefox has not helped.

What is more both help-about and edit-preferences produce an empty window of size zero. I get a tiny border of zero width and small height, and when stretched to a reasonable size it has no contents.

Revision history for this message
Bob Harvey (bobharvey) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Bob Harvey (bobharvey) wrote :
Revision history for this message
In , Alexander Sack (asac) wrote :

lets use this as the main bug to track progress on firefox integrating with packaging system. This probably will take some time, so don't expect a fix to happen anytime soon.

To workaround you have to restart all firefox instances; unfortunatly only way for users to be sure that you really restarted firefox is to relogin or even reboot.

See ubuntu bug: https://bugs.edge.launchpad.net/bugs/338785

Revision history for this message
Bob Harvey (bobharvey) wrote : Re: [MASTER] Update to Firefox causes errors

Further to the above report, running killall firefox and restarting did not resolve either issue, but rebooting the machine appears to have done so.

help - about now shows 'version version 3.0.13 Mozilla firefox for Ubuntu canonical - 1.0' and the user agent string is 'Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-GB; rv:1.9.0.13) Gecko/2009080315 Ubuntu/9.04 (jaunty) Firefox/3.0.13'

Revision history for this message
Martyn Young (martyn-young) wrote : AUTO: Martyn Young is out of the office. (returning 13/08/2009)

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Note: This is an automated response to your message "[Bug 338785] Re:
[MASTER] Update to Firefox causes errors" sent on 8/9/09 10:11:09 PM.

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Alexander Sack (asac)
description: updated
Changed in firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu):
importance: Undecided → High
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Revision history for this message
In , Robert-bugzilla (robert-bugzilla) wrote :

Application update is for the Mozilla application update component and not any distro's packaging component. Moving it back to the previous component

Changed in firefox:
status: New → Confirmed
Revision history for this message
Mark (mhginsberg-gmail) wrote : Re: [Bug 338785] Re: [MASTER] Update to Firefox causes errors

Bob,

Try an update to Firefox 3.5 (aka Shiretoko). It has more features and much
faster. I have been running it without problems on Ubuntu 9.04.

Mark

On Sun, Aug 9, 2009 at 3:11 AM, Bob Harvey <email address hidden> wrote:

> This happened to me after accepting today's update, and restarting
> firefox has not helped.
>
> What is more both help-about and edit-preferences produce an empty
> window of size zero. I get a tiny border of zero width and small
> height, and when stretched to a reasonable size it has no contents.
>
> ** Attachment added: "screenshot of assertion"
> http://launchpadlibrarian.net/30076964/Screenshot-Assertion%20Failed.png
>
> --
> [MASTER] Update to Firefox causes errors
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/338785
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of a duplicate bug.
>
> Status in The Mozilla Firefox Browser: New
> Status in “firefox-3.0” package in Ubuntu: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> After updating firefox to 3.0.7, i'd got assertion failed on startup, and
> later if i try to access any website
> Assertion is showed in GUI window.
> Error text:
> ASSERT: *** Search: _installLocation: engine has no file!
> Stack Trace:
> 0:ENSURE_WARN(false,_installLocation: engine has no file!,2147500037)
> 1:()
> 2:()
> 3:()
> 4:epsGetAttr([object Object],hidden)
> 5:()
> 6:()
> 7:currentEngine()
> 8:get_currentEngine()
> 9:updateDisplay()
> 10:init()
> 11:([object XULElement],6)
>
>
>
> LANG=C apt-cache policy firefox-3.0
> firefox-3.0:
> Installed: 3.0.6+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1
> Candidate: 3.0.7+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1
> Version table:
> 3.0.7+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1 0
> 500 http://security.ubuntu.com intrepid-security/main Packages
> *** 3.0.6+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1 0
> 500 http://ru.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid-updates/main Packages
> 100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
> 3.0.3+nobinonly-0ubuntu2 0
> 500 http://ru.archive.ubuntu.com intrepid/main Packages
>
> Note: At this moment i were downgraded firefox version, installed were:
> 3.0.7+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.10.1
>

--
Mark Ginsberg
Phone 858-822-6432
Fax 858-822-6458

Revision history for this message
In , Hskupin (hskupin) wrote :

*** Bug 466278 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Revision history for this message
In , Hskupin (hskupin) wrote :

As given by bug 466278 this happens when a search engine file has been removed/renamed while Firefox is running. As stated by Gavin it's a bug in the search service.

Revision history for this message
In , Hskupin (hskupin) wrote :

*** Bug 470193 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Revision history for this message
In , Hskupin (hskupin) wrote :

*** Bug 438264 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Revision history for this message
In , Hskupin (hskupin) wrote :

*** Bug 448120 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Revision history for this message
In , Hskupin (hskupin) wrote :

*** Bug 467099 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Revision history for this message
In , Hskupin (hskupin) wrote :

*** Bug 514417 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

Alexander Sack (asac)
summary: - [MASTER] Update to Firefox causes errors
+ [MASTER] Updates while firefox is running cause various problems until
+ restart
Micah Gersten (micahg)
tags: added: metabug
Alexander Sack (asac)
Changed in firefox-3.5 (Ubuntu):
status: New → Triaged
importance: Undecided → High
Micah Gersten (micahg)
description: updated
Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

Sorry but Firefox-3.0 has reached EOL and will not get this fix.

Changed in firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Won't Fix
Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

they decided to release 3.0.18 in Feb

Changed in firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu):
status: Won't Fix → Triaged
Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

Closing as 3.0 under a supported Ubuntu release will be updated to latest Firefox from now on.

Changed in firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Won't Fix
Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

We no longer use versioned releases

affects: firefox-3.5 (Ubuntu) → firefox (Ubuntu)
Revision history for this message
John Vivirito (gnomefreak) wrote :

I'm wondering if this bug title should be more accurate. It says ....various problems until restart.
So far from what i see its more of the assertion errors.
I asked a user on bug #231679 if this was the same as his bug he said no because he wasn't getting errors. Maybe we should retitle this to include the assertion error

Changed in firefox (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Confirmed
Changed in firefox (Ubuntu):
status: Confirmed → Triaged
Changed in firefox (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson)
Changed in firefox:
importance: Unknown → Wishlist
Revision history for this message
era (era) wrote :

Added a task for Thunderbird, too. The symptoms for Thunderbird are somewhat different; perhaps it should be a separate bug. Also xulrunner (and anything using xulrunner) is probably affected, too.

Martin Pitt (pitti)
Changed in firefox (Ubuntu):
assignee: Chris Coulson (chrisccoulson) → nobody
Bcyboko (bcyboko)
Changed in thunderbird (Ubuntu):
status: New → Incomplete
Changed in firefox:
importance: Wishlist → Undecided
status: Confirmed → New
Changed in firefox (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Fix Committed
Changed in thunderbird (Ubuntu):
status: Incomplete → Opinion
status: Opinion → Fix Committed
Changed in firefox (Ubuntu):
assignee: nobody → Hemanathagiribabu (giribabuvpy)
Changed in firefox (Ubuntu):
status: Fix Committed → Triaged
Changed in thunderbird (Ubuntu):
status: Fix Committed → Triaged
Changed in firefox (Ubuntu):
assignee: Hemanathagiribabu (giribabuvpy) → nobody
Changed in firefox (Ubuntu):
status: Triaged → Fix Committed
Revision history for this message
papukaija (papukaija) wrote :

@bug-control: Please set this bug back to triaged. Thanks.

@celerino: This bug isn't fixed. Please don't change the bug status unless it's really fixed upstream. Thanks.

Changed in firefox (Ubuntu):
status: Fix Committed → Triaged
Revision history for this message
Erkin Alp Güney (erkinalp9035) wrote :

Same in Quantum series.

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