Closed Bug 391115 Opened 17 years ago Closed 16 years ago

many author's items don't install 'because "install.rdf" is not well formed or does not exist.

Categories

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect)

x86
Windows XP
defect
Not set
normal

Tracking

()

RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

People

(Reporter: jjthaden, Unassigned)

Details

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.6) Gecko/20070725 Firefox/2.0.0.6
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.6) Gecko/20070725 Firefox/2.0.0.6

Firefox detects new versions of extensions, e.g., Customize Google and NoScript, and tries to install them upon Firefox bootup.  Firefox reports a failure: "could not install this item because 'install.rdf' (provided by the item) is not well formed or does not exist."  This happens on too many different add-ins for me to believe it is always their authors' fault.   

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Have Firefox with several extensions added in.
2. Wait a few days until one of their authors updates an add-in
3. Open Firefox
4. See the Extension Manager screen with the update listed.  Approve its update.
5. Watch as Firefox appears to download and update the extension.
6. Watch as Firefox displays the failure notice quoted above. Click it to continue on to Firefox.
7. Next time you open Firefox, watch the same failed attempt to update that add-in.
Actual Results:  
The failure notice appears.  Next time I try to open Firefox, I must go through the same rigmarole.

Expected Results:  
The extension should update and Firefox should open.  On subsequent Firefox openings, no notice of the update should appear. 

If you ask me for a stack trace or something, please include instructions.
Typically, authors don't have invalid install.rdf but this may be a bogus error message caused by a read only extensions directory or possibly due to being unable to write to the temp directory. Could you try with a new profile.

http://www.mozilla.org/support/firefox/profile
It's a firefox bug according to Mossop on the #extdev IRC channel:

<Mossop> jsab: The other good news is that 3.0b5 users will be able to install your extension just fine. This is due to a regression that was introduced to Firefox 3 over the past couple of days and is almost fixed.
<Mossop> jsab: Hopefully the fix will be in the nightlies over the next couple of days. 
(In reply to comment #2)
> It's a firefox bug according to Mossop on the #extdev IRC channel:

This isn't. I was talking about your specific problem, what I was referring to certainly doesn't affect Firefox 2 which this bug report was filed against.
There has been no response here, closing as incomplete. Let us know if you still see issues with the new profile.
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 16 years ago
Resolution: --- → INCOMPLETE
Product: Firefox → Toolkit
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