107287 - (QFA)Talkback error: Can't initialize.

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(SeaMonkey :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Jim Avera]

This happens every time with Build ID 2001102806 on Linux:

% mozilla
/usr/local/mozilla/run-mozilla.sh /usr/local/mozilla/mozilla-bin
MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME=/usr/local/mozilla
  LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/mozilla:/usr/local/mozilla/plugins
     LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/mozilla:/usr/local/mozilla/components
       SHLIB_PATH=/usr/local/mozilla
          LIBPATH=/usr/local/mozilla
       ADDON_PATH=/usr/local/mozilla
      MOZ_PROGRAM=/usr/local/mozilla/mozilla-bin
      MOZ_TOOLKIT=
        moz_debug=0
     moz_debugger=
(QFA)Talkback error: Can't initialize.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Otherwise mozilla seems to work ok.

Comment 1

[Shiva Thirumazhusai]

I don't see any problem. Please try today's build and re-open this if it still
happens.

Comment 2

[Jim Avera]

Build 2001102910 for Linux does not issue *any* messages about Talkback
upon startup (either that it started or that it didn't).

Is there some other way to tell if Talkback was started?

Or, maybe Talkback didn't even attempt to start because of bug 107547
(an XML error message which always appears at startup with this
build, something about mailNavigatorOverlay.xul...)

Comment 3

[Jan Carpenter]

I installed mozilla build 2001-10-29-09 (which has a master.ini of 2001102910) I
couldn't find a build with the date mentioned.  I forced a crash in the 10-29-09
build and was able to submit a talkback report(37420089)without any trouble. 
Where did you get the build you installed, Jim?  

Comment 4

[Jim Avera]

I just downloaded
http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla/nightly/latest/mozilla-i686-pc-linux-gnu-installer.tar.gz
and ran it to install mozilla, and got Build ID 2001102910.
md5sum: 941b3849db9a45b1b5111a97582abcca  mozilla-bin

I didn't say Talkback was not starting, only that there is no
longer any message on stdout/stderr mentioning Talkback.
Sorry for any confusion.

Here's my terminal window output:

> mozilla
/usr/local/mozilla/run-mozilla.sh /usr/local/mozilla/mozilla-bin
MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME=/usr/local/mozilla
  LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/mozilla:/usr/local/mozilla/plugins
     LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/mozilla:/usr/local/mozilla/components
       SHLIB_PATH=/usr/local/mozilla
          LIBPATH=/usr/local/mozilla
       ADDON_PATH=/usr/local/mozilla
      MOZ_PROGRAM=/usr/local/mozilla/mozilla-bin
      MOZ_TOOLKIT=
        moz_debug=0
     moz_debugger=
XML Error in file 'chrome://messenger/content/mailNavigatorOverlay.xul', Line
Number: 41, Col Number: 55, Description: not well-formed
Source Line:       var shouldShowSendPage = !gContextMenu.onImage &&
!gContextMenu.onLink && !gContextMenu.onTextInput;
(that's all)

Comment 5

[Jim Avera]

Re-opening because the problem re-appeared in Linux build 2001103108 :

  (QFA)Talkback error: Can't initialize.

appears when mozilla is started. 

Comment 6

[Christopher Curzio]

Talkback does not initialize for me either. #2001102608

$ /usr/local/mozilla/mozilla
/usr/local/mozilla/run-mozilla.sh /usr/local/mozilla/mozilla-bin
MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME=/usr/local/mozilla
  LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/mozilla:/usr/local/mozilla/plugins
     LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/mozilla:/usr/local/mozilla/components
       SHLIB_PATH=/usr/local/mozilla
          LIBPATH=/usr/local/mozilla
       ADDON_PATH=/usr/local/mozilla
      MOZ_PROGRAM=/usr/local/mozilla/mozilla-bin
      MOZ_TOOLKIT=
        moz_debug=0
     moz_debugger=
(QFA)Talkback error: Can't initialize.

Comment 7

[greer]

Reporters: which flavor of Linux are you using?

Comment 8

[Jim Avera]

I'm running SuSE 7.2 for Intel, kernel 2.4.7-SMP, libc.so.6

Comment 9

[Jim Avera]

The error message is gone now in Linux build 2001110612.

Comment 10

[Jim Avera]

The problem is back once again in Linux build 2001111314:
(QFA)Talkback error: Can't initialize.

*** NEW INFO *** 
     The problem only happens when running as a regular user,
     but not when running as root (at least no such error
     message appears when starting mozilla as root).

I installed mozilla using the nightly build installer, 
running as root (some bug in the install process 
prevents installing as an ordinary user).

? Does talkback need to write into the mozilla install directory
  (which is not world-writable)?

Comment 11

[Jim Avera]

The Talkback init error goes away if $HOME/.fullcircle is removed!

I will attach a tar archive of the .fullcircle.

Verifiers, would you please move aside your own .fullcircle
and install this one to see if you can see the same problem?
Thanks.

Comment 12

[Jim Avera]

Attachment: tar archive of .fullcircle/ which causes the Talkback init error

Comment 13

[Christopher Curzio]

I removed ~/.fullcircle and started mozilla, and I still get:

(QFA)Talkback error: Can't initialize.

I'm running Slackware Linux 8.0.0 - Mozilla build 2001111408

Comment 14

[Christopher Curzio]

Okay, I fixed it. Had to make sure talkback was moved back into components/

Thanks.

Comment 15

[Christopher Aillon (sabbatical, not receiving bugmail)]

Jim Avera do you still see this problem on recent nightlies?

Comment 16

[Jim Avera]

Ah. The problem is that the mozilla-installer process creates a file 
under $HOME named

  $HOME/.fullcircle/NetscapeMozillaTrunkLinuxIntel<buildid>/permdata.box

mozilla-installer was run as root via the sudo command, which leaves environment
variables like HOME unchanged.  Therefore this file was created
in the ordinary user's home dir but owned by root, and so could not be removed
or modified by a mozilla process run by the ordinary user.

Talkback starts okay if the permdata.box file is removed or ownership
changed back to the ordinary user in whose home directory it exists.
And, of course, if mozilla-installer is run without sudo.

---

mozilla-installer should not reference $HOME or any user-specific data,
because the user who installs mozilla is not in general the user
who will run it (or run talkback).  Multiple users may run mozilla,
so anything which the installer needs to save should be saved in the
product install directory, not in the installing user's private files.

So, talkback should get the build-id or whatever it needs
from the product installation directory.

Comment 17

[Christopher Aillon (sabbatical, not receiving bugmail)]

->Installer

Comment 18

[Henrik Gemal]

I'm only QA on Windows...

Comment 19

[Chris Underhill]

Confirming comment 16. Had this problem for several months up to and including
build 2002-01-11-08-trunk (Linux), but after running chown -R <me> in my
${HOME}/.fullcircle directory, which was owned by root, it all seems fine -
mozilla was installed with sudo.

Comment 20

[Andrew Schultz]

bug 57089 is fixed.  this should no longer be a problem.