186493 - mozilla creating bad profiles (preferences file), in effect causing you to lose all saved settings next time you load up mozilla

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 193638

(SeaMonkey :: Preferences, defect)

Description

[Don Nguyen]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.2) Gecko/20021203
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.2.1) Gecko/20021130

This is happening on Mozilla 1.2.1 on my Windows XP machine.  I'm not sure how
the problem is exactly created but it has happened to me several times.  What
happens is, several times, right after I choose my profile to be loaded, and the
while it's loading the profile I get an error saying there is something wrong
with my profile and asking me to contact my administrator.  It also gives the
offending line in the settings file.  In this case it was line 83.  Below is
what is in my prefs.js file starting with line 83:

user_pref("timebomb.first_launch_time", "1040541697161000");
user_pref("wallet.caveat", true);
7161000");
user_pref("wallet.caveat", true);

Although the browser complains about line 83, it looks like the problem is
actually 2 lines after that on line 85.  '7161000");' was the error reported by
the browser as something about the line not being terminated correctly.  This
type of corruption has happened to me several times and I'm not sure where it's
coming from.  The last thing I remember doing was setting up my mail preferences.  

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1.  set up settings and then exit
2.  load the profile next time you start

I'm not sure exactly what is causing this corruption of the preferences file. 
It's very annoying and takes a while to reproduce so I haven't tried to
reproduce it on purpose.  My quick fix right now is to remove that offending
line in prefs.js.  I don't know what's causing this corruption and I don't know
when it will happen again but it has happened several times causing me to lose
all my settings/preferences.

Actual Results:  
Get a configuration error and all preferences are lost.  Also I am unable to
save new preferences.

Comment 1

[Don Nguyen]

This happened again just right after I fixed my configuration file after
removing the offending line.  Here is the actual error dialog message:

An error occurred reading the startup configuration file.  Please contact your
administrator.

line 79:  SyntaxError: unterminiated string literal.  592183775000");


Here are lines 79-(end of file) in my prefs.js:

user_pref("timebomb.first_launch_time", "1040592183775000");
user_pref("wallet.caveat", true);
592183775000");
user_pref("wallet.caveat", true);

Again, it looks like what happened is that part of line 79 is copied into line
81 (two lines after it).  I don't know why this is happening.

Comment 2

[Bharat]

Reporter, do you still see this problem with the latest nightly? If not, this
bug has probably been fixed and can be closed. Thanks.

Comment 3

[Christopher Wanko]

Bug seems to be present in Mozilla 1.7a for me, using WinXP Pro, and logged in
as administrator.

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7a) Gecko/20031219

I will switch back to Mozilla 16.b or 1.5 and see if it regresses.

Comment 4

[Corey Cox]

Christopher can you give steps to reproduce?  I'm afraid the current steps seem
a little vague to me...  

Comment 5

[OstGote!]

IMHO this is a dupe of Bug 193638 "corrupt or lost pref.js / startup configuration
error". Try the workarounds mentioned in that bug report.

Comment 6

[Asa Dotzler [:asa]]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 193638 ***