235838 - Installing extensions crashes the browser - PPC Linux

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 269568

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Misty De Meo]

User-Agent:       
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux ppc; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040225 Firefox/0.8

I've recently upgraded to Firefox 0.8, but I've noticed curiously that I'm
unable to install any extensions, even those which have been fixed for 0.8. I
can reproduce this in MacOS X, using the official build from mozilla.org (build
ID 20040206), as well as in PowerPC Linux (Debian) using the official Debian
package and my own compilation. Whenever I attempt to install an extension, it
provides the normal "cancel or install" window but proceeds to crash the entire
browser if I click Install. This occurs with any extension I've tried. I've
tried both with carrying over an old profile and making a new one; it makes no
difference. I'm using a G4 PPC processor.
Additionally, trying to add a new search engine doesn't work in PPC Linux,
although it does work in MacOS.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. Click on an extension XPI link.
2. Click the "install" button.
3. Watch the browser crash and burn.
Actual Results:  
All browser windows shut instantaneously, without any error messages except the
"This application has unexpectedly quit" message.

Expected Results:  
The software should have installed the extension and, presumeably, should not
have crashed.

Comment 1

[Wayne Woods]

Hi Misty, thanks for your report. :) The Mac OS X part of this bug is the same
as bug 233574. While that bug initially listed a problem with one particular
extension, it soon became obvious that the problem was with all of them.

The PPC Linux part of this bug is the same as bug 234489. However, as you've
already suggested, it's likely these two bugs are one and the same anyway.

As such, I'll resolve this as a duplicate of bug 233574.

cheers

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 233574 ***

Comment 2

[Chris Dolan]

Bug 233574 turned out to be a MacOS X 10.2 vs. 10.3 compatibility issue, so this
is not in fact a duplicate of that bug.  The PPC Linux issue seems to be not
directly related.  (note, I am the reporter of bug 233574).

Comment 3

[Wayne Woods]

The Linux part of this bug sounds like it's the same as bug 234489, however that
bug was reported as fixed in Firefox 0.9.1 about a month ago. Can you guys
confirm this? I wonder if it's been fixed on the 0.9.x branch, but not on the trunk?

Anyway, I'm adjusting the Summary to remove the Mac part, since it's already
fixed and this bug now deals solely with PPC Linux.

Comment 4

[Jungshik Shin]

Misty, is the problem still present in the latest nightly? If so, can you upload
the stack backtrace? 

Comment 5

[Misty De Meo]

I've tried the latest CVS code, but it still doesn't work. It no longer crashes;
instead, clicking on links to extensions simply has no visible effect. Dragging
extensions to the Extensions window also doesn't do anything. It does give a few
errors in the terminal, which may be helpful:

On opening the browser,
Extension System Warning: failed to remove chrome.rdf/overlay info because:
[Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520006
(NS_ERROR_FILE_TARGET_DOES_NOT_EXIST) [nsIFile.remove]"  nsresult: "0x80520006
(NS_ERROR_FILE_TARGET_DOES_NOT_EXIST)"  location: "JS frame ::
file:///usr/local/lib/firefox-0.9.1+/components/nsExtensionManager.js ::
ensureExtensionsFiles :: line 240"  data: no]

On dragging extensions:
(Gecko:5359): Gtk-CRITICAL **: file gtkdnd.c: line 643 (gtk_drag_get_data):
assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed

Comment 6

[Wayne Woods]

Out of interest, could you please check if you have Javascript enabled?

Comment 7

[Misty De Meo]

JavaScript is enabled.
It may be related to note that the new nightly claims that it cannot save the
preferences file.

Comment 8

[Wayne Woods]

What you now describe (the lack of response, rather than crashing) seems to be a
cross-platform problem. For examples of other reports, see bug 244704, bug
247551 and bug 246113.

Some users have suggested checking that javascript is enabled. Others have
suggested checking that "Allow web sites to install software" in Advanced
Options is checked (or uncheck it then recheck it). Neither of these solved the
problem for me on OS X or Win XP.

I can't seem to find any specific reference to this problem by anyone "official"
who might know why it's broken. The closest I can find is a couple of bugs
relating to allowing users to whitelist certain sites for installing themes and
extensions (see bug 241705). I don't know for certain that it's related to this
bug, but at the moment I'm guessing that they've all been blocked by default for
security reasons and we'll have to wait for a solution.

Comment 9

[Nicola Ferralis]

Is bug 269568 related to this one?

Comment 10

[Adam Guthrie]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 269568 ***