249375 - Install error when updating from 1.6 to 1.7 or 1.8 Alpha 1

Status: VERIFIED INVALID

(SeaMonkey :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Joachim Ramlow]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; WinNT4.0; de-AT; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; WinNT4.0; de-AT; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040113

After unzipping the downloaded binaries 1.7 or 1.8 Alpha 1 and overwriting the
mozilla directory with them mozilla will not start. After showing the mozilla
picture 1.7 (or 1.8) an error message comes twice and mozilla will be finished.
This is the error message : < Der Prozedureinstiegspunkt
"?Rebind@nsDependentCString@QAEXPBD@Z" konnte nicht gefunden werden. > So I must
overwrite the mozilla directory with the mozilla 1.6 (saved before) to send this
message.

Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1.
2.
3.

Comment 1

[Joachim Ramlow]

Attachment: screenshot from error message after starting mozilla 1.7

this error message comes always twice after starting mozilla 1.7. When clicking
okay the second time mozilla finishes.

Comment 2

[OstGote!]

English error message:

The procedure entry point ?Rebind@nsDependentCString@QAEXPBD@Z could not be
located in the dynamic link library xpcom.dll.

Comment 3

[Andreas Kunz]

Joachim: you should better install into an empty directory. Does it work if you
make a clean install?

Comment 4

[Andreas Kunz]

Joachim:
Oh, just recognized you extracted the zip version over an existing installation!
You must not do this because Mozilla this way (as opposed to using the installer
version) has no chance to delete old files that interfere with the new version.

Please delete the contents of the directory before unzipping a new version or
unzip into a new directory! (You can have various versions of Mozilla at the
same time with no problems, just have them in different directories.)

-> INVALID

Comment 5

[Stefan Borggraefe]

Or just use the installer instead of a .zip build. It can delete the
incompatible files from the old version automatically.

Comment 6

[Joachim Ramlow]

Answer to comments #3 to #5 :

If I extract the binary into a new directory, then I will lost all my
preferences. The same occurs if I use the installer package with or without
using the old directory.

In the past I used the binaries, extracted them into a new directory and
overwrote with them the old mozilla directory. Doing so I never got an error
message and never I lost my preferences. So I did it with 1.7. And I'm shure (I
checked it) that the xpcom.dll was overwritten by the newer one. But this time
the error message occures. 

For the moment I have solved the problem using the installer package and
restoring my preferences. This includes relaoding the preference toolbar and the
tab extensiones. But for the future it would be nice I could update without the
need to reconfig all.

Thanks, Joachim

Comment 7

[Andreas Kunz]

(In reply to comment #6)
> If I extract the binary into a new directory, then I will lost all my
> preferences.

No! Your preferences are saved separately (see the release notes for where
exactly) and used by every Mozilla version you run. They are not in the Program
directory!
If you are still sure you loose your preferences, it's a different problem and
in no way a reason to make "dirty" installs over old versions.

> For the moment I have solved the problem using the installer package and
> restoring my preferences. This includes relaoding the preference toolbar and the
> tab extensiones.

Well, extensions are mostly installed into the "plugins" folder in the Mozilla
program directory. So if you delete that directory before updating, they are of
course removed and you have to reinstall them. But that's not a bad thing
because older extensions often are incompatible with new Mozilla versions and
can cause crashes etc.
So you should install new extension versions anyway after updating Mozilla.
And please note that extensions are clearly not part of your preferences!

> But for the future it would be nice I could update without the
> need to reconfig all.

Well, for me this works: I always extract zip builds to new directories and can
still use the old preferences, mails etc.

Comment 8

[Joachim Ramlow]

Answer to #7 :

Thanks for your infos. Then I will try it again for the next releases. Before, I
lost in this way something : not only the extensions (this is clear because of
subdirectories under mozilla), but the links to the mails and addressbook too.
And so it was always necessary to edit them new (I think it was in prefs.js).
The problem is : I have moved the whole profile directory to a network drive,
because my NT-PC on the intranet has a too small harddisk. I think this could be
the reason for my problem.

Thanks, Joachim

Comment 9

[Andreas Kunz]

(In reply to comment #8)
Joachim:
> the links to the mails and addressbook too.
> And so it was always necessary to edit them new (I think it was in prefs.js).
> The problem is : I have moved the whole profile directory to a network drive

Ok, this would of course cause your problem. As long as you don't move your
profile, everything should work.
Please note that (I think) you can manually move your mail folders (those
probably take the most space) in the Mail and Newsgroups Account settings. At
least you can set the path there.