278335 - crash during install of firefox latest version leaves files in temp, prevents install

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 249067

(Firefox :: Installer, defect)

Description

[Jeff Axup]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.1; SIK30; SV1; .NET CLR 1.1.4322)
Build Identifier: 

The installer for firefox is crashing. I'm on a pc, running Windows XP Pro - 
service pack 2 installed. The firefox installer launches an installer for 
netscape 7.1. this is a usability problem. I am not installing netscape, I am 
installing Firefox (or at least this is the perception of the average user). I 
have clicked a file indicating it is a firefox installer.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. click firefox setup 1.0.exe
2. click next continue netscape 7.1 setup
3. the wizard page for software agreement is not formatted properly. The two 
bullets at the bottom for accepting the agreement don't have labels. Something 
is very wrong with this screen. I click the upper unlabeled bullet. and click 
next
4. click recommended. this is also not formatted properly. click next.

5. confirm start install, click next.
6. error message "setup has encountered a problem and ndeeds to close..."
crashed.




Actual Results:  
crashed, has happened previous 4 times as well

Expected Results:  
installed firefox.

It appears the installer has a problem. I have tried downloading a new one 
from the firefox site. It is not clear why it is installing netscape when I'e 
chosen to install firefox. It should be clearly marked as a firefox installer. 
This makes switching from IE very difficult. So there is both a technical 
problem (crashing) and a usability problem (confusing users with a different 
installer).

Comment 1

[deena]

i am having this problem as well - have been using firefox for several months 
now, but since trying to install the new version yesterday, i am not able to 
use firefox at all. this is what happened:

- was using firefox. a window popped up telling me that there was a newer 
update available, did i want to download it. 
- i clicked yes, but then the window told me it was installing netscape, so i 
cancelled the install. 
- now, whenever i try to run firefox, it an error messagebox pops up that 
says "The program must close to allow a previous installation to complete. 
Please restart."
- if i try to download the new firefox from the website using internet 
explorer, the same netscape installation window comes up and will hang halfway 
through installation. 

- i had a lot of sites bookmarked through firefox, and i can't find a bookmarks 
folder anywhere - can someone please tell me how to get my bookmarks out of my 
broken firefox??

Comment 2

[Jeff Axup]

OK, I'm starting to doubt the efficiency of open-source development projects.
Please note that a bug which makes it impossible to install the software (aka a
CRITICAL BUG) has not even been accepted in 7 Months. Even Microsoft is more
timely than that.

I managed to get a response from a very helpful person running a firefox help
forum recently which solved this problem. The solution is to empty the temp
directory under your user folder.
for details see here:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?p=1655306#1655306

The unresolved (and confirmed) bug is that Firefox doesn't bother to clean out
related Mozilla items from the user's temp directory before installation. This
causes problems when installing Firefox, the mozilla mail reader and possibly
Netscape. The installer should do this to avoid unnecessary crashes. Novice
users can not be expected to know about the possible temp dir complication.

Unrelated:
This bugzilla interface is full of usability problems. Why can I select "confirm
bug" below, when it's just going to reject it on the next page and make me come
back and change it? Why not just not show it to begin with?

Comment 3

[timeless]

i just removed canconfirm and editusers from myself, i can not confirm the bug.
presumably this means that you were not logged in when you tried to confirm the
bug. for various reasons, bugzilla gives you the benefit of the doubt when you
aren't logged in, mostly because it's designed to cater to developers who are
often not logged in, but when logged in could confirm bugs.

note: i barely speak for bugzilla, i don't speak for firefox.

Comment 4

[Adam Guthrie]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 249067 ***