309043 - Extensions do not complete the install and continue to display the needs restarted message.

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Toolkit :: Add-ons Manager, defect)

Description

[nico]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b4) Gecko/20050908 Firefox/1.4
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8b4) Gecko/20050908 Firefox/1.4

It tells me that the extensions will be intalled when the browser is restarted
but doesn´t happen. I have even restarted my PC and still comes out the same
message. With the previous version (1.0.6)it was enough with closing Firefox and
starting it again. Now (1.5 beta 1) I can´t use my extensions.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Install a few extensions
2. Close the browser
3. Open it again.

Actual Results:  
I can´t use my extensions.

Expected Results:  
Install the extensions.

The first time I tried to install 1.5 it crahed because I didn't close Firefox
first.

Comment 1

[u63580]

Which extensions? Are they compatible with 1.5beta?

Comment 2

[nico]

Yes, all extensions were compatible. Some of them are:
FoxTrick 0.2.91
Mouse Gestures 1.0.2
BBCodeXtra 0.2.5
Remove it permanently 1.0.5
WebmailCompose 0.6.5

Comment 3

[nico]

BTW, shouldn't 1.5 attepmt to keep all the extensions I had in 1.0.6? 

Comment 4

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Any errors in your js console related to extensions when you first start the
browser?
In your profile directory there is a file named extensions.rdf. Can you attach
it to this bug using the Create a New Attachment link above.

Thanks

Comment 5

[nico]

Attachment: the file you asked for

nope, I don't see any error with JS.

Comment 6

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

That is the 1.0 version of the file... what I'd like to see is the one located
directly in your profile directory. It will have a lower case e as in
extensions.rdf instead of Extensions.rdf

Comment 7

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

nico - I'd prefer not to rush you but fixes of this nature are going to be more
difficult to land with each passing day due to the upcoming release. Can you
attach the extensions.rdf (all lowercase) from your profile directory. If there
isn't one perhaps the install broke on your system (e.g. last line of comment
#0) and the extension manager files were not updated.

Comment 8

[nico]

I understand but I won't have access to the computer were I had this problem
until tomorrow (wednesday). I'm really sorry. I hope it's not too bad. :(

Comment 9

[nico]

Right, there is no file in lowercase. What shall I do?

Comment 10

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

If there isn't an extensions.rdf all in lowercase in your profile directory. I
suspect that the last line of comment #0
"The first time I tried to install 1.5 it crahed because I didn't close Firefox
first."

and that the extensions.rdf didn't get created may mean that the install wasn't
completed successfully and not all of the files were installed. I'd uninstall
and then install again though you could probably just install on top of the
existing install.

Comment 11

[nico]

Ok, I try that but in that case I would like to save my passwords and bookmarks
before unistalling. How do I do that?

Comment 12

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

For support questions please use the forums

http://forums.mozillazine.org/index.php?c=4

Comment 13

[nico]

I'm searching again and I found that in fact there are 2 files Extensions.rdf
One (the one I've uploaded) is in the folder called: \Mozilla Firefox\extensions
The other one is in te folder \Mozilla Firefox\defaults\profile\extensions

Both are with uppercase E

Comment 14

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

And the one that is needed is located in your profile directory. Both of the
ones you listed are from the 1.0.x application directory.

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder

Comment 15

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Were you able to find the lowercase extensions.rdf?

Comment 16

[proehl.jill]

I am having the same problems.  I deleted both extensions.rdf and extensions.ini in Profile folder - and the ones in my Extensions folder - same thing happening.

Comment 17

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

nico, are you still experiencing this? If you are, were you able to find the extensions.rdf that is located directly in the profile directory per comment #14?

Comment 18

[nico]

Nope, I couldn't find a solution and gave up. I'm  on 1.5 Now.
Thanks anyway.

Comment 19

[nico]

After a few months I've decided to try installing 1.5 again (since I couldn't solve this problem before, I have been using 1.0.7. Guess what? the same problem!!

It tells me the extensions will be installed when I restart the browser, but it doesn't. 

I've uninstalled FF and even deleted the folder where it was. The installed it again, and somehow it still knew which extensions I had :S I reall don't understand it.

Comment 20

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

nico, please look again in your profile directory
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder

Inside of it there should be an extensions.rdf file that is all lowercase. It must exist or you would see nothing listed in the Extension Manager. There will also be an extensions.ini and an extensions.cache file in the same directory. Please zip all 3 of these file and the extensions directory in your profile directory an email them to me.

Comment 21

[nico]

According to this
http://img78.imageshack.us/img78/9353/u64yuryur0029tk.jpg
, there should be a folder 

C:\Documents and Settings\cucharón\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Profile name>\

%APPDATA%\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\<Profile name>\ 


Well... there isn't. The only Folder in " C:\Documents and Settings\cucharón\Application Data\" is the folder "Microsoft" look: 

http://img15.imageshack.us/img15/9067/u64yuryur0039lf.jpg

Comment 22

[nico]

Attachment: zip file

Comment 23

[nico]

oh! i hadn't realised it was only for the english version :$ So sorry.

Here is the zip file now.

Comment 24

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

Glad you found the files... now I need the extensions directory zipped up as asked for in comment #20. I suspect it will be too large to attach to the bug so please email them to me or if you can upload them to a site you can post the link to them

Comment 25

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

I now have the extensions directory and I am able to reproduce. I should have time this week to debug it.

Comment 26

[Keith Parker]

My version of Firefox on WinXP: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.6) Gecko/20070725 Firefox/2.0.0.6

I was having this problem too. But in addition to will be "installed when firefox is restarted" as stated above, FF would not uninstall, deactivate, or reactivate. New extensions that I tried to install would show up in the addons window, but that is the only *change* that would ever happen. I made sure that the folder was not read-only; it wasn't.

I removed the file *extensions.rdf* and restarted Firefox. No change. Then I removed these three files:

- extensions.cache
- extensions-1.ini
- extensions.ini

Success! When I restarted Firefox, ALL extensions worked and I was able to run some much needed extension updates. I'm not sure which of the three files (or all) are to blame, but my first guess would be the .cache file.

I found all four of the above files inside this location:
C:\Documents and Settings\<windows login name>\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\urk8kr0v.default

The urk8kr0v.default directory might be different on your system as well.

Comment 27

[Keith Parker]

Attachment: Four files that I deleted.

Attached here are the four files that I deleted. After restarting Firefox all extension processing (install, uninstall, update, etc.) became functional again. Maybe these can help all the programmers out there to figure out what the problem really was...

Comment 28

[Richard]

Im having  the same problem  with  the  latest  firefox  
downloaded  everything  perfectly  but   keeps  on coming up  with  restart  loop
restarted  even rebooted it    the same thing  

can any one  advise  me what  to do  ?????
MY  comp  is  XP  

Comment 29

[Keith Parker]

This issue is also addressed in this thread: Bug 396695 – add-ons go into "needs to restart" loop commonly after a firefox update. [ https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=396695 ]

Again, the files "extensions.rdf, extensions.ini and extensions.cache" are found to be the culprits.

Comment 30

[Robert Strong (they/them - no direct email)]

No longer able to reproduce with Firefox 3.0.

nico, is this still a problem for you with Firefox 3?

Comment 31

[nico]

no, that was a really long time ago... I still was a Windows user back then... I'm even surprised this bug is still alive after so long. Thanks, anyway.