832601 - Firefox 18: Update system requirements

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Core :: Widget: Gtk, defect)

Description

[Camaleon]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:16.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/16.0
Build ID: 20121024073032

Steps to reproduce:

I tried to update Firefox 17.0 to Firefox 18


Actual results:

Firefox 18 cannot be launched. I got:

test@debian:~$ gksu firefox
XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /home/test/lib/firefox/libxpcom.so:
libxul.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Couldn't load XPCOM.

Most sure because of bug #723487 (new systems requirements -GLibc 2.11 or higher?- are needed to run Firefox and maybe Thunderbird when it is available...)


Expected results:

1/ The new system requirements should have prevented the update to avoid breaking the current browser install

2/ The new system requierements should have been listed at "https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/18.0/system-requirements/"

Comment 1

[Karl Tomlinson (:karlt)]

Bug 827354 may help here, but I'm not clear whether that is intended for all builds or just esr builds.

Can you describe your Linux system, please?  e.g. what distribution and version?

Comment 2

[Camaleon]

The system where this happens is running a stock Debian 5 (Lenny, 64-bits) with a couple of packages¹ I had to update to meet the new Firefox 17 system requirements (GTK+ 2.18 or higher). 

Note that both, Firefox 17.0.2 and Firefox 17.0.2-esr run fine on that system.

¹libgtk2.0-0 2.18.6-1~bpo-50+1 and gtk2-engines-pixbuf 2.18.6-1~bpo-50+1

Comment 3

[Mike Hommey [:glandium]]

The problem is 18 requires glibc 2.11.

Comment 4

[Camaleon]

Thing is that this fact (the need for glibc 2.11 or higher) should be properly advertized so the user can react before a new update hits him. Ideally, the updater routine has to foresee the problem to prevent breaking the current running installation but at least this should be noted at System Requirements.

Comment 5

[Karl Tomlinson (:karlt)]

AIUI the glibc 2.11 requirement was unintentional.
Now that 18 has been released, there is little point trying to check, and we may even need to ship new code to determine the glibc version to perform that check, if we were to do that.

Comment 6

[John Hopkins (:jhopkins)]

I rebuilt the mozilla-release branch using a rebuilt gcc compiler (built with --disable-gnu-unique-object) and hit a GTK-related error message instead of the glibc error reported in this bug:

 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=827354#c20

So it seems the glibc problem is solved and if you have an updated GTK it should run on your Debian 5 system.  Camaleon, can you please confirm with this build?

 http://people.mozilla.org/~jhopkins/bug827354/builds/mozilla-release-linux/1359663791/

Comment 7

[John Hopkins (:jhopkins)]

Camaleon: There is also a 64-bit mozilla-release build here:

 http://people.mozilla.org/~jhopkins/bug827354/builds/mozilla-release-linux64/1359667969/

Comment 8

[Camaleon]

(In reply to John Hopkins (:jhopkins) from comment #6)

(...)

> Camaleon, can you please confirm with this build?
> 
>  http://people.mozilla.org/~jhopkins/bug827354/builds/mozilla-release-linux/
> 1359663791/

Sure. This build ("firefox-18.0.1.en-US.linux-i686.tar.bz2") runs here just fine. 

As I'm on a VM I use the 32-bits flavour but thanks anyway for providing the 64-bits package.

Comment 9

[[e-mail] (:bhearsum)]

Camaleon, if you don't mind, could you test one more build out for us? https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-esr17/firefox-17.0.4esrpre.en-US.linux-x86_64.tar.bz2

Comment 10

[Camaleon]

(In reply to Ben Hearsum [:bhearsum] from comment #9)
> Camaleon, if you don't mind, could you test one more build out for us?
> https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-esr17/
> firefox-17.0.4esrpre.en-US.linux-x86_64.tar.bz2

Sure, but as I don't have a 64-bits system I tested this file, instead:

https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-esr17/firefox-17.0.4esrpre.en-US.linux-i686.tar.bz2

By the way, it runs okay.

Comment 11

[[e-mail] (:bhearsum)]

(In reply to Camaleon from comment #10)
> (In reply to Ben Hearsum [:bhearsum] from comment #9)
> > Camaleon, if you don't mind, could you test one more build out for us?
> > https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-esr17/
> > firefox-17.0.4esrpre.en-US.linux-x86_64.tar.bz2
> 
> Sure, but as I don't have a 64-bits system I tested this file, instead:
> 
> https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-mozilla-esr17/
> firefox-17.0.4esrpre.en-US.linux-i686.tar.bz2
> 
> By the way, it runs okay.

Thanks, much appreciated! I think this bug is fixed, too, given the glibc/gtk versions on https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/18.0/system-requirements/.

Comment 12

[Camaleon]

Thanks for caring about this.

I see the bug has been tagged as "fixed" and wonder what Firefox release will come with this patch applied because with the latest (20) I'm still experiencing the problem.

Comment 13

[[e-mail] (:bhearsum)]

(In reply to Camaleon from comment #12)
> Thanks for caring about this.
> 
> I see the bug has been tagged as "fixed" and wonder what Firefox release
> will come with this patch applied because with the latest (20) I'm still
> experiencing the problem.

There's no mainstream release planned that will lower the glibc/gtk requirement. Unfortunately, we have to upgrade versions sometimes and some users (like yourself) end up in this situation. Upgrading your OS version is your best path to being on the latest Firefox again.

Comment 14

[Camaleon]

(In reply to Ben Hearsum [:bhearsum] from comment #13)

> There's no mainstream release planned that will lower the glibc/gtk
> requirement. 

Sorry, but I don't get it. By reading comments #6 and #9 it made me think there was a patch on the way :-?

> Unfortunately, we have to upgrade versions sometimes and some users (like 
> yourself) end up in this situation. Upgrading your OS version is your best path 
> to being on the latest Firefox again.

Sure, an update is planed very soon but the main issue persists as current requirements¹ are fulfilled by my system but still fail to run the latest version. I mean, I'm currently running Firefox 17 with no problem at all and Firefox 17 seems to have the same requirements² as Firefox 20 but the latter does not run.

¹https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/20.0/system-requirements/
²https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/17.0/system-requirements/

Comment 15

[[e-mail] (:bhearsum)]

(In reply to Camaleon from comment #14)
> (In reply to Ben Hearsum [:bhearsum] from comment #13)
> 
> > There's no mainstream release planned that will lower the glibc/gtk
> > requirement. 
> 
> Sorry, but I don't get it. By reading comments #6 and #9 it made me think
> there was a patch on the way :-?

Ah, the confusion there is that the patch that was being worked on was for the ESR series of releases (https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/), which have a longer timeframe in which we won't change compatibility requirements.

> > Unfortunately, we have to upgrade versions sometimes and some users (like 
> > yourself) end up in this situation. Upgrading your OS version is your best path 
> > to being on the latest Firefox again.
> 
> Sure, an update is planed very soon but the main issue persists as current
> requirements¹ are fulfilled by my system but still fail to run the latest
> version. I mean, I'm currently running Firefox 17 with no problem at all and
> Firefox 17 seems to have the same requirements² as Firefox 20 but the latter
> does not run.
> 
> ¹https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/20.0/system-requirements/
> ²https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/17.0/system-requirements/

Huh, I thought this part was fixed.

Comment 16

[[e-mail] (:bhearsum)]

These are really old release notes now. Resolving incomplete because I doubt anything is going to happen.