Bug#505464: iceweasel crashes because cannot access directory .mozilla

[Mike Hommey]

Hi,

Sorry for the delayed answer.

The "crash" issue is being handled in another bug. Basically, iceweasel
doesn't handle very well the cases where something is not writeable. In
your case, it doesn't even crash, it only exits, but the result look the
same.

The rest of the issue doesn't make much sense to me. I wouldn't have
been very surprised if that happened with earlier versions of iceweasel,
like 2.0 or 1.5, but installing 3.0 shouldn't have created any problem.

Are you absolutely sure the .mozilla/firefox existed and was created as
root before you ever started iceweasel for the very first time ?

Would you be able to reproduce this if you'd try to download the 3.0.3-3
version again from http://stabile.debian.org:5001 ? (you'll also need
the corresponding xulrunner-1.9, most likely 1.9.0.3-something)

Thanks

Mike

On Sun, Jun 14, 2009 at 07:05:46PM -0400, Eric Dorland wrote:
> * Ian Schindler (ian.schindler at gmail.com) wrote:
> > On Sun, Feb 8, 2009 at 7:35 AM, Eric Dorland <eric at kuroneko.ca> wrote:
> > 
> > > * Ian Schindler (ian.schindler at gmail.com) wrote:
> > > > On Tue, Jan 20, 2009 at 12:59 AM, Eric Dorland <eric at debian.org> wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > * Ian Schindler (ian.schindler at gmail.com) wrote:
> > > > > > On Sun, Nov 23, 2008 at 7:50 AM, Eric Dorland <eric at debian.org>
> > > wrote:
> > > > > >
> > > > > > > * Ian Schindler (ian.schindler at gmail.com) wrote:
> > > > > > > > Package: iceweasel
> > > > > > > > Version: 3.0.3-3
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > When iceweasel is run for the first time, it cannot access the
> > > > > directory
> > > > > > > > ~/.mozilla/firefox (permisssion denied) which causes it to crash.
> > >  (I
> > > > > > > > installed Etch and immediately upgraded to Lenny before
> > > installing
> > > > > > > > iceweasel.)
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > I solved this problem by running
> > > > > > > > $sudo iceweasel
> > > > > > > > $sudo chown -R me:me .mozilla
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > I don't know if the first step was necessary.
> > > > > > > >
> > > > > > > > I am including the tail of the output from
> > > > > > > > $strace iceweasel
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > > Any idea if the directory existed with the wrong permissions before
> > > > > > > you ran iceweasel?
> > > > > >
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I recently performed 3 installations in which I installed Etch and
> > > > > > immediately upgraded to Lenny.  I encountered the above bug in 2 of
> > > the
> > > > > > installations.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I checked the 2 machines where I encountered the bug.  The bug only
> > > > > occurs
> > > > > > in the account used for upgrading the system from Etch to Lenny
> > > (using
> > > > > > sudo).  All other accounts do not contain a directory ~/.mozilla, and
> > > > > > iceweasel creates the directories with the correct permissions when
> > > > > started
> > > > > > for the first time.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > I did a similar installation without encountering the bug.  The
> > > > > difference
> > > > > > in procedure was that I did not install the standard desktop in Etch
> > > > > before
> > > > > > upgrading, I only installed the base system, upgraded, and then
> > > installed
> > > > > > the desktop environment by hand.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > The directory ~/.mozilla seems to have been created with the wrong
> > > > > > permissions by some other package included in the standard desktop
> > > > > > environment, after which iceweasel is unable to access the directory.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Hope this helps.
> > > > >
> > > > > What are the permissions it's created with? Is this before the upgrade
> > > > > or after?
> > > > >
> > > > > PS please keep the bug CCed.
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
> > > > > Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)
> > > > >
> > > > > iD8DBQFJdRPLYemOzxbZcMYRAipmAJ9eK3C4qUWy07leurr3oOXMOPjXYgCfXJUl
> > > > > q3T5e+/K/o2cv4jWVmh0qGY=
> > > > > =rHxy
> > > > > -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
> > > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > I don't remember the permissions, the owner was root.  The problem
> > > occurred
> > > > after the upgrade.  I installed Etch and immediately upgraded to Lenny
> > > > before using any applications other than apt-get and vi.
> > > >
> > > > Funny, I had a similar bug with openoffice on one install which I did not
> > > > report (lack of time and foggy memory), the directory ~/.openoffice.org2
> > > > was owned by root.  Openoffice opened, but then was unable to open files
> > > > because it could not access the directory (complained about something to
> > > do
> > > > with languages as I recall).  I do not know if the bugs are related.
> > >
> > > Are you sure you didn't launch these apps as root? Or chown in your
> > > home directory?
> > >
> > >
> > Yes I am sure.  The first time I launched the app, it immediately crashed.
> > I then launched the app using
> > 
> > $ strace iceweasel
> > 
> > The application immediately crashed again.  Checking the output I noticed
> > there was a problem accessing the directory ~/.mozilla/firefox (permission
> > denied).  I checked and found that the directory  ~/.mozilla existed, but
> > the directory ~/.mozilla/firefox did not exist.  I then launched the app
> > with the command
> > 
> > $ sudo iceweasel
> > 
> > Everything worked fine.  The directory ~/.mozilla/firefox had been created.
> > I quit the application, changed owners (recursively) for the directory
> > ~/.mozilla, launched iceweasel again, and everything worked fine.  The same
> > bug occurred on two seperate machines, so I reported it.
> 
> The strace output might be helpful. Do you use anything slightly
> exotic for resolving user permissions like ldap nss or use a remote
> filesystem like NFS?
> 
> -- 
> Eric Dorland <eric at kuroneko.ca>
> ICQ: #61138586, Jabber: hooty at jabber.com
>