Ubuntu

firefox won't start

Asked by Jeffrey Kutcher

installed new os
logged in
brought up a terminal
sudo su
cd /home
mkdir /mnt/disk
mount dev /mnt/disk (some other dirive)
mv user user.orig
mkdir -p /mnt/disk/home/user
ln -s /mnt/disk/home/user . (create a symbolic link to user now living on another disk)
exit
cd /home/user.orig
tar cvf - . | (cd /home/user; tar xvf -)
log out and log back in
df . (we're on the new disk)
firefox (won't start ... why) other apps start. Noticed Ubuntu Software won't start either.
strace firefox
...
cannot create user data directory: /home/user/snap/firefox/1670: Not a directory
+++ exited with 1 +++
ls -la /home/user/snap/firefox/1670
total 8
drwxr-xr-x 2 user user 4096 Aug 17 23:55 .
drwxr-xr-x 6 user user 4096 Aug 18 19:17 ..
confused
Maybe it doesn't like going through a symbolic link?

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Jeffrey Kutcher
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Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said : 		#1

Yes, there is an issue with the snap software, that there are additional steps necessary if the home directory is not below the standard /home directory, but symlinked somewhere else.
In such case none of the programs that use the snap environment are working; firefox and the software center are the most frequently used ones of the affected packages.

Bug #1620771
https://forum.snapcraft.io/t/symlinked-home-break-snaps-ubuntu-20-04-solved/24986

Revision history for this message
Manfred Hampl (m-hampl) said (last edit ): 		#2

More links, the second one containing a workaround (mount --bind)

Bug #1621102
https://snapcraft.io/docs/home-outside-home

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Jeffrey Kutcher (jeffrey-kutcher) said : 		#3

Thank you.
mount --bind /mnt/disk/home/user user
did the trick!

cd /home
rm user (user is currently a symbolic link)
mkdir user (create a mount point)
mount --bind /mnt/disk/home/user user (mount the remote directory)

Revision history for this message
Jeffrey Kutcher (jeffrey-kutcher) said : 		#4

Follow up:

firefox worked as did Ubuntu Software

Go to reference for information:
man mount

fstab entry (from the man page):

# /olddir /newdir none bind
/mnt/disk/home/user /home/user none bind

mount -a (to have it take affect)

Revision history for this message
William Paul (williampaul) said : 		#5

Follow the steps of the article below:
https://digicruncher.com/firefox-freezes-in-windows-10/