Ubuntu
firefox-3.0 package

Firefox 3 Ubuntu fails after update assertion failed

Asked by yomba

After a routine update to Ubuntu 9.04 Jaunty Firefox 3 no longer loads properly. It renders a blank page with a fail message shown further down.

In addition, my Google Chromium browser no longer loads at all after the same update.

Oddly enough, my Epiphany Browser still works fine. Obviously Firefox and Chromium are toast and cannot be updated as the Update Manager tells me that I just updated an hour ago and no updates are available.

The bad news message that is rendered after the Firefox 3 blank page load is shown in its entirety below:

Assertion Failed:

ASSERT: *** Search: _installLocation: engine has no file!
Stack Trace:
0:ENSURE_WARN(false,_installLocation: engine has no file!,2147500037)
1:()
2:()
3:()
4:epsGetAttr([object Object],hidden)
5:()
6:()
7:currentEngine()
8:get_currentEngine()
9:updateDisplay()
10:init()
11:([object XULElement],20)

----------------------

Should I attempt to un-install and re-install Firefox 3? and if so, will I lose all my bookmarks?

Thanks in advance for any help offered. I have used Ubuntu for more than 3 years and have never had a problem like this one before.

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Ubuntu firefox-3.0 Edit question
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actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#1

have you tried closing all firefoxes and running this:

mv ~/.mozilla ~/.mozilla_old

then rerunning firefox?

if that works you have 2 options,

1. (easy) rebuild profile from fresh
2. (hard) rename the folder back (after first deleting the newly created ~/.mozilla folder) and try to work out whats going on by using

firefox -safe-mode

Revision history for this message
yomba (atascosa) said : 		#2

At your suggestion I did the following:

mv ~/.mozilla ~/.mozilla_old

then rerunning firefox?

I did the above and Firefox did boot, but it is a fresh version without any of my old bookmarks, etc.

You then suggested:

1. (easy) rebuild profile from fresh

I would like to folow this suggestion but am not sure how to go about the "rebuild profile from fresh" process as I have never encountered a need to rebuild profile before. Therefore, I am reluctant to take further action without some feedback as to how to proceed.

I do thank you for your suggestion as it does seem to have brought Firefox to life, but without my original bookmarks. Nevertheless, I would like to proceed with rebuild profile agenda once I am sure how to get this done without mucking up the works.

Thanks for your help.

Revision history for this message
actionparsnip (andrew-woodhead666) said : 		#3

If you want to rebuild a new profile (which is not only bookmarks but stored passwords as well). You will need to run:

rm ~/.mozilla; mv ~/.mozilla_old ~/.mozilla

This will rename the old (broken) profile back in. You can then export your favorites using this:

http://www.sizzledcore.com/2007/09/20/how-to-importexport-firefox-bookmarks/

I am unsure how to export passwords but these can easily be re-entered in sites and resaved in a fresh profile.

Once you have the favorites out, you can run:

mv ~/.mozilla ~/.mozilla_old

and launch firefox. You will once again have a plain-jane profile but you can now import your favorites.

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