Permission problems updating Seamonkey?

Hi. I hope somebody can help me. I'm using Seamonkey with Ubuntu since the beginning but from some version on, I wasn't able to update versions as a normal user because I got the message about "...you don't have the system permissions required...", so I began to update using "sudo seamonkey" and then, when updating was over, I closed seamonkey and started it again as a normal user. In this way I was able to do a lot of updatings with no problem at all, but now, when trying to update to 2.19, this method was no longer valid, and when I went back to the normal user Seamonkey, it opened profile start-up window and then when I click on the profile I wanted, and click on "Use Profile", nothing happens and seamonkey exists with a "1" value. I guess it has to do with permissions. When I installed the ubuntuzilla packages it asked for the SUDO password, so I think it has to do with what they say at http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser_will_not_start_up#Ownership (Seamonkey installed as root) But I haven't been able to fix it. If I update with "sudo..." then I can't go into my profile as a normal user. If I reinstall through Ubuntuzilla, then it all is OK but I'm stuck with 2.17.1 version :-( I guess it could be OK if Ubuntuzilla offers the last version (2.19). Must I wait till then? How will I know that it's already available? Would be any security risk if I use 2.17.1? Thanks in advance to anybody who can help.

Hi, I've just pushed seamonkey 2.19 to the ubuntuzilla repository, so you should be able to update via the package manager.

Thanks for the quick answer and update! :-) But sadly it didn't work either! Now I have the Ubuntuzilla-updated 2.19 version of Seamonkey but when I start at command line or through Gnome desktop, it always exits with "1" value :-( I think it would be dangerous to run Seamonkey as SUDO, so I need to fix the Seamonkey access as normal user. I'm at a lost! :-( Any idea?

In my tries I've found something curious which can give some clue about what is happening: when profile startup window opens, if I choose an already existing profile, Seamonkey exits with error (nothing happens, exit value=1). But, if through profile manager window I create a new profile, Seamonkey starts correctly! If I just close Seamonkey and try to start it again with that newly created profile, same thing happens as with older ones: after clicking on "Use profile", it exists in error :-(

I'm wondering... should I uninstall and install again as normal user? How is it done through Ubuntuzilla? Should I try this installation procedure http://www.seamonkey-project.org/doc/install-and-uninstall#install_linux instead?

Hi,

Hard to say, with all that sudo-ing you did earlier you could have messed up some permissions somewhere.

I would suggest that as a first try to fix things, you try to chown all files in your seamonkey profile dir to yourself. Use this command:

sudo chown -R yourusername:yourusername ~/.mozilla/seamonkey

(obviously change 'yourusername' to your actual username)

See if that helps. If it doesn't, then I would suggest uninstalling seamonkey, wiping the directory where all the stuff goes (if you used ubuntuzilla, should be /opt/seamonkey), and reinstalling again.

Thanks again, Nanotube. But I already tried that as I saw at http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser_will_not_start_up#Ownership that it could be a fix in some cases. I tried again just a moment ago and the problem is still there.

So I'll uninstall and install it back. You didn't say if I should better install again with ubuntuzilla or independently... I think I'll try those instructions at http://www.seamonkey-project.org/doc/install-and-uninstall#install_linux It's a pity because ubuntuzilla made things a lot easier for me... til now, I must say :(

I've just removed the ubuntuzilla installation and have the tar.bz2 manually installed instead. To my sad surprise, behaviour is absolutely the same! Profile manager starts but any profile I chose, it closes with an error value, and no feedback! Only newly created profile would open the suite, but then even this profile, once closed, is unaccessible later :-(

./seamonkey -safe-mode is of no use, either. It also exits with no error message.

hmm, could be something borked in your profile. try moving your old profile dir out of the way and starting fresh:

mv ~/.mozilla/seamonkey ~/.mozilla/seamonkey.backup

then start again and see.

(and if you're happy with ubuntuzilla, you can always go back to it once we figure this out. :) )

This is the troubleshooting info when started in safe mode and a new profile is created:

{ "application": { "name": "SeaMonkey", "version": "2.19", "userAgent": "Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:22.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/22.0 SeaMonkey/2.19", "supportURL": "http://www.seamonkey-project.org/doc/" }, "modifiedPreferences": { "browser.cache.disk.capacity": 358400, "browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run": false, "browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max": false, "browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value": 358400, "browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion": 4, "browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone": "rv:22.0", "extensions.lastAppVersion": "2.19", "network.cookie.prefsMigrated": true, "places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages": 49455 }, "graphics": { "numTotalWindows": 1, "numAcceleratedWindows": 0, "windowLayerManagerType": "Basic", "numAcceleratedWindowsMessage": [ "" ], "adapterDescription": "NVIDIA Corporation -- GeForce 7050 PV / nForce 630a/integrated/SSE2/3DNOW!", "adapterVendorID": "NVIDIA Corporation", "adapterDeviceID": "GeForce 7050 PV / nForce 630a/integrated/SSE2/3DNOW!", "adapterRAM": "", "adapterDrivers": "", "driverVersion": "2.1.2 NVIDIA 304.88", "driverDate": "", "webglRenderer": "NVIDIA Corporation -- GeForce 7050 PV / nForce 630a/integrated/SSE2/3DNOW!", "info": { "AzureCanvasBackend": "cairo", "AzureFallbackCanvasBackend": "none", "AzureContentBackend": "none" } }, "javaScript": { "incrementalGCEnabled": true }, "accessibility": { "isActive": false, "forceDisabled": 0 }, "libraryVersions": { "NSPR": { "minVersion": "4.9.6", "version": "4.9.6" }, "NSS": { "minVersion": "3.14.3.0 Basic ECC", "version": "3.14.3.0 Basic ECC" }, "NSSUTIL": { "minVersion": "3.14.3.0", "version": "3.14.3.0" }, "NSSSSL": { "minVersion": "3.14.3.0 Basic ECC", "version": "3.14.3.0 Basic ECC" }, "NSSSMIME": { "minVersion": "3.14.3.0 Basic ECC", "version": "3.14.3.0 Basic ECC" } }, "userJS": { "exists": false }, "extensions": [ { "name": "ChatZilla", "version": "0.9.90", "isActive": false, "id": "{59c81df5-4b7a-477b-912d-4e0fdf64e5f2}" }, { "name": "DOM Inspector", "version": "2.0.15pre", "isActive": false, "id": "inspector@mozilla.org" }, { "name": "JavaScript Debugger", "version": "0.9.89", "isActive": false, "id": "{f13b157f-b174-47e7-a34d-4815ddfdfeb8}" } ] }[TABLE] [TR] [TH][/TH] [TH][/TH] [TH][/TH] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [TR] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [TD][/TD] [/TR] [/TABLE]

nanotube said: hmm, could be something borked in your profile. try moving your old profile dir out of the way and starting fresh:

Borked in *ALL* my profiles? Even in the newly created ones? That seems absurd :-(

I will try to install previous version 2.17.1 and see what happens.

Before installing an older version, I'll see if there is a general profile problem.

I can see, when Seamonkey closed, a .parentlock file in all the profiles. I think that should not be there, so I've tried and delete it for one of the profiles, the last I created with the last installation, which I'll use for testing purposes. After deleting the .parentlock, I've tried to start Seamonkey in safe mode and -as always- it has exited after chosing the profile, with no message error. But I've discovered that the .parentlock has just beeing created when exiting!! It might be a clue or something?

BTW. I've got my profiles at a normal location: /home/USERNAME/.mozilla/seamonkey

A great advance!! I've just found that bypassing the Profile Manager allows me to normally open any profile I want!

./seamonkey -profile "/home/USERNAME/.mozilla/seamonkey/PROFILEFOLDER"

As it's said at http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_in_use#Check_the_profile_folder_name_and_location

If you can't spot an error in that file try running the Mozilla application with a specific profile using command line arguments. This bypasses the profile manager and profiles.ini. If you succeed then you know that the problem is with profiles.ini

So I guess the problem was with that file. Now that I recover the access to my profiles, I'll investigate with more calm this profiles.ini issue.

After reinstalling with Ubuntuzilla, same behaviour happens: through Profile Manager, existing profiles are unaccessible, but when opening with command line and -profile option it starts correctly.

I hope my documentation of these problems and steps I followed will help anyone with similar problems :-)

The only strange thing I can see at profile.ini is this bunch of lines:

[Profile1]
Name=Default User
IsRelative=1
Path=t54ld5ot.Default User

I mean those blank spaces could be creating some issue? This profile was not created by me. There is another "default" profile, with no empty spaces in it:

[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=1
Path=doelvaln.default

Could it be the thing causing this start-up problems with the profiles? :-m

Manoel said: Borked in *ALL* my profiles? Even in the newly created ones? That seems absurd :-(

yes, all your profiles. there's a .ini file that's shared by all.

I will try to install previous version 2.17.1 and see what happens.

sure, why not give it a whirl. though it seems that trying to nuke your .mozilla/seamonkey dir is an easier thing to try first.

i see you've delved into the .ini file some - i can't really help you there since i never dug into that myself. i don't suppose you've tried nuking the .mozilla/seamonkey dir as i suggested and seeing if that makes the problem go away?