Reporting Bug - There was an error starting Zotero

elanabrell

Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80570016 (NS_ERROR_XPC_GS_RETURNED_FAILURE) [nsIJSCID.getService]" nsresult: "0x80570016 (NS_ERROR_XPC_GS_RETURNED_FAILURE)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://forecastfox/content/utilities/manager-service.js :: ManagerService__endAlert :: line 1180" data: no]
Source File: chrome://forecastfox/content/utilities/manager-service.js
Line: 1180

This is the information I got from Firefox according to the directions on the Zotero cite. I have tried uninstalling Zotero and that does not work either. The directions given to previous people with this problem make no sense to me as I am not a software designer. Please tell me how I can get Zotero to open. I have saved many files on it already and now it suddenly won't work. Very disappointing.

elanabrell

Oh yeah, I have Firefox version 3.6.3 and the newest Zotero. I have a Mac with Snow Leopard.

elanabrell

Is there no other way to get direct help immediately?

elanabrell

Is there any way to contact a person who can help with this problem? It seemed like the website suggested posting on this forum, but that doesn't to illicit any help. Is there some form of troubleshooting assistance available for zotero?

I have now tried deleting firefox, zotero, and all related files, and reinstalling everything all over again. Still zotero will not open. If there is a way to actually get help, I will gladly use it. Thank you.

Simon

Try disabling other Firefox extensions in Tools->Add-ons, and see if that fixes your problem.

elanabrell

Thanks very much for your advice. Unfortunately, that doesn't fix the problem. It still says there was an error starting up and it shows a little yellow triangle with a ! over the Zotero icon at the bottom of my browser.

Simon

Can you see if there's anything else in the Error Console? The error you posted is from one of your other Firefox extensions which is evidently also having problems. You might also want to try removing corrupt extension files.

elanabrell

I have deleted the files as per the diections. This is the only error that now appears int eh Error Console:

Error: view.selection is null
Source File: chrome://global/content/config.js
Line: 369

However, this warning appears about 10 times:

Warning: Error in parsing value for 'filter'. Declaration dropped.
Source File: http://www.zotero.org/static/css/style.1266522431.css
Line: 605

And I have this message 5 times:

www.zotero.org : potentially vulnerable to CVE-2009-3555

dstillman

There's no indication from that that Zotero isn't working. If you're still getting the exclamation mark, delete compreg.dat and xpti.dat from the Firefox profile directory, restart Firefox, and check the console again.

Also, I assume you've restarted your computer?

Also:

It seemed like the website suggested posting on this forum, but that doesn't to illicit any help.

You came to this conclusion an hour after your first post, on a Sunday afternoon?

elanabrell

These are the two errors that came up after doing that:

Error: Warning: unrecognized command line flag -foreground

Source File: file:///Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/components/nsBrowserContentHandler.js
Line: 708

Error: view.selection is null
Source File: chrome://global/content/config.js
Line: 369

I did try restarting the whole computer too, but still getting the exclamation point.

And apologies for my impatience - I didn't understand how the forum worked.

dstillman

There are still no Zotero errors there, which is pretty odd if you're still getting the exclamation mark.

Generate real-time debug output for the startup and, assuming there is some, e-mail it to support@zot....org with a link to this thread.

elanabrell

Thanks, but I'm not sure how to do this:

"2. Close Firefox, and then restart it via the command line:

*
Open Terminal in /Applications/Utilities

*
Run /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin"

What does it mean to restart Firefox via a command line?

dstillman

Open Terminal, paste "/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox-bin" without quotes into the Terminal window, and then hit Return.

dstillman

From the debug output:

Persistent descriptor in extensions.zotero.dataDir did not resolve

I'll have to look into why this wasn't logging a console error for you, but you have essentially the same problem as in the thread you saw earlier.

If those steps didn't work for you, type about:config into the Firefox address bar, type "dataDir" into the Filter: box, and Control-click on extensions.zotero.useDataDir and extensions.zotero.dataDir and select Reset for each if available. (You should be able to do this via the preferences as well, though.)

Restart Firefox and you should be back to the default data directory. If you're using a custom data directory, you'll need to reselect it from the preferences.

Note that this should really only happen if you were using a custom data directory location and something about that folder, your computer, or your hard drive changed. You didn't tell us what preceded this problem, but it would be extremely unusual for it to have happened on its own.

elanabrell

Thanks for all your help, but this didn't work either. It let me reset extensions.useDataDir, but reset wasn't highlighted as an option for extensions.zotero.dataDir. I transferred all the information from my old mac to a new mac before encountering this problem, but I have also entirely erased firefox and zotero and redownloaded both and the problem persists, so I thought any problem caused by the transfer would have been resolved by starting over from scratch.

dstillman

I transferred all the information from my old mac to a new mac before encountering this problem

OK, well, that absolutely is behind the problem, so it's kind of important information to include. You're trying to use your old data, so you're not at all starting from scratch.

If you reset the useDataDir pref you should at the very least receive a different message, though really it should just work. Delete compreg.dat and xpti.dat and try again. If you still get the error, delete those files again, restart from the command line, and send us new debug output.

dstillman

[Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED) [nsILocalFile.remove]" nsresult: "0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/integration.js :: anonymous :: line 70" data: no]

OK, now you're getting a different error (also likely caused by switching computers).

See http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/12054/#Item_10 for a fix (and note that you have to change to change that command to include your username as explained there).

elanabrell

I tried that (and changed my user name like it says), but I'm still getting the same yellow exclamation point. I'll send another error report.

dstillman

What's the output of these commands? (You can provide them here.)

elanabrell

Last login: Mon May 10 17:57:06 on ttys000
Elan-Abrells-MacBook-Pro:~ elanabrell$ ls -la ~/.zoteroIntegrationPipe
ls: /Users/elanabrell/.zoteroIntegrationPipe: No such file or directory
Elan-Abrells-MacBook-Pro:~ elanabrell$ ls -la /Users/Shared/.zoteroIntegrationPipe*
total 0
drwxrwxrwt 2 root wheel 68 Apr 25 20:30 .
drwxrwxrwt 17 root wheel 578 May 9 15:09 ..
Elan-Abrells-MacBook-Pro:~ elanabrell$ ls -lad ~
drwxr-xr-x+ 17 elanabrell staff 578 May 9 17:02 /Users/elanabrell
Elan-Abrells-MacBook-Pro:~ elanabrell$ ls -lad /Users/Shared/
drwxrwxrwt 17 root wheel 578 May 9 15:09 /Users/Shared/
Elan-Abrells-MacBook-Pro:~ elanabrell$

dstillman

Are you sure you adjusted the command on the other thread to include your username?

You most likely need to run this command from Terminal:

sudo rm -f /Users/Shared/.zoteroIntegrationPipe_elanabrell

This is a very strange issue, as I've noted elsewhere, we're not sure what's causing it. (It's not possible for Zotero itself to cause it, which is also why it has to be fixed outside of Zotero.) Did you use the OS X Migration Assistant to copy your data to the new machine, or something else?

elanabrell

I tried this command again, and the problem persists. I did use the OS X migration assistant to copy the data over. My library is backed-up online, so that's why I originally thought I could delete firefox and Zotero and start over from the beginning, but it does seem that whatever conditions outside of Zotero that are causing this remain the same.

dstillman

What's the output of this command in Terminal?

ls -dla /Users/Shared/.zotero*