Zotero locks on launch after automatic update to Zotero 8 (Kubuntu 25.10)

cpsyctc · 2026-01-23T13:59:10+00:00

Zotero has updated itself to version 8 but now locks on launch with the two announcement strips at the top ("You've been upgraded ...", and "Zotero now automatically ...") there. The "My library" strip below the tool bar, and the tool bar, are greyed out but the library visible as is the library tree on the left. However, everything is locked solid: no response to key presses, button clicks or Alt-F4 (which eventually gives me the "unresponsive" message box and the only detail is "Process ID: 3500" which I assume is uniformative really.

Not good as Zotero is a really important program for me which I use repeatedly and daily.

Suggestions please!

Chris

adamsmith · 2026-01-23T14:13:04+00:00

How did you install Zotero?

dstillman · 2026-01-23T14:21:47+00:00

@cpsyctc: Also, can you provide a screenshot of the whole window, either here or in an email to support@zotero.org with a link to this thread?

Can you reproduce this in Troubleshooting Mode (Help → "Restart in Troubleshooting Mode…”)?

cpsyctc · 2026-01-23T14:57:59+00:00

Installed from the official tarball at some level of version 7 I would guess.
If you read what I said you will see that I can't restart in troubleshooting mode that way as the toolbar is greyed out so no "Help -> ".

Both "zotero" and "Zotero" from the user command line get "command not found", I guess that's logical as I normally launch from the task manager icon.

So I cd to /opt/zotero/ and then ran ./zotero-bin --safe-mode which gets me this:

[11125] Sandbox: CanCreateUserNamespace() unshare(CLONE_NEWPID): EPERM
[Parent 11123, Main Thread] WARNING: g_dbus_connection_unregister_object: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_CONNECTION (connection)' failed: 'glib warning', file /builds/worker/checkouts/gecko/toolkit/xre/nsSigHandlers.cpp:201

(firefox-esr:11123): GLib-GIO-CRITICAL **: 15:38:04.982: g_dbus_connection_unregister_object: assertion 'G_IS_DBUS_CONNECTION (connection)' failed
[Parent 11123, Main Thread] WARNING: nsDBusRemoteServer: Unable to unregister root object from within onNameLost!: 'glib warning', file /builds/worker/checkouts/gecko/toolkit/xre/nsSigHandlers.cpp:201

** (firefox-esr:11123): WARNING **: 15:38:04.982: nsDBusRemoteServer: Unable to unregister root object from within onNameLost!

No usable Zotero launches and ps aux | grep -i zotero only shows that grep process.

Does that throw any more light on things? Something nasty in the dbus connections? I have slow launching for Vivaldi and Chrome but haven't previously had any problems with Zotero.

cpsyctc · 2026-01-23T14:58:31+00:00

I have sent this next to suppor@zotero with link to this thread:

Relates to https://forums.zotero.org/discussion/129196/zotero-locks-on-launch-after-automatic-update-to-zotero-8-kubuntu-25-10?new=1

OK. I launched Zotero from the task manager again (my usual route) and I noticed that the Zotero tool bar was _NOT_ initially greyed out, that only happens after I try to dismiss either of the two message strips.

First screen shot: tool bar _NOT_ greyed out: Zotero_Screenshot_20260123_154612.png

But if I click to dismiss the "Zotero now automatically ..." message strip it does grey out and Zotero locks:
Zotero_Screenshot_20260123_154706.png

Interestingly, if I refrain from dismissing either strip, Zotero seems to be functional, however if I dismiss either, it locks but with the slight difference that I dismiss the upper message strip with "Done" it is locked but the tool bar is _NOT_ greyed out:
Screenshot_20260123_155539.png

So pretty definitely some message handling issue between Zotero and Kubuntu?

TIA,

Chris

dstillman · 2026-01-23T16:16:55+00:00

You launch Zotero with ./zotero, not ./zotero-bin, so it's ./zotero -safe-mode to launch in Troubleshooting Mode.

Can you launch with ./zotero -safe-mode -ZoteroDebugText and, after reproducing the hang, send the output to support@zotero.org?

cpsyctc · 2026-01-23T16:38:19+00:00

Done. I had opened a note (a very short one) last time I had Z open and after crashing it after the last freeze on closing the message strips and following that, it opens (not full screen) with that note open ... and has been there for probably ten minutes now. I have taken a screen grab and I'll wait to hear whether you think I should continue to wait for it to come out of its torpor or kill it and send you the output. Is it automatically saved to a file, hundreds of lines have scrolled past in the terminal?

cpsyctc · 2026-01-23T16:39:48+00:00

Here are the most recent lines in the terminal. Been here for at least ten minutes now, probably longer.

zotero(4)(+0000001): SELECT itemID FROM items WHERE (itemID NOT IN (SELECT itemID FROM deletedItems UNION SELECT itemID FROM itemNotes WHERE parentItemID IS NOT NULL AND parentItemID IN (SELECT itemID FROM deletedItems) UNION SELECT itemID FROM itemAttachments WHERE parentItemID IS NOT NULL AND parentItemID IN (SELECT itemID FROM deletedItems)UNION SELECT itemID FROM itemAnnotations WHERE parentItemID IN (SELECT itemID FROM deletedItems)UNION SELECT itemID FROM itemAnnotations WHERE parentItemID IN (SELECT itemID FROM itemAttachments WHERE parentItemID IN (SELECT itemID FROM deletedItems)))) AND itemID IN (SELECT itemID FROM items WHERE (libraryID=?)) AND itemID IN (SELECT itemID FROM items WHERE (itemTypeID IN (SELECT itemTypeID FROM itemTypesCombined WHERE typeName=?))) [1, 'note']

zotero(4)(+0000001): CREATE TEMPORARY TABLE tagDelete AS SELECT tagID FROM tags WHERE tagID NOT IN (SELECT tagID FROM itemTags)

zotero(3)(+0001569): Cached CSL.Engine instance with {"locale":"en-GB","format":"html","automaticJournalAbbreviations":false} for http://www.zotero.org/styles/chicago-shortened-notes-bibliography

zotero(3)(+0001539): Cached CSL.Engine instance with {"locale":"en-GB","format":"text","automaticJournalAbbreviations":false} for http://www.zotero.org/styles/chicago-shortened-notes-bibliography

zotero(3)(+0000001): Preloading 1412e9e2-51e1-42ec-aa35-e036a895534b for Quick Copy

zotero(3)(+0000000): Getting contents of /home/chris/Zotero/translators/Note Markdown.js

dstillman · 2026-01-23T16:41:10+00:00

You can redirect the output to a file with > log.txt, but if it stopped, you can just copy all the text that's available and send that.

cpsyctc · 2026-01-23T16:43:18+00:00

Just done that for those last lines, very happy to kill it and restart with redirect (I had wondered!)

dstillman · 2026-01-23T16:44:56+00:00

By "all the text that's available" I mean your terminal's entire scrollback buffer — ideally hundreds or thousands of lines. If it's easier to redirect to a file, you can do that.

cpsyctc · 2026-01-23T16:58:43+00:00

Done

cpsyctc · 2026-01-27T13:18:10+00:00

Any progress with this. The issue isn't so reliably a freeze on launch now but it's still freezing at some point within a very short period of launch/use (minutes maximum). That means Z8.0 is unusable for me. Is there a safe way for me to wind back to 7.? which was working fine?