Profile missing error after update to 4.0.9 on Linux

Algieba

I am a Zotero Standalone user on Fedora 13.
Yesterday, I updated my Zotero to version 4.0.9. Then I can't start zotero unless I change the user to root.
The alert is "Your Zotero profile cannot be loaded. It may be missing or inaccessible" titled as "Profile missing".
I have changed the owner of zotero folder to my username. However, it still doesn't work.
What should I do to fix this problem? Thanks in advance for you help.

SomeGuy

I have exactly the same problem but on ubuntu.

I tried completely removing zotero, then re-installing, but still get the same error.

Zotero launches if I run it as root, but that's not a solution.

mijalce

same here. Ubuntu 13.04. Created new profile in Firefox, no success.

Simon

If you re-download Zotero from http://www.zotero.org/download/, does it work?

dstillman

Do you recall if the update process prompted for admin access?

I have changed the owner of zotero folder to my username

If files in the profile directory were set to root, you'd need to fix them recursively, not just change the owner of the folder. Did you do so? Also, to be clear, this is the profile directory, not just the Zotero data directory below it.

mijalce

I was asked for root access to update. I open it as sudo zotero, updated it. After update, through terminal with sudo zotero it opens without a problem, however it does not open the pdf files. Only zotero is does not open.
Then I uninstal zotero standalone ad used the PPA at https://github.com/smathot/zotero_installer however the problems are not solved.
In the terminal when I use sudo zotero I get the following errors:
(process:15611): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_slice_set_config: assertion `sys_page_size == 0' failed

(zotero:15611): IBUS-WARNING **: The owner of /home/mijalce/.config/ibus/bus is not root!

when I use only zotero in terminal I get the following errors:
(process:15853): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_slice_set_config: assertion `sys_page_size == 0' failed
Error: Access was denied while trying to open files in your profile directory.

Simon

Try

rm -rf ~/.cache/zotero

SomeGuy

Re-installing did not solve the issue.

Removing the cache worked :)

mijalce

sudo rm -rf ~/.cache/zotero
solved the problem
Thanks!

Simon

The problem here is that Zotero 4.0.9 writes a new file to ~/.cache/zotero that wasn't present in 4.0.8, so if Zotero 4.0.9 is first run using sudo, that cache file will be owned by root and your user account won't be able to read or write to it.

FWIW, you should never run Zotero as superuser, both for security reasons and because, if Zotero writes files as superuser, your user account won't be able to read them, as was the case here. If Zotero is owned by root, and you want it to auto-update, you should change its permissions (on the directory, recursively) so that it's owned by your user account. I don't think there's a compelling reason to change the ownership back to root after the update is complete, but if you do, you can do that.

Algieba

rm -rf ~/.cache/zotero

This one worked. Thank you very much.

I only run zotero as superuser to update it for it asked.
I have change the owner of the directory recursively to my username. Does that means I needn't to run zotero for next update?

miro_ilias

Hi,

$ sudo rm -rf ~/.cache/zotero

and then

$ zotero

worked !

Miro

ostream

The alert message stay the same even if i rm the ~/.cache/zotero directory :s

adamsmith

you have run the remove command as sudo? And you have regular user permissions for the folder your installing Zotero to?

ostream

[Warning: See Simon's note below. — D.S.]

I solved the problem : the correct way to solve my problem is to run a

$ sudo apt-get remove zotero-standalone
$ sudo rm -rf ~/.zotero; sudo rm -rf ~/.cache/zotero
$ sudo apt-get install zotero-standalone
$ zotero&

:)

Simon

For anyone else reading this: the above instructions might delete your Zotero data directory, depending on where you have it stored. You're better off fixing the permissions on ~/.zotero instead of removing it (and not running Zotero as root).