Zotero 5.0.66 segmentation fault on startup

I've been having a strange issue with my Zotero the past couple wweks, where it refuses to start, and supplies a segmentation fault error message on startup. Running zotero-bin directly doesn't help, nor does renaming my .zotero and Zotero directories.

I'm running on Arch linux, with Zotero installed from the AUR. I get the same errors when trying to run Zotero from the linux client download available.
  • Running zotero-bin directly doesn't help
    That's not something you ever run directly. Does this happen for ./zotero in the tarball?
  • yup.

    To clarify, I checked the zotero script, and replicated the `zotero-bin --app` etc. command line.
  • OK. I'm afraid I don't have any other suggestions, so you'd need to debug this further yourself. Unfortunately people on Arch tend to report fairly weird errors. Zotero is based on the stock Firefox binary, so it should work anywhere the stock Firefox binary works.
  • I've been trying to make headway here, somewhat intermittently.

    The largest obstacle is getting more information behind the error. All I am currently getting is

    segmentation fault (core dumped) "$CALLDIR/zotero-bin" ....etc

    and I am unable to coax Zotero to say more.

    Is the 'core dump' available for analysis? can I profile the app launch somehow?

    Firefox runs just fine, FWIW, as did Zotero a couple weeks past...
  • Firefox has a "safe mode" of launching, which we recently found out works with Zotero too. When launching the application hold down the Shift key on your keyboard. As far as I know the safe mode disables graphics and cpu accelerations, as well as any add-ons, but it might also provide a more detailed error message or help you debug this somehow.
  • my issue is, I can't get that far :( Zotero, both the AUR package and the tarball, bails on me before I can modify it's startup.
  • So, I added -safe-mode to the launcher script.

    this gives me warnings about missing addons (formautofill, screenshots, webcompat-reporter, fxmonitor)

    ....the first launch.

    after this, nothing.
  • ...no. It crashes on startup.

    for program output to terminal and crash logs, see https://gist.github.com/norseghost/0046dc6b00aff88b26e77e21f88e27e2
  • Right, so then Zotero won't work on your system either. It's possible you can install some legacy libraries to fix this, or you may need to wait until we update the base framework (which we're working on).
  • Well, thing is, it -used- to work, so i probably done goofed something or other.

    FWIW, here's an strace of /usr/bin/zotero

    https://gist.github.com/norseghost/1455592202b13dee8a7d4a690f99a46a
  • I would guess that you just updated to a newer version of something that isn't compatible with the older Firefox.
  • ah :( well, that's unfortunate. other side of rolling release distros I guess.
  • huh. turns out, my wayland backend settings were at fault...
  • @norseghost, could you tell us which "wayland backend settings were at fault"?

    I'm having similar problems to yours (I think), also with wayland (and with zotero and/or zotero-git from AUR). Zotero also used to run, but after having to reinstall EVERYTHING, it doesn't any more.

    So I would be very curious about how you fixed this problem!
  • @ProfRonMoore I believe the GDK_BACKEND environment variable being set to 'wayland' is the issue here. Try launching Zotero with this explicitly set to x11 like:
    `GDK_BACKEND=x11 zotero`
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