XPCOMGlueLoad error when starting Zotero 5.0.81

ngirard
Hi all,

After updating Zotero from 5.0.77 to 5.0.81 on Ubuntu 19.04, I'm getting the following error when starting Zotero:

XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /usr/lib/zotero/libxul.so:
/usr/lib/zotero/libxul.so: undefined symbol: _ZN7mozilla11SandboxInfo14ThreadingCheckEv
Couldn't load XPCOM.

Any thoughts ?
Thanks in advance !
  • dstillman
    Uninstall Zotero and reinstall it.
  • ngirard
    edited January 20, 2020
    @dstillman : hi, and thanks for your feedback. Unfortunately it didn't work.

    FWIW, I'm using @emilianoeheyns ' package, and already have reported downstream here: https://github.com/retorquere/zotero-deb/issues/21

    Emiliano thought that the problem was unrelated to his packaging, so here I am.
  • dstillman
    If you download the tarball from the download page and run ./zotero from the extracted directory, does the same thing happen?
  • ngirard
    edited January 20, 2020
    > If you download the tarball from the download page and run ./zotero from
    > the extracted directory, does the same thing happen?

    No, it doesn't: the program from the tarball starts just fine !
  • dstillman
    edited January 20, 2020
    OK, so either you didn’t fully uninstall it before reinstalling or there’s a problem with the packaging (or both, the former because of the latter).
  • ngirard
    edited January 20, 2020
    Well I uninstalled/reinstalled it using

    sudo apt remove zotero
    sudo apt install zotero

    I'd be surprised if the uninstalling was incomplete. I might want to ask Emiliano on Github.
  • emilianoeheyns
    If the tarball behaves differently then the problem is in the packaging. Technically, for a full uninstall you should purge after remove, but I don't think that'll change anything because I don't lay out extra files after install. But try purge, and before reinstall, check of there are any files left in /usr/lib/zotero.

    It could also be a permissions issue. I'll see if I can replicate it.
  • emilianoeheyns
    Strange thing though because the packaging process hasn't changed in ages. So something must have changed in Zotero that my packaging is not properly equipped for that used to work. Any ideas on where I should look?
  • emilianoeheyns
    Wait - this prevents Zotero from starting at all? That's doubly strange, as the BBT tests installs and starts this version for its tests.
  • ngirard
    edited January 20, 2020
    An update.

    `apt remove` already removes the whole /usr/lib/zotero directory, but in order to be sure, I 1) installed Emiliano's package again ; 2) did `apt purge` ; 3) tried to start Zotero. I got the same error.

    And yes, it does prevent Zotero from starting at all.
  • emilianoeheyns
    I'll have to install 19.04 to see whether I can replicate this. On whatever Travis runs (some debian version) and Ubuntu 19.10 (which I run), I can't replicate this problem.
  • emilianoeheyns
    What architecture do you have?
  • ngirard
    That's weird...

    I'm on x86_64. /proc/cpuinfo gives twice:
    model name : Intel(R) Pentium(R) CPU G2030 @ 3.00GHz

    @emilianoeheyns, don't hesitate to ask for anything else that could help
  • emilianoeheyns
    Fresh Ubuntu 19.04 (in virtualbox), fresh install of 5.0.81 from the deb packages. Zotero asked to install a bunch of things after first start and I let it. I have no problems on this system, Zotero starts as expected.

    Can you start Zotero with

    /usr/lib/zotero/zotero -ZoteroDebugText > ~/zotero.log 2>&1 &

    and see if there's anything informative in zotero.log besides the XPCOMGlueLoad error? From what I can gather, XPCOMGlueLoad error just means "I did an oopsie" but is in itself unspecific on what went wrong; on _ZN7mozilla11SandboxInfo14ThreadingCheckEv I can't find anything at all.
  • ngirard
    @emilianoeheyns, unfortunately the `-ZoteroDebugText` option didn't produce any more output than the one I pasted before.
  • emilianoeheyns
    What do you get when you execute

    diff -qr Zotero_linux-x86_64 /usr/lib/zotero

    For me it yields

    Only in /usr/lib/zotero/defaults: pref
    Only in /usr/lib/zotero: mozilla.cfg
    Only in Zotero_linux-x86_64: zotero.desktop
  • emilianoeheyns
    edited January 20, 2020
    and if you sudo chown -R root:root Zotero_linux-x86_64, does Zotero still start from that unpacked tarball?
  • ngirard
    Emiliano, sorry for being slow to respond.

    Now that we know it starts well on a fresh ubuntu 19.04, I gave it another try on my laptop, which also happens to be running Ubuntu 19.04. I had no problem starting Zotero on that machine.

    So the problem seems to be somewhat related to the state of my system, although I have no idea how exactly, neither do I recall altering it in any particular way.

    On the `problematic` machine, `LANG=C diff -qr Zotero_linux-x86_64 /usr/lib/zotero` gives

    Only in /usr/lib/zotero/defaults: pref
    Only in Zotero_linux-x86_64/fonts: .uuid
    Files Zotero_linux-x86_64/libxul.so and /usr/lib/zotero/libxul.so differ
    Only in /usr/lib/zotero: mozilla.cfg
    Only in Zotero_linux-x86_64: zotero.desktop
    Files Zotero_linux-x86_64/zotero.jar and /usr/lib/zotero/zotero.jar differ

    Finally: after `sudo chown -R root:root Zotero_linux-x86_64`, Zotero still starts from the unpacked tarball.
  • emilianoeheyns
    edited January 20, 2020
    Only in Zotero_linux-x86_64/fonts: .uuid

    This is strange

    Files Zotero_linux-x86_64/libxul.so and /usr/lib/zotero/libxul.so differ
    Files Zotero_linux-x86_64/zotero.jar and /usr/lib/zotero/zotero.jar differ

    These are very strange and this should absolutely not be possible.

  • ngirard
    (where can I find the formatting rules for this forum ? E.g. in order to format text as quotes, code, etc ? I've never been able to find them)

    Here's what I have: (I removed & reinstalled both zotero)

    ls -lt |head
    -rw-rw-r-- 1 ngirard ngirard 60167808 janv. 20 09:50 Zotero-5.0.81_linux-x86_64.tar.bz2
    tar xjf Zotero-5.0.81_linux-x86_64.tar.bz2


    dpkg -l | grep zotero
    ii unity-scope-zotero 0.1+13.10.20130723-0ubuntu1 all Zotero scope for Unity
    ii zotero 5.0.81 amd64 Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research

    LANG=C diff -qr Zotero_linux-x86_64 /usr/lib/zotero
    Only in /usr/lib/zotero/defaults: pref
    Files Zotero_linux-x86_64/libxul.so and /usr/lib/zotero/libxul.so differ
    Only in /usr/lib/zotero: mozilla.cfg
    Only in Zotero_linux-x86_64: zotero.desktop
    Files Zotero_linux-x86_64/zotero.jar and /usr/lib/zotero/zotero.jar differ
  • emilianoeheyns
    You just enter HTML. I use a markdown->HTML converter and then paste that.

    You have the "global menu" version! Uninstall Zotero, remove /etc/apt/sources.list.d/zotero.list, and reinstall.
  • emilianoeheyns
    edited January 20, 2020
    I'm removing the global-menu version from the repo.
  • emilianoeheyns
    I've put a new "version" of the global-menu repo that will just alert users to move to the regular version when they upgrade.
  • ngirard
    You just enter HTML. I use a markdown->HTML converter and then paste that.
    Alright, thanks for the tip !
    You have the "global menu" version!
    Yes I do. I'm for sure willing to use the "regular" flavor instead, but IMHO that doesn't explain everything: on my laptop I've also installed the "global menu" version and it starts just fine.

    I can see you also posted on Github, I'll keep the discussion going on Github from now on ; but that won't be until tonight, unfortunately.

    Dan, Emiliano: thanks to both of you for your time & assistance on this problem !
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