installing standalone in win7

have ff4 and zotero 2.1.5 installed, they work, no problems. I cannot get the standalone (2.1a3) to start in any of my computers (2 laptops, 1 desktop). All running win7. I have no problems with ff extension. I continually get the "there was a problem starting zotero" error message when I run the zotero.exe in the folder that is created when I extract the zip file.

I have tried rebooting, using program manager to exit all instances of ff, shutting off firewall (and many other processes as well).

I downloaded previous standalone (2.1a2) and that did not get the error message however it was not functional (no database viewable, no options button).

Any suggestions? I've wanted a zotero standalone for a while now so I sure hope you can help. thanks
  • Exactly the same issue here.

    Win7 64bit.
  • wait for the next standalone version, due out soon (Simon says probably within a week)
  • Same here. Argh. Win7 64bit. Chrome. Pffft... I've been wrestling with this for 90 mins...frustrating. Looking forward to making this work. For now, back to Firefox I guess.
  • Any word on the new version yet?
  • I'm getting the same thing with the new beta version. When I try to run 3.0b1, I get "There was an error starting Zotero."

    I'm running Win7, FF6, and the error occurs with both the 2.1.8 and 3.0b1 FF extension.

    Any suggestions?
  • edited August 23, 2011
    richlivi, if you're running the 64-bit version of Windows 7, try typing the following into the search box under the start menu:

    C:\Program Files (x86)\Zotero Standalone\zotero.exe -jsconsole
    If you're running the 32-bit version, try the following:

    C:\Program Files\Zotero Standalone\zotero.exe -jsconsole
    This should open a window with Zotero Standalone that reports any errors that Zotero experienced while starting. Copy and paste those errors here, and we'll see what we can do.
  • Okay, first of all, I should mention that I installed the program into "C:\Program Files\Zotero\", but I tried installing in the default location and I get the same result. Here are the errors that show up in the console.

    Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520001 (NS_ERROR_FILE_UNRECOGNIZED_PATH) [nsIFile.append]" nsresult: "0x80520001 (NS_ERROR_FILE_UNRECOGNIZED_PATH)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/zotero.js :: getDefaultProfile :: line 856" data: no]
    Source File: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Zotero/components/zotero-service.js
    Line: 280

    Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520001 (NS_ERROR_FILE_UNRECOGNIZED_PATH) [nsIFile.append]" nsresult: "0x80520001 (NS_ERROR_FILE_UNRECOGNIZED_PATH)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/zotero.js :: getDefaultProfile :: line 856" data: no]
    Source File: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Zotero/components/zotero-service.js
    Line: 290

    Error: uncaught exception: [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://zotero/content/include.js :: <TOP_LEVEL> :: line 4" data: no]

    Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520001 (NS_ERROR_FILE_UNRECOGNIZED_PATH) [nsIFile.append]" nsresult: "0x80520001 (NS_ERROR_FILE_UNRECOGNIZED_PATH)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/zotero.js :: getDefaultProfile :: line 856" data: no]
    Source File: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Zotero/components/zotero-service.js
    Line: 280

    Error: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520001 (NS_ERROR_FILE_UNRECOGNIZED_PATH) [nsIFile.append]" nsresult: "0x80520001 (NS_ERROR_FILE_UNRECOGNIZED_PATH)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://zotero/content/xpcom/zotero.js :: getDefaultProfile :: line 856" data: no]
    Source File: file:///C:/Program%20Files/Zotero/components/zotero-service.js
    Line: 290

    Error: uncaught exception: [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://zotero/content/include.js :: <TOP_LEVEL> :: line 4" data: no]

    Error: Zotero is undefined
    Source File: chrome://zotero/content/bindings/styled-textbox.xml
    Line: 119

    Error: Zotero is undefined
    Source File: chrome://zotero/content/bindings/styled-textbox.xml
    Line: 119

    Error: Zotero is undefined
    Source File: chrome://zotero/content/bindings/styled-textbox.xml
    Line: 119

    Error: Zotero is undefined
    Source File: chrome://zotero/content/bindings/styled-textbox.xml
    Line: 119
  • Can you go to %AppData%/Mozilla/Firefox (you can just type it into the Start menu box) and send the profiles.ini file to support@zot...org with a link to this thread?
  • I'm pretty sure I understand where you were trying to go with your request for the profiles.ini file, so I did some troubleshooting on my own and here's what I discovered. First, my FF profile contained the following:

    [General]
    StartWithLastProfile=1

    [Profile0]
    Name=Default
    IsRelative=1
    Path=Profiles/zcqkmamo.Default

    [Profile1]
    Name=Rich
    IsRelative=0
    Path=D:\Richard\Apps\Firefox
    Default=1

    You'll notice that my main "default" profile, or the one I use most often, points to a directory different than the usual (%AppData%) location. This is what's apparently causing the error, because when I changed the profiles.ini to the following, it does work:

    [General]
    StartWithLastProfile=1

    [Profile0]
    Name=Default
    IsRelative=1
    Path=Profiles/zcqkmamo.Default
    Default=1

    [Profile1]
    Name=Rich
    IsRelative=0
    Path=D:\Richard\Apps\Firefox

    I tried this with and without the Zotero FF extension installed, and it works both ways.

    So, to get it to use my current Zotero data, what I did was use the profiles.ini that worked (the second one), and then selected the appropriate option when the program display the "It looks like this is the first time you've run Zotero Standalone" message. Everything seems to be working just fine for me now.

    If I'm right then the upshot is that if the default FF profile points to a folder other than the %AppData% location, the error will pop up.
  • Thanks. This is fixed for 3.0b2.
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