Zotero Firefox plugin on PC-BSD
On PC-BSD 9.0 it seems that Firefox cannot open after the Zotero plugin is installed. In fact it breaks to the point where Firefox cannot even be uninstalled without deleting all associated files by hand. Does anybody have any similar experience or insights?
PS: I went to the Zotero site, but the bug report system assumes that Zotero and/or Firefox is working so I cannot participate there.
PS: I went to the Zotero site, but the bug report system assumes that Zotero and/or Firefox is working so I cannot participate there.
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What convinces you that the problem is Zotero - from your post on the PCBSD forum
http://forums.pcbsd.org/showthread.php?p=93123
it sounds like you're talking about one machine that isn't even yours. It's certainly possible - I doubt Zotero tests on PCBSD - but what type of error does FF throw?
(Also, Zotero has many, many more than 88k users - downloads are likely above 1m - most people install from this site and not from mozilla)
- The machine is mine, but the user is my wife. (sorry if ownership is an issue)
- The 88k users was not intended as a slight, that is what was reported on the FF download site. Please accept my apologies for quoting them.
- I don't know where the problem lies, I'm trying to find out.
- I meant the Zotero web site, sorry. http://www.zotero.org/support/reporting_bugs#reporting_bugs
- The error from FF (as explained in my first post) is that it won't open. Once the Zotero plugin is installed, neither Zotero nor FF can be opened.
It is indeed possible that the problem is with PC-BSD, or Mozilla, but since I can't seem to figure it out, I am asking for help. The reason I am not providing more information (which would be the usual thing to do) is that there is none available. If someone can tell me where to look, I am more than willing. It is difficult for me to sit at the machine because of my disability, so my connection is generally SSH, but I can use the GUI if it is absolutely necessary.
Any suggestions on how to proceed would be welcome. :)
Ownership is obviously not an issue - we just need to be able to troubleshoot this with someone with direct access to the machine in question.
As for next steps:
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser_will_not_start_up
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Firefox_crashes#Crash_when_starting_Firefox
As I say - this can be a Zotero problem - but we'd need more info.
I am not at all convinced that it is a Zotero problem, or if it is, that it can easily be addressed. I have a feeling that the problem lies in the PC-BSD port of Firefox. Nevertheless, there was a problem with Zotero on the previous (8.2) version of PC-BSD after there was a Zotero update, so wherever the problem lies, it is sliding toward the worse. :)
Now that I've come here, I hope to get some insight into the situation. However, in order to do this properly (and not waste other people's time), I'm going to re-install PC-BSD, then Firefox. Then, before anything else gets done to the machine, I'm going to install Zotero so I can better see what exactly happens at that point - which is where FF breaks completely and cannot even be reinstalled in a normal way. From what I understand from my wife, Zotero is such a good program that it borders on essential. :) I'll come back shortly when I've done all that and hopefully can ask more fruitful questions.
Very few people (it seems) are using PC-BSD and it is hard to find out what other people's experience is with different programs. Anyway, if this worked for you without destroying FF, then that gives me a hint. Perhaps Xorg is involved. I'll see after the reinstall.
There is then a new message in ~/.xsession-errors which indicates that MySQL is unable to execute a query. Killing the FF process and restarting does not change anything and the message is just repeated.
I will ask about this on the PC-BSD forum since it seems that the problem is with the PC-BSD Firefox package and it's relation to the plugin. At this point I will assume that there is nothing that can be adjusted with Zotero. However, any and all suggestions are welcome.
Thanks
Cheers,
Ole
Going directly to the Zotero web site and clicking on 3.0.1 will install that version automatically and it works like a charm.
The problem I was having is that getting programs directly from a web site is not recommended in PC-BSD so I was persisting in doing it through the Firefox tools which is what kills Firefox in this situation.