Zotero 5.0 linux install problem

sanj101
edited December 6, 2017
Hello

I run linux mint (similar to ubuntu). Previously I used firefox with zotero as an add-on. As that no longer works, downloaded the stand-alone zotero 5 and followed the instructions. Though when I try to run zotero, a popup appears with: "Your zotero profile cannot be loaded..."

When I search for the /home/.../.zotero/zotero/ folder, I can see a l7ivbgp4.default folder and profiles.ini file. I moved this folder & deleted it and ran zotero prog again. This time it creates an empty /zotero folder with the same message.

By the way, when I first looked at the /home/.../.zotero/ folder it had root permission only. So I changed it to user. But that has not made a difference.

I have no security software running.

Any advice appreciated. (I saw another thread with a similar problem, but couldn't figure it out).

Thanks
  • adomasven
    edited December 6, 2017
    To make sure all Zotero directories and files are owned by your user run
    sudo chown -R $USER:$USER ~/.zotero
    sudo chown -R $USER:$USER ~/Zotero


    In general it should have worked fine unless you ran zotero with sudo at some point.
  • sanj101
    I tried that but it made no difference.

    In case it helps anyone else, after doing more searches, I found a solution on this forum:

    rm -rf ~/.zotero
    sudo rm -rf ~/.cache/zotero
  • dstillman
    (I'll just note here that wiping out the Zotero profile directory — which includes settings and for some people upgrading from 4.0 could even have Zotero data in it — is not something that others should do. If you can't identify the permissions problem in the existing directory (which is definitely there in some form, because there's nothing magic about a new directory), temporarily moving .zotero out of the way is a much safer approach.)
  • dstillman
    edited December 6, 2017
    Also, if you weren't able to delete ~/.cache/zotero without sudo, that would be an indication that you ran zotero as root at some point in the past (in which case a sudo chown on the cache directory would also work, though deleting that one is fine).
  • Pedro G. Lino
    edited April 26, 2018
    Had the same problem. Must have run Zotero as sudo at some point.

    The chown commands didn't work but the solution from the OP did work.
    Thank you @sanj101 for posting the question and the solution!
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