Updated and now the bugs.

bobsone
Hi
I updated Zotero to 5.0.80 on an Ubuntu Mate 18.04.
Now whenever I start Zotero, Firefox appears wanting to "Install the Zotero Connector for Firefox" and I also get a window for installing the Libre Office Plugin. This happens in spite of the fact the Firefox and Libre Office plugins are installed and are working.
I have worked through both processes without success, the Libre install prompts result in an Instillation Failed page where I reported the issue and got the following number to post here 1368109493.

Any help appreciated

Regards
  • adomasven
    The Zotero client does not install its extension into Firefox, so whatever you are seeing in Firefox is coincidental with the client update. As for the LibreOffice Plugin, it shouldn't be reinstalling on every restart. If you are sure it is could you produce a startup Debug ID from Zotero?
  • dstillman
    @bobsone: For the Firefox part, is it the start page you're seeing? If so, I'd guess that the prefs.js file in the Zotero profile directory isn't getting updated properly, causing various first-run actions to be triggered on every startup. That file doesn't get saved if you quit Zotero from the command line, but it should get saved when quitting Zotero normally. You can check the timestamp of the file to see if it's getting updated, and also check the value of the extensions.zotero.firstRun2 line to see if it's being set to false after the start page is opened.
  • bobsone
    Hi
    Thanks for the responses.

    I am not able to get the debug to submit anything (the submit button in the “Debug Output” window wasn't active), the only content I can supply is the following:

    JavaScript Error: "uncaught exception: unopkg at /usr/bin/unopkg failed to install"]
    version => 5.0.80, platform => Linux x86_64, oscpu => Linux x86_64, locale => en-US, appName => Zotero, appVersion => 5.0.80, extensions => Zotero LibreOffice Integration (5.0.20.SA.5.0.80, extension)


    Yes, that is the Zotero-firefox page that adds the Zotero extension to firefox, i.e. “Install the Zotero Connector for Firefox” https://www.zotero.org/start The Firefox extension is version 5.0.60.

    I retried installing the LibreOffice plugin and failed again, the submitted error code is 368643774 and the the prefs.js file time stamp hasn't changed since the problem started when I updated Zotero on 13/12/19.

    An interesting aside, typing zotero or sudo zotero in the terminal returns “zotero: command not found”
  • dstillman
    You should always be able to submit a debug output for Zotero startup. Use "Restart with Logging Enabled…" from Help → Debug Output Logging.
    An interesting aside, typing zotero or sudo zotero in the terminal returns “zotero: command not found”
    It's not in your path, so that's not expected to work.
  • bobsone
    I think I have managed to submit a debug file with the debug ID D1718760016

    R.e submitting the debug output:
    I tried,
    Help>Debug Output Logging>Enable and then manually restarting
    Help>Debug Output Logging>Enable and restart with the Restart with Logging Enabled button.
    Help>Debug Output Logging>Restart with Logging Enabled.
    None of the methods results in an option to submit the report.
    Oddly, I opened the Help>Debug Output Logging>View Output option which presented a blank page, after some time the page started being populated and at some point the submit button became active.

    This is in contrast to another identically configured 18.04 Mate computer with Zotero (5.0.77) installed, on this machine all of the methods gave a Help>Debug Output Logging>Submit Output button.

    Also, launching Zotero from the terminal:
    Prior to updating to 5.0.80 we were able to launch Zotero from the terminal, I have checked the other Mate -Zotero install (that is yet to be updated) and it can still be launched from the terminal.
  • dstillman
    Oh, actually, "Restart with Logging Enabled…" won't work because it stores the setting for that in a pref and…your prefs aren't being saved. (And simply manually enabling debug output before restarting wouldn't ever work for capturing startup output.)

    So you need to start Zotero from the command line to provide startup output. Again, just running zotero isn't expected to work, because it's not in your path. You need to actually launch the application file in the correct directory, with the appropriate command-line flags.

    But really, you should start by figuring out why prefs.js isn't being saved, because that's the more general problem. File permissions and security software are the most likely culprits.
  • bobsone
    This has been a bit of a learning trek…

    I managed to find the permissions for prefs.js, it was set to -rw------- that was modified on 13 December.
    I changed it to -rw-rw---- and all appears to be working properly again. I will try updating the other computer when it gets back.
    Do the -rw-rw---- permissions look OK or would it be better to limit it?
  • dstillman
    edited December 18, 2019
    664 would be the standard mode for files within your home directory (which should already be inaccessible to other users), though 660 is fine. But if 600 wasn't working and 660 works, that suggests that the file isn't actually owned by your current user. Did you copy the profile directory from another user account? Have you checked the owner?
  • bobsone
    I have access to the other computer today and have compared them a bit.
    The profiles for both computers (a laptop and a desktop currently running Zotero 5.0.77 and 5.0.80 respectively) weren't copied, two machines were clean installs, were set up separately and they were configured to be as close to identical as possible. Our usage and software hasn't changed, with the only variability coming from updates.

    This thread is relating to the desktop computer, the prefs.js file was -rw------- 1 root root and is now -rw-rw---- 1 user-name user-name. I noticed that the mimeTypes.rdf file was also -rw-r--r-- 1 root root
    This is in contrast to the laptop where all of the files in ~/.zotero/zotero/????????.default are user-name.

    Today I ran a backup on the laptop and found a new issue.
    The process failed to backup the contents of the Styles folder (~/Zotero/styles) (Déjà Dup backs up the entire home folder). It appears that at 09:50 yesterday when I checked to see if I can open Zotero from the laptop terminal, it somehow changed the permissions for the contents of the styles folder to -rw------- 1 root root
    As with the other issue this new problem is not replicated on the other computer.

    Any ideas why this is happening now?
  • dstillman
    That would happen if you at some point ran Zotero as root, perhaps in an attempt to use the auto-updater. You shouldn't do that — it'll make various files owned by root that then won't be accessible to your user account.
  • bobsone
    Ah, that explains it.

    Thanks for the help:

    Regards.
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