"could not save" error on all sites, sync failing. ubuntu 10.10

Hi,
I am unable to save any records from any sites on my ubuntu 10.10 box. the ISBN magic wand also fails. Firefox is 4.01. Zotero 2.1.6, openoffice plugin 3.5a1.
Icons are showing up, and mouseover gives correct results (except Penn's Franklin library page gives "Voyager" which I guess is probably just th catalog software name.)

Sync is also failing, giving a message that sync is happening in another window somewhere, even when it is not.

This is only happening on ubuntu 10.10. I just updated my laptop to 11.04, and it works there fine as well as on the win 7 partition.

Plz don't tell me I have to update ubuntu on the 10.10 box, as I have no plans to right now as it is my main stable workstation.

All plugins except firefox sync, which I need, are disabled. I reset the translator database, updated the translators, restarted

name of the site, and a URL of an entry that is not working:
WOrldcat,
http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org.eres.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/WebZ/FSFETCH?fetchtype=fullrecord:sessionid=fsapp6-56961-gnfd7nlk-sz3ha8:entitypagenum=6:0:recno=4:resultset=3:format=FI:next=html/record.html:bad=error/badfetch.html:entitytoprecno=4:entitycurrecno=4:numrecs=1

http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org.eres.library.manoa.hawaii.edu/WebZ/FSFETCH?fetchtype=fullrecord:sessionid=fsapp6-56961-gnfd7nlk-sz3ha8:entitypagenum=6:0:recno=2:resultset=3:format=FI:next=html/record.html:bad=error/badfetch.html:entitytoprecno=2:entitycurrecno=2:numrecs=1

Amazon,
http://www.amazon.com/Ballads-Lords-New-Spain-Hemisphere/dp/0292718527

U of HI voyager catalog,
http://uhmanoa.lib.hawaii.edu:7008/vwebv/holdingsInfo?searchId=1192&recCount=25&recPointer=6&bibId=1463347

U Penn Franklin Catalog,
http://www.franklin.library.upenn.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?bbid=4525921&DB=local

http://www.franklin.library.upenn.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?bbid=731009&DB=local
ISBN "magic wand"
0804711828

a Report ID from after attempting to save, and
1576189349
292665785
any other information you see as relevant.

Sync error: "A sync process is already running"

~Rich
  • edited May 8, 2011
    restarted
    Did you restart your entire computer, or just Firefox?
    All plugins except firefox sync, which I need, are disabled.
    You need to try with all extensions disabled.
  • edited May 8, 2011
    Also, it looks like you're storing your Zotero database within Dropbox. That is strongly discouraged—it's the easiest way to corrupt your database.

    Move your Zotero data directory to a normal directory and check your database integrity in the Advanced pane of the Zotero preferences.
  • I checked checked the database integrity already. It is fine. It seems it was a random glitch. I rebooted again, and I reloaded the offending pages and everything is working again. I think part of the trouble might have been that I was trying to save the cites from the stale web pages that loaded from cache, so a reboot fixed the problem but not until I reloaded/cleared the cache.

    I've never had any trouble with running zotero on dropbox and I have had some glitches (though not in a while) from zotero sync. This problem was not from a corrupted database. I've been running it on dropbox since before sync was introduced and it has saved my hide at least once with a zotero database that got messed up from syncing with a new computer and a bunch of cites got accidentally eaten. It has an excellent conflict resolution system, and anything that gets changed has all previous versions available, so if something goes wrong I can revert to any of the previous versions. I actually like keeping it in a place that gets backed up rather than just relying on sync. The dropbox directory is just backed up by dropbox. The dropbox directory is a normal directory on my local hard drive along with all my other data.

    ANyway, whatever the problem was it is cleared up. If it happens again, I'll move the zotero directory out of dropbox along with doing the other 12 steps. Thanks for looking into it.
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