Mint 13: Firefox 39.0 crashes right on startup

[karlchen]

Hello, folks.

I suspect not too many of you are still using Ubuntu 12.04 and/or Mint 13, though alledgedly they are supported till April 2017. I am!
Up to Firefox 38.0 (firefox 38.0-build3-0ubuntu0.12.04.1) everything was fine, on

• Ubuntu 12.04.5 64-bit Unity
• Mint 13 64-bit Cinnamon
• Mint 13 32-bit Cinnamon
• Mint 13 32-bit xfce (2 machines)

Last week Firefox 39.0 (firefox 39.0-build5-0ubuntu0.12.04.1) became available through the PPA for Ubuntu Mozilla Security Team

Firefox 38 has been updated to Firefox 39.0 on the following 2 systems, and it works there correctly without any hassle:

• Ubuntu 12.04.5 64-bit Unity
• Mint 17.1 32-bit Cinnamon/xfce

I.e. Firefox 39.0 works correctly on genuine Ubuntu 12.04.5 64-bit Unity and on Linux Mint 32-bit Cinnamon/xfce.

However, Firefox 39.0 refuses to run on the following 3 systems in a reproducible way.

• Mint 13 32-bit Cinnamon
• Mint 13 32-bit xfce (2 machines)

Right on startup it crashes with the followng terminal error message which will be displayed twice:

Code: Select all

[NPAPI 8734] ###!!! ABORT: Aborting on channel error.: file /build/firefox-ALgUKk/firefox-39.0+build5/ipc/glue/MessageChannel.cpp, line 1597

So the only available combination which I have not updated and tested, yet, is Firefox 39 on Linux Mint 13 64-bit Cinnamon.

Therefore the unanswered questions really seem to be:

• Is there a bug in Firefox 39 32-bit which causes the reproducible crash?
  (Then Firefox 39 should work on Mint 13 64-bit like it does on Ubuntu 12.04.5 64-bit.)
• Is there a conflict between Firefox 39 and Mint 13 in general?
  (Then Firefox 39 should fail on Mint 13 64-bit, like it does on all tested Mint 13 32-bit systems)
• What is the root cause of the Firefox 39 crash on Mint 13?
  (Which does not happen on Mint 17.1?)

Note:
I have tried with a fresh Firefox profile on the affected systems. No change, still crashes.
I use CTR1.3.2.11_signed and Redcats on Green on all Firefoxes.

Are there any other Mint 13 users who have come across this problem?
Has anyone got a verifiable hypothesis what the root cause is?

Cheers,
Karl

[Pjotr]

Does it help when you disable hardware acceleration? Edit - Preferences - Advanced.

[karlchen]

Hello, Pjotr.

When starting Firefox 39.0 I do not get far enough to change any settings. It crashes during startup. So I will never have a chance of doing anything in Firefox 39.0, except agreeing or disagreeing to send yet anyother crash report to Mozilla.
For the moment I have gone back to Firfox 38.0 (firefox 38.0-build3-0buntu0.12.04.1) and locked this version on all Mint 13 32-bit system, Cinnamon / xcfe desktop.

Googling for the error message that I keep on reading has not returned any relevant hit. Searching for "Firefox 39" + "crash" has not done so either.

So I guess I will get the official genuine Mozilla Firefox 39.0 tar.bz2 file (32-bit and 64-bit) and install genuine Mozilla 39.0 32-bit in addition to the Ubuntu provided Firefox 38. I will make sure it uses a different profile folder. Then we will see what happens.

--
But for the moment, I will switch over to Ubuntu 14.04 64-bit to verify Firefox 39.0 works fine there (hopefully it will). Will return to Mint 13 later on.

Cheers,
Karl

[Pjotr]

You might disable hardware acceleration in 38, and then copy the 38-userprofile into 39, before launching 39.....

[xenopeek]

Trying it out on LiveDVD of Mint 13 Xfce, I can reproduce the crashes. I can do a few things:
- Launch the profile manager with firefox --ProfileManager. New profile still crashes.
- Launch the preferences pane with firefox --preferences. New tab also works As soon as I go somewhere it however crashes again.

On the preferences pane disabled all hardware acceleration, updates, and whatnot. Restarted Firefox, it now starts without crashing. But as soon as go to a website it crashes again.

Running firefox --debug and then typing "run" in gdb, I get this at the end:

Code: Select all

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
0x026da473 in ?? () from /usr/lib/firefox/libxul.so

XUL is "XML User Interface Language" and libxul is "a library that provides frozen API for XUL apps and embedders of gecko." I have no idea what all that means but it looks to be a core component of Firefox.

It's probably time to report a bug to the Ubuntu Mozilla Security Team.

[karlchen]

Ha, using the live media for further experiments, this should have come to my mind!

Got live media for
+ Ubuntu 12.04.x 32-bit (which has not been tested so far)
+ Ubuntu 12.04.x 64-bit (where Firefox 39.0 works fine so far)
+ Mint 13 32-bit (where Firefox 39.0 fails reliably)
+ Mint 13 64-bit (which has not been tested so far)

This should be sufficient to find out whether it is a
+ 32-bit vs. 64-bit conflict or
+ Mint 13 vs. Ubuntu 12.04.x conflict

I guess I wish to know the answer to the question above before I will pay a visit to the Mozilla Ubuntu Security Team @ Launchpad.
Getting them to fix a bug that affects genuine Ubuntu 12.04 32-bit might be a lot easier that getting them to dig into a bug that affects Mint 13 only.

Looks like it will be a hot, busy afternoon ...

[Pjotr]

If you want 39 because of the Logjam vulnerability, you can also secure 38 by means of this add-on from Mozilla itself:
https://addons.mozilla.org/mk/firefox/a ... sable-dhe/

[xenopeek]

I downloaded Firefox 39 from https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/ and it runs fine. Replacing the file /usr/lib/firefox/libxul.so (from the Firefox PPA package) with the libxul.so file from the archive downloaded from the Mozilla website also makes Firefox from the PPA run fine! Confirming, to my mind, that the Ubuntu Mozilla Security Team did something wrong.

Edit: on LiveDVD of Mint 13 Xfce 32-bit. So it's not a fully updated image. Haven't tested on anything else.

[karlchen]

Hi, xenopeek.

Excellent findings so far!
(This bug appeals to the Sherlock Holmes in you, doesn't it?! )

Currently I am restoring my Mint 13 32-bit disk image in order to return the machine to "the last known good state".
(May not be necessary, but makes me feel better, because it is my office machine, which has served me perfectly for the past 2 years. It is my POC that office life without Microsoft is feasible.)

---
P.S.:
By now (16:00 CEST) I am back on Linux Mint 13 32-bit Cinnamon, based on Ubuntu 12.04.5 32-bit, K3.13.0-55(94), so pretty much as up-to-date as Mint 13 can be.
And - tarah! - I am running Firefox 39.0 from the Mozilla Security Team PPA, but with the genuine libxul.so from the genuine Mozilla download file firefox-39.0.tar.bz2 (32-bit). Thanks to xenopeek.
---
P.S. 2:
Will get out my Ubuntu12.04 and Mint13 live-systems pendrives and check which combination will work and which will fail.
I'll report back and also create a corresponding Launchpad bug report.

Cheers,
Karl

[karlchen]

Hi, folks.

As testing a live system is bit time consuming, because they are so outdated, I only tested the 2 combinations which I had tested so far only:
+ Ubuntu 12.04.2 32-bit with Unity (live medium)
+ Linux Mint 13 64-bit with Cinnamon (live medium)

Now for the mean part:
On both systems,
+ Ubuntu 12.04.2 32-bit with Unity (live medium)
+ Linux Mint 13 64-bit with Cinnamon (live medium)
Firefox 39 from the Ubuntu Mozilla Security PPA worked out of the box.
Yet, keep in mind, the systems had not been tweaked in any way.

Anyway, the essence seems to be:

Firefox 39 from the Ubuntu Mozilla Security PPA will work out of the box on

• Ubuntu 12.04.2 32-bit with Unity (live medium)
• Ubuntu 12.04.5 64-bit with Unity, Classic Theme Restorer 1.3.2.1-signed and Redcats 5.8.0
• Linux Mint 13 64-bit with Cinnamon (live medium)

Firefox 39 from the Ubuntu Mozilla Security PPA will reproducibly crash on any 32-bit version of Mint 13

• Linux Mint 13 32-bit with Cinnamon, with and without Classic Theme Restorer 1.3.2.1-signed and Redcats 5.8.0
• Linux Mint 13 32-bit with xfce, with and without Classic Theme Restorer 1.3.2.1-signed and Redcats 5.8.0

As Firefox 39 from the Ubuntu Mozilla Security PPA works fine out of the box on my Mint 17.1 32-bit Cinnamon+xfce desktop,
the bug in the 32-bit file libxul.so seems to affect 32-bit versions of Mint 13 only (for whichever reason).

This is what I would report on Launchpad, hoping they are not going to turn it down for the simple reason that the bug does not affect genuine Ubuntu 12.0.4.x 32-bit.
Yet,maybe the problem can be fixed easily:
The genuine Mozilla file libxul.so is younger than the one the Ubuntu Mozilla Security team provide in theri PPA at this point in time. So maybe they won't have to do more than adopt this file.

Cheers,
Karl

[xenopeek]

Just out of curiosity I also tested on LiveDVD Xubuntu 12.04 32-bit. Firefox works fine on that from the PPA. So indeed, it appears to be an issue between Firefox 39.0 from the PPA and Linux Mint 13 32-bit. There is probably a reason Firefox 39 isn't yet in the main repositories of Ubuntu; perhaps they also have found edge cases where things don't work right yet with the current build?

[karlchen]

Launchpad Bug Report:
Mint 13: Firefox 39.0 crashes right on startup

[karlchen]

Hi, xenopeek.

Yes, confirmed. It very much seems to be a conflict between Mint 13 32-bit and Firefox 39 that you will get from ppa:ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa only. This was what I was afraid of. I hope they will not turn the whole report down telling me what I already know, that Mint 13 is not Ubuntu 12.04.x and that the Linux Mint developers should figure out what is wrong and solve the issue.

Cheers,
Karl

[karlchen]

Addendum:

Because I have just run the upgrade and launched the upgraded Firefox 39 (39.0+build5-0ubuntu0.12.04.1) without experiencing any crash or other hickup, I can by now confirm that Firefox 39.0 from the Ubuntu Mozilla Security Team PPA works fine on

• Linux Mint 13 64-bit Cinnamon (based on Ubuntu 12.04.5 64-bit)
  (This is true, even when using Classic Theme Restorer 1.3.2.1-signed plus RedCats on Green 5.8.0)

Conclusion:
The problem seems to be really limited to any Mint 13 32-bit edition and Firefox 39.0 got from the Ubuntu Mozilla Security Team PPA.

[Cosmo.]

Hi karlchen,

only today I saw your thread (so from the starting post the posts are new to me). Reading this makes me wonder:

Last week Firefox 39.0 (firefox 39.0-build5-0ubuntu0.12.04.1) became available through the PPA for Ubuntu Mozilla Security Team

You wrote this yesterday (= Sunday). FF should(!) have been released on last Tuesday (the same week), and so I wonder, how old this build of FF 39 might be.

Fact is, that Mozilla wiithdraw the release of FF 39 in the last minute because of a startup crash under some circumstances. In the meantime FF 39 (fixed)) has been released, but the build from the PPA may be still the old one.

If my understanding about the times you installed via PPA and about the time this build has been made are correct, it would explain what's wrong.

[karlchen]

Hi, Cosmo.

You might be perfectly right about the timeline details. At the time of writing my bug report I was not aware of them.
As a consequence fixing the problem might be really trivial, because the underlying bug has already been fixed by Mozilla and only needs to make its way into the Ubuntu Mozilla Security PPA and from there into the normal Ubuntu repos finally.
Most users will not be as nuts as me and fetch the latest "suspected stable release" of Firefox from the Ubuntu Mozilla Security PPA. So they will never notice unless the reported bug should make its way into the official Ubuntu repos.


Cheers,
Karl

[Cosmo.]

I do not use this PPA, so I do not have any personal experience with this. This means, I do not know, if such or similar problems did already exist in the past. But I would not trust it, if such a specialized PPA (better said: it's maintainers) do get aware of such a situation or do not react immediately.

Saying that and under the precondition, that it is really needed, to get the newest version as soon as possible (the official repositories still show FF 38) I suggest to use the version from the Mozilla webpage. Installation has only have to be done once, after that the user gets automatically informed, if a new version is available and can update online.

I use the ESR-version since it exists (something more than 3 years) and therefor use this method. In all the time there was never a stability problem - neither for the system nor for the browser. I am definitely not a fan of Mozilla - and have written in the past the one or other critical comment - but this method makes sure, that the new version gets available if released and that no instable / withdrawn builds get pushed into the system.

Personal site-note: I also have never understood, why the maintainers of Ubuntu (or Debian?) on the one site decided that the users get via official repositories every 6 weeks the every time new re-invention of the browser instead of the ESR-version, whereas the LTS-users are forced to stay for 5 years with a more than outdated version of LibreOffice, if they stay with the same official repositories. (The fact, that LM 17.2 comes with LO 4.4 does not change the fact, that the ubuntu-base, still valid for LM 17 / 17.1, still provides 4.2 and will most likely do this for the next 4 years. Imagine, you would still use LO 3.3. )

[TheDynamicHamza21]

Firefox 38 is absolutely horrid with horrendous memory leaks thus I've been waiting for over 6 weeks for FF 39 yet it seems Mint and Ubuntu have not done anything to fix the bug for Mint 13 32bit. So if I understand karlchen and xenopeek my choices are either downgrade to 37 or outdated ESR version (FF 31) or download from the Mozilla and Ubuntu ppa and replace the libxul.so file from the Ubuntu ppa with the libxul.so file from Mozilla ppa.

Am i right?

[xenopeek]

That is correct. Firefox 39 is available on Ubuntu 14.04, but not on Ubuntu 12.04 for whatever reason. Perhaps this is a pending upgrade from the Ubuntu Firefox maintainers.

[xenopeek]

USN for Firefox 39 is here: http://www.ubuntu.com/usn/usn-2656-1/. It states the security vulnerabilities fixed in Firefox 39 only affects Ubuntu 14.04 and newer. That would be a reason for Firefox 39 not becoming available for Ubuntu 12.04. In case we've all forgotten; you only get package upgrades for security fixes on a Ubuntu release. For a few applications you don't just get backported security fixes, applied to the original version shipped with your Ubuntu release, but you get the latest upstream release. Firefox is one such example. Is it too difficult to backport security fixes for Firefox otherwise? I don't know. Point however being that with upgrade to Firefox 39 you are secure on Ubuntu 14.04 and above, and without that upgrade you apparently are equally secure from the things fixed in Firefox 39 on Ubuntu 12.04.