I’ve been having an odd issue with Thunderbird 5.0, 6.0 and 7.0 developmental builds (Thunderbird 3.1 works fine) breaking on Linux Mint 10 when attempting to override add-on compatibility checking. I’ve posted this on mozillaZine at Thunderbird Builds.
I first attempted to manually go into the Config Editor and add the following Boolean entries set to false:
- extensions.checkCompatibility.5.0b
- extensions.checkCompatibility.6.0a
- extensions.checkCompatibility.nightly
When I go into the add-ons manager it does show add-on compatibility checking is disabled and I have no add-ons currently installed. I go to install an add-on and restart and I end up with the image below. At first I thought it was one of two add-ons I was trying to force to work Personas Plus ChromEdit Plus, so I tried just installing an add-on that was compatible with Thunderbird 6. Same result after restart. I’ve done this on copied as well as fresh profiles and end up with the same result each time I make a change in the config editor.
It was then suggested to try and install the add-on compatibility reporter and let it make changes to the setting. So I created a new burner profile for Thunderbird 5 Beta 2 with no add-ons and no accounts. I installed the add-on and Thunderbird came up on the first restart. For this add-on to fully “kick-in” a second restart is required. Upon the second restart I ended up with the above screen again. The next suggestion was to add the following lines to my prefs.js for this profile:
user_pref(“extensions.checkCompatibility”, false);
user_pref(“extensions.checkCompatibility.5.0b”, false);
user_pref(“extensions.checkCompatibility.7.0b”, false);
user_pref(“extensions.checkCompatibility.nightly”, false);
user_pref(“extensions.checkCompatibility.nightly.5.0b”, “false”);
Upon reviewing the pref.js for this now dead profile I determined I had all these entries already. With the exception of user_pref(“extensions.checkCompatibility.7.0b”, false); which is actually not used as has been replaced by user_pref(“extensions.checkCompatibility.nightly”, false);. I have included the contents of the pref.js file at the end of this post.
Again to review. This is a fresh profile with no extensions, themes or anything else installed. No account has been setup yet either. All I have to do is make a change to the extensions.checkCompatibility (either through about:config or the add-on compatibility reporter) and I have managed to have a broken Thunderbird upon restart. All I can do at that point is nuke the profile and create a new one. Further, I have no issues with this in Thunderbird 3.1 or any of the Thunderbird builds on Windows 7.
So, I am wondering if anyone has run into this issue before. I am also wondering if it has anything to do with Mint 10. But, then I don’t understand how changing the add-on compatibility checking (especially when there are no add-ons installed) would break Thunderbird.
# Mozilla User Preferences
/* Do not edit this file.
*
* If you make changes to this file while the application is running,
* the changes will be overwritten when the application exits.
*
* To make a manual change to preferences, you can visit the URL about:config
* For more information, see http://www.mozilla.org/unix/customizing.html#prefs
*/
user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.addon-background-update-timer", 1308774492);
user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.background-update-timer", 1308774492);
user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.blocklist-background-update-timer", 1308774492);
user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.microsummary-generator-update-timer", 1308774492);
user_pref("app.update.lastUpdateTime.search-engine-update-timer", 1308774492);
user_pref("app.update.postupdate", true);
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.capacity", 1048576);
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run", false);
user_pref("browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value", 1048576);
user_pref("extensions.acr.firstrun", false);
user_pref("extensions.acr.previousApplicationVersion", "5.0b2pre");
user_pref("extensions.blocklist.pingCountVersion", 0);
user_pref("extensions.bootstrappedAddons", "{}");
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.0", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.1", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.1a", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.1b", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.1p", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.1pre", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.3", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.3a", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.3b", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.3p", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.3.3pre", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.5.0", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.5.0a", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.5.0b", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.5.0p", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.5.0pre", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.6.0", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.6.0a", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.7.0", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.7.0a", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.8.0", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.8.0a", false);
user_pref("extensions.checkCompatibility.nightly", false);
user_pref("extensions.databaseSchema", 3);
user_pref("extensions.enabledAddons", "langpack-en-US@thunderbird.mozilla.org:3.1,langpack-en-GB@thunderbird.mozilla.org:3.1.99,compatibility@addons.mozilla.org:0.8.5,{972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd}:5.0b2pre");
user_pref("extensions.installCache", "[{\"name\":\"app-system-share\",\"addons\":{\"langpack-en-US@thunderbird.mozilla.org\":{\"descriptor\":\"/usr/share/mozilla/extensions/{3550f703-e582-4d05-9a08-453d09bdfdc6}/langpack-en-US@thunderbird.mozilla.org\",\"mtime\":1307821229000},\"langpack-en-GB@thunderbird.mozilla.org\":{\"descriptor\":\"/usr/share/mozilla/extensions/{3550f703-e582-4d05-9a08-453d09bdfdc6}/langpack-en-GB@thunderbird.mozilla.org\",\"mtime\":1307821228000}}},{\"name\":\"app-global\",\"addons\":{\"{972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd}\":{\"descriptor\":\"/opt/thunderbird5/extensions/{972ce4c6-7e08-4474-a285-3208198ce6fd}\",\"mtime\":1308774333000}}},{\"name\":\"app-profile\",\"addons\":{\"compatibility@addons.mozilla.org\":{\"descriptor\":\"/home/elguru/.thunderbird/b3cg47si.CRASH ME!/extensions/compatibility@addons.mozilla.org.xpi\",\"mtime\":1308774334000}}}]");
user_pref("extensions.lastAppVersion", "5.0b2pre");
user_pref("extensions.pendingOperations", false);
user_pref("mail.append_preconfig_smtpservers.version", 2);
user_pref("mail.attachment.store.version", 1);
user_pref("mail.folder.views.version", 1);
user_pref("mail.openMessageBehavior.version", 1);
user_pref("mail.rights.version", 1);
user_pref("mail.spam.version", 1);
user_pref("mailnews.quotingPrefs.version", 1);
user_pref("mailnews.start_page_override.mstone", "5.0b2pre");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label1.color", "#FF0000");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label1.tag", "Important");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label2.color", "#FF9900");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label2.tag", "Work");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label3.color", "#009900");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label3.tag", "Personal");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label4.color", "#3333FF");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label4.tag", "To Do");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label5.color", "#993399");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.$label5.tag", "Later");
user_pref("mailnews.tags.version", 2);
user_pref("network.cookie.prefsMigrated", true);
user_pref("xpinstall.whitelist.add", "");
user_pref("xpinstall.whitelist.add.36", "");
