Since the upgrade to Firefox 3.0, it doesn't start when using the /usr/bin/firefox wrapper script. Instead, it always dies with "Couldn't load XRE functions". I did some research, but couldn't really find the cause for the problem. I found bug 219444 on bgo which mentions this error (in comment #5), but in a different context. However, I found that like in that bug report, calling the binary directly (/usr/lib64/mozilla-firefox/firefox) works, but not when LD_LIBRARY_PATH is set to /usr/lib64/mozilla-firefox. I played around with strace a little, and it seems that libxpcom.so from mozilla-firefox is relevant for the issue (if LD_LIBRARY_PATH is not set, the one from xulrunner is used). Just for fun I tried renaming the libxpcom.so in /usr/lib64/mozilla-firefox, then firefox starts (however it doesn't work properly, duh). Obviously firefox is emerged with xulrunner USE flag, my current xulrunner version is xulrunner-1.9-r2. Here is my emerge --info output (stripped of mirrors and stuff): Portage 2.2_rc1 (default-linux/amd64/2007.0/desktop, gcc-4.3.1, glibc-2.8_p20080602-r0, 2.6.25-gentoo-r5 x86_64) ================================================================= System uname: Linux-2.6.25-gentoo-r5-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-2_CPU_6600_@_2.40GHz-with-glibc2.2.5 Timestamp of tree: Mon, 30 Jun 2008 16:47:01 +0000 distcc 2.18.3 x86_64-pc-linux-gnu (protocols 1 and 2) (default port 3632) [disabled] ccache version 2.4 [enabled] app-shells/bash: 3.2_p39 dev-java/java-config: 1.3.7, 2.1.6 dev-lang/python: 2.5.2-r5 dev-util/ccache: 2.4-r7 sys-apps/baselayout: 2.0.0 sys-apps/openrc: 0.2.5 sys-apps/sandbox: 1.2.18.1-r3 sys-devel/autoconf: 2.13, 2.62-r1 sys-devel/automake: 1.5, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10.1-r1 sys-devel/binutils: 2.18-r2 sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.0-r4 sys-devel/libtool: 2.2.4 virtual/os-headers: 2.6.25-r4 ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64 ~amd64" CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CFLAGS="-march=core2 -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe" CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu" CXXFLAGS="-march=core2 -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer -pipe" DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles" FEATURES="ccache collision-protect distlocks parallel-fetch preserve-libs sandbox sfperms strict unmerge-orphans userfetch" LANG="en_US.utf8" LDFLAGS="" LINGUAS="de en en_US en_GB" MAKEOPTS="-j4" PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages" PORTDIR="/usr/portage" PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage /usr/portage/local/java-experimental /usr/portage/local/layman/java-overlay /usr/portage/local/layman/berkano /usr/portage/local/layman/sunrise /usr/portage/local/layman/nouveau /usr/portage/local" USE="3dnow 3dnowext X a52 aac aalib acl acpi alsa amd64 amrnb amrwb arts bash-completion berkdb branding bzip2 cairo cddb cdr cli cracklib crypt css cups curl dbus dga dri dts dvd dvdr dvdread emacs emboss encode esd evo exif fam fbcon fbsplash ffmpeg firefox flac fortran gcj gdbm gif gimp gmp gnutls gpm gstreamer gtk hal hbci htmlhandbook iconv imagemagick imap ipod ipv6 isdnlog jack java java5 java6 joystick jpeg jpeg2k kde ladspa lcms ldap libcaca libsamplerate lirc lm_sensors log4j logitech-mouse mad matroska midi mikmod mmx mmxext mng mozbranding mp3 mp4 mpeg mplayer msn mudflap musepack ncurses network-cron nls no-old-linux nptl nptlonly nsplugin nvidia odbc ogg openal openexr opengl openmp oss pam pcre pdf perl pertty png postgres pppd python qt3 qt3support qt4 quicktime rar readline reflection rtc sasl sdl session smp sndfile socks5 source spell spl sse sse2 ssl ssse3 subversion svg sysfs tcpd tetex theora threads tiff transparency truetype unicode v4l v4l2 vorbis wxwindows x264 xcomposite xine xinerama xml xorg xosd xprint xscreensaver xulrunner xv xvid zlib" ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse joystick evdev" KERNEL="linux" LINGUAS="de en en_US en_GB" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia nouveau" Unset: CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, INSTALL_MASK, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
Thats very weird...and if you build it without the xulrunner use-flag, it works, i guess?
(In reply to comment #1) > Thats very weird...and if you build it without the xulrunner use-flag, it > works, i guess? > Yes, after compiling firefox with USE="-xulrunner", it starts just fine. (Now thunderbird makes funny things when I click links, but that might get resolved by a rebuild)
Still the same with 3.0.1?
(In reply to comment #3) > Still the same with 3.0.1? > Nope, it's working again now... however, now I get the same problem with Thunderbird (even after a rebuild), as mentioned in bug 219444#c5 -- when I click a link, it tries to spawn firefox which quits with "Couldn't load XRE functions". Like I said though, the problem mentioned in _this_ bug doesn't occur anymore.
Closing then
