Avatar for Username

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

This thread was archived. Please ask a new question if you need help.

Installing or updating an extension fails

  • 3 replies
  • 30 have this problem
  • 4 views
  • Last reply by montasir

montasir
montasir
more options

Firefox version: 3.6.8 OS: Mandriva Linux 2010.1

After adding a new extension, or updating an existing one, Firefox asks for a restart. When Firefox restarts, the extension is not installed/updated and it requires a restart.

When checking the extensions.log file I found the following three lines repeated a number of times on each Firefox start:

2010-08-12 17:25:25 - safeInstallOperation: file extraction failed, rolling back file moves and aborting installation. 2010-08-12 17:25:25 - ExtensionManager:_finishOperations - failure, catching exception - lineno: 1608 - file: undefined - [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED) [nsIFile.permissions]" nsresult: "0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED)" location: "JS frame :: file:///usr/lib/xulrunner-1.9.2.8/components/nsExtensionManager.js :: safeInstallOperation :: line 1608" data: no]

Firefox version: 3.6.8 OS: Mandriva Linux 2010.1 After adding a new extension, or updating an existing one, Firefox asks for a restart. When Firefox restarts, the extension is not installed/updated and it requires a restart. When checking the extensions.log file I found the following three lines repeated a number of times on each Firefox start: 2010-08-12 17:25:25 - safeInstallOperation: file extraction failed, rolling back file moves and aborting installation. 2010-08-12 17:25:25 - ExtensionManager:_finishOperations - failure, catching exception - lineno: 1608 - file: undefined - [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED) [nsIFile.permissions]" nsresult: "0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED)" location: "JS frame :: file:///usr/lib/xulrunner-1.9.2.8/components/nsExtensionManager.js :: safeInstallOperation :: line 1608" data: no]

Chosen solution

After some trial and error, I discover that my instance of this problem was caused by having the profile on a FAT drive (for ease of dual boot with Windows). FAT does not allow user permissions so any attempt to do chown fails. Copying the profile to my Linux filesystem in a temporary directory, changing ~/.thunderbird/profiles.ini to point to it and doing the install worked perfectly. I then copied all the files in the profile directory back again and I now have the add-on installed.

Something of a work-around, but at least it worked

Read this answer in context 👍 0

All Replies (3)

bbth
bbth
more options

Running firefox from a command line as root seems to install the extensions.

ribbleconsultants
ribbleconsultants
more options

Chosen Solution

After some trial and error, I discover that my instance of this problem was caused by having the profile on a FAT drive (for ease of dual boot with Windows). FAT does not allow user permissions so any attempt to do chown fails. Copying the profile to my Linux filesystem in a temporary directory, changing ~/.thunderbird/profiles.ini to point to it and doing the install worked perfectly. I then copied all the files in the profile directory back again and I now have the add-on installed.

Something of a work-around, but at least it worked

montasir
montasir Question owner
more options

Thanks ribbleconsultants. This workaround actually solved the problem. But as you said, it is a workaround, and it would not be convenient if you are switching a lot between your dual boot OSs.