Warning! Upgrading Firefox to 18.0.2 breaks it in VL6 SOHO

[The Headacher]

Hi y'all!

Just a quick warning: If you're on VL6 SOHO and decide to upgrade Firefox to 18.0.2 to stop it from nagging, it will probably break! This is the error I got:

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XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /usr/lib/firefox-3.6.16/libxpcom.so:
/usr/lib/firefox/libxul.so: undefined symbol: _ZNSbItN4base20string16_char_traitsESaItEE4_Rep20_S_empty_rep_storageE
Couldn't load XPCOM
I realize most people will only find this thread AFTER Firefox broke, but if I do find a solution I'll post it here.

What I tried thus far:

upgrade xulrunner using latest package in gsb repo.
install libevent

No effect yet. Will try more later, but I have to do some other things too!

[nightflier]

May need to stick with FF17 on VL6. It is an extended support release good until Dec. of 2013.

[The Headacher]

@Nightflier: Thanks!

Looked around some more. There's system requirements listed here. Seems like my VL6 SOHO meets these requirements.

 LD_DEBUG=all firefox

returned the following lines containing fatal:

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     11620:     /usr/lib/gconv/ISO8859-1.so: error: symbol lookup error: undefined symbol: gconv_end (fatal)
     11621:     /usr/lib/firefox-3.6.16/libxul.so: error: symbol lookup error: undefined symbol: _ZNSbItN4base20string16_char_traitsESaItEE4_Rep20_S_empty_rep_storageE (fatal)
     11621:     /usr/lib/firefox/libxul.so: error: symbol lookup error: undefined symbol: _ZNSbItN4base20string16_char_traitsESaItEE4_Rep20_S_empty_rep_storageE (fatal)
     11621:     /usr/lib/firefox/libxul.so: error: symbol lookup error: undefined symbol: _ZNSbItN4base20string16_char_traitsESaItEE4_Rep20_S_empty_rep_storageE (fatal)
     11621:     /usr/lib/firefox-3.6.16/firefox: error: symbol lookup error: undefined symbol: NS_GetFrozenFunctions (fatal)

Looks to me like the problem is with gconv (part of glibc). Installed later version from slackware 12.1 repo, still no go. I'm not brave enough to try upgrading glibc from sources, I'm pretty sure that will do more damage than good.

Oh well, guess this install isn't really that important, might as well install me the latest SOHO om here in a week or 2. Would be nice if upgrading the browser didn't break it though, upgrading to a broken browser doesn't seem like much of an upgrade at all.

[The Headacher]

I decided to go back to FF17, as per Nightfliers suggestion. Here's how I did it.

1) download firefox 17 from one of the mirrors listed here: http://www.mozilla.org/community/mirrors.html

2) unpack the resulting file  (replace 17.0.1 with your version)

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tar xvf firefox-17.0.1.tar.bz2
3) remove the old VL package (you'll have to be root from here on):

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slapt-get --remove firefox
4) remove other things left over from old firefox:

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rm -rf /usr/lib/firefox
rm /usr/bin/firefox
5) copy new firefox files to /usr/lib:

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cp firefox /usr/lib
6) create symlink in /usr/bin/ pointing to the firefox executable in the directory /usr/lib/firefox/ :

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ln -s /usr/lib/firefox/firefox /usr/bin/firefox
7) change the update release channel to esr: (this will stop firefox from suggesting updating to 18 and later)

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mcedit /usr/lib/firefox/defaults/pref/channel-prefs.js
you'll want to change to the channel 'esr', so the contents should look like this:

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pref("app.update.channel", "esr");
That's it!

[Colonel Panic]

This is a great thread, thanks. Just one thing though (and this is a question not a statement), from a security perspective is it still safe to use Vector 6 in 2013?

[nightflier]

It's a good question. I have no qualms about using VL6 on my laptop as long as my browser is maintained. It's a judgement call regarding the level of safety you want. I don't use my laptop for on-line banking or other sensitive activities, and don't leave it running when not using it. In my judgement the risk is acceptable.

We're never 100% safe, but I feel better being on the net with VL6 than with WXP.

[The Headacher]

I'm not sure about the (in)security of VL6. I used it a lot, and for banking too. I can't say for sure that my VL6 hasn't been hacked, but I have never had any problems resulting from my use of VL6. I did however keep my browser (sort of) up to date, I didn't use any other programs to connect to the outside world, no sshd/httpd/ftpd and other deamons that allow connections from the outside.

Newer versions aren't always safer. Every time code is added there's the possibility for error. Not all newer programs/libraries are necessarily safer than older ones, and just because software is old doesn't mean it's easy to hack. I'm not saying that everyone should go around using old software, but I also don't believe that you have to have the latest software to be safe. Installing everything 'bleeding edge' tends to break things worse than hackers do.

I used VL6 SOHO for quite a while, but I upgraded it to VL7 SOHO a few days after this post. There weren't any important/hard to get going programs on there anyhow. Those are all on my VL 5.9 installs, which I still use for arranging my music. I could probably get me a new install and spend days trying to get the latest versions of those programs to work, but for now I'm just happy my old installs still work fine. If it ain't broken I don't fix it. I don't connect those installs to the web though; I never got wireless to work on them :-). If I want to browse I reboot to VL7.

[Colonel Panic]

Thanks for your replies. I certainly like the idea of not having to constantly upgrade but I do do online banking from home (at least checking my bank statements) and sometimes pay for things online through Amazon and other sites, so security is an issue for me.

[nightflier]

Firefox ESR is now up to v. 17.0.7, found here:
http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/all.html

[Colonel Panic]

Thanks. It's up to 24.1.1 now;

http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/organizations/all.html

[nightflier]

Yes, the most current ESR version is 24, but 17.x is the last one to work on VL6. If you scroll down on that page, you'll see it. Still supported.. for a few more weeks.

[Colonel Panic]

Thanks, I'm downloading it now.