Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

Help getting firefox working.

Fellow caninines in 'the kennel':

Background: For a long time I used firefox with uPupBB32.
It worked well. I installed uPupBB32 on a friend's laptop, but without firefox.
The time came when "she"/JQ wanted Firefox and so I decided to go thru the process of getting the sfs file.

I already had the sfs file on my laptop, but I am here and "JQ" is "there" - 100km distant and in the time of covid quarantine. The solution: easy-peasy! I will download the sfs file onto my desktop here, record every step in the process, and (when I have done that) give the instructions to JQ. She will download. She will click on the file called 'firefox.sfs'. Easy, right?

Problem-o. Somehow in this process I unloaded (or killed) the version of firefox on MY desktop.
Oh! Silly me! Problem-o? No. Of course not. Everything about Puppy is easy, right?
Please read on ...

I believed I could unload firefox, reload and everything would be good.
Remember, I already had the file: firefox.sfs on my desktop box.

I could do it, yes? Wrong!
I have the icon to load/run firefox in: applications -> internet -> firefox.
I know the location of firefox on my PC. It is in partition with the 'house' symbol at the top right, ok?
(Yes, ok!) It is called sda3, <BAK> but that is irrelevant, I think.
The Puppy system files are on sda3, in a folder called OS_BOOT. My installation is 'frugal'. Frugal works!
Firefox.sfs is in the same folder as the OS files.

If the firefox icon is visible in: applications > internet I can click it. Nothing happens.
If I click on firefox.sfs (in the directory OS_BOOT) one of two things happen.
If the icon is visible (in 'applications) I learn that firefox is loaded. I can unload it.
IF the icon is not seen I learn I can install firefox. It appears to load.
I see a message window: I learn I can run firefox now or I can 'quit'.

Now some images to document the words above.
(1) here you can see that firefox is loaded. I would expect firefox to run if I clicked the button. It doesn't.

(2) here you see the result of clicking on firefox. It is un-installed. Gone, vanished, not visible.

(3) This is the location of the file called firefox.sfs. It is in my boot directory. OS_BOOT.
Maybe it should be in another location?

OK I wanted to add to more files but the forum manager thinks I have enough.
Look at the following posting, please.

Two more snapshots showing that I re-installed firefox.sfs.

With firefox unloaded I clicked on the file (it is in OS_BOOT).
The loading process began. You see the beginning here:

(2) After a moment, the message box advises: "All good" Run firefox if you want.
But it doesn't. I think some files are not deleted when I un-install the package.
Here you see the message box:

.
.
Comment: I can use bash/find to locate files with a known name, if that helps.
I'm not a 'wiz' with bash, but I can do simple things. Find, grep and so on.
(I'm in love with 'bash'. Does lots of things quickly that aren't easily done by other means ....)

cobaka

Try using SFS-load on-the-fly program to load the firefox.sfs
If still not running when you click on the menu entry.

Open a console (terminal)
type firefox
Press enter

Getting any error messages?
If yes.
What are they?

Thank you @bigpup

When you read what you see below you will understand that firefox did not run when I clicked on the button called firefox.

Here is what I see in bash:
# firefox
XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /usr/lib/firefox/libmozgtk.so:
/lib/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.29' not found (required by /usr/lib/firefox/libgtk-3.so.0)
Couldn't load XPCOM.
# which firefox
/usr/bin/firefox
# find / -iname 'GLIBC_2.29'
#

I found a link to a page where I can get GLIBC_2.29 | here -> http://www.gnu.org/software/libc/
I see different versions of GLIBC - These include:

2021-08-01: glibc 2.34 released.
2021-02-01: glibc 2.33 released.
2020-08-05: glibc 2.32 released.
2020-02-01: glibc 2.31 released.
2019-08-01: glibc 2.30 released.
2019-01-31: glibc 2.29 released.

Can you tell me where I should place this library?
By what magic process did I nobble glibc?
If I put glibc in the appropriate directory, will firefox run?
Thank you for your help.

cobaka

additional info that may help. (I don't know, but it seems possible ...)
# find / -iname 'firefox*'
/mnt/sda2/firefox.sfs
/mnt/sda2/Software/Linux_Puppy/Orig_Puppy_OS_files/Lucid_Puppy,_The/Firefox-3.6.3-Lucid.pet
/initrd/mnt/dev_save/OS_BOOT/firefox.sfs
/initrd/mnt/dev_save/OS_BOOT/upupbbsave-GByt/root/Downloads/firefox-94.0.tar.bz2
/initrd/mnt/dev_save/OS_BOOT/upupbbsave-GByt/root/.mozilla/firefox
/initrd/mnt/dev_save/OS_BOOT/upupbbsave-GByt/root/.cache/mozilla/firefox
/initrd/mnt/dev_save/OS_BOOT/upupbbsave-GByt/usr/lib/firefox
/initrd/mnt/dev_save/OS_BOOT/upupbbsave-GByt/usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin
/initrd/mnt/dev_save/OS_BOOT/upupbbsave-GByt/usr/lib/firefox/firefox
/initrd/mnt/dev_save/OS_BOOT/upupbbsave-GByt/usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin.sig
/initrd/mnt/dev_save/OS_BOOT/upupbbsave-GByt/usr/lib/firefox/firefox.sig
/initrd/mnt/dev_save/OS_BOOT/upupbbsave-GByt/usr/lib/firefox/firefox-run1
/initrd/pup_ro5/usr/bin/firefox
/initrd/pup_ro5/usr/lib/firefox
/initrd/pup_ro5/usr/lib/firefox/firefox
/initrd/pup_ro5/usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin
/initrd/pup_ro5/usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin.sig
/initrd/pup_ro5/usr/lib/firefox/firefox.sig
/initrd/pup_ro2/usr/share/icons/Puppy Flat/16/apps/firefox.svg
/initrd/pup_ro2/usr/share/icons/Puppy Flat/22/apps/firefox.svg
/initrd/pup_ro2/usr/share/icons/Puppy Flat/24/apps/firefox.svg
/initrd/pup_ro2/usr/share/icons/Puppy Flat/32/apps/firefox.svg
/initrd/pup_ro2/usr/share/icons/Puppy Flat/48/apps/firefox.svg
/initrd/pup_ro2/usr/share/icons/Puppy Flat/64/apps/firefox.svg
/initrd/pup_ro2/usr/share/icons/Puppy Flat/scalable/apps/firefox.svg
/initrd/pup_ro2/usr/share/icons/Puppy Standard/16/apps/firefox.svg
/initrd/pup_ro2/usr/share/icons/Puppy Standard/22/apps/firefox.svg
/initrd/pup_ro2/usr/share/icons/Puppy Standard/24/apps/firefox.svg
/initrd/pup_ro2/usr/share/icons/Puppy Standard/32/apps/firefox.svg
/initrd/pup_ro2/usr/share/icons/Puppy Standard/48/apps/firefox.svg
/initrd/pup_ro2/usr/share/icons/Puppy Standard/64/apps/firefox.svg
/initrd/pup_ro2/usr/share/icons/Puppy Standard/scalable/apps/firefox.svg
/root/Downloads/firefox-94.0.tar.bz2
/root/.mozilla/firefox
/root/.cache/mozilla/firefox
/usr/share/icons/Puppy Standard/16/apps/firefox.svg
/usr/share/icons/Puppy Standard/22/apps/firefox.svg
/usr/share/icons/Puppy Standard/24/apps/firefox.svg
/usr/share/icons/Puppy Standard/32/apps/firefox.svg
/usr/share/icons/Puppy Standard/48/apps/firefox.svg
/usr/share/icons/Puppy Standard/64/apps/firefox.svg
/usr/share/icons/Puppy Standard/scalable/apps/firefox.svg
/usr/share/icons/Puppy Flat/16/apps/firefox.svg
/usr/share/icons/Puppy Flat/22/apps/firefox.svg
/usr/share/icons/Puppy Flat/24/apps/firefox.svg
/usr/share/icons/Puppy Flat/32/apps/firefox.svg
/usr/share/icons/Puppy Flat/48/apps/firefox.svg
/usr/share/icons/Puppy Flat/64/apps/firefox.svg
/usr/share/icons/Puppy Flat/scalable/apps/firefox.svg
/usr/bin/firefox
/usr/lib/firefox
/usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin
/usr/lib/firefox/firefox
/usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin.sig
/usr/lib/firefox/firefox.sig
/usr/lib/firefox/firefox-run1

@bigpup

For some time now I noticed what I thought was unusual behaviour with the internet connection.
Often I would click on the 'comms' link to the internet at bed-time.
I would disconnect from the network. I saw "X" across the connection indicator. 6th item from the RHS, bottom.
In the morning: I would re-connect. I believe this is normal.

Then - I found I could not disconnect. At times I would seen something about enp8s0 - acquiring IP number (or something like that).
Finally I un-installed the internet setup : setup networking.
Now things seem as they were in the past. With very little evidence I suspect someone/something nasty got at the ethernet cable driver.
I find Puppy Linux remarkably reliable, but I wonder whether some 'add-ons' to firefox can 'be the nasty'.

Cobaka

@cobaka ,
to solve such a weird behaviour I would try these simple steps:

1. be sure that there is the latest version of upupbb32 installed (bionicpup32-8.0+28-uefi.iso)

2. restore the backed-up savefolder (from the time when everything was fine - I hope you have it ) and boot into it (the old one may be damaged somehow)

This way your system should be "new" and fresh.

3. try to load the firefox.sfs "on-the-fly".

Have a nice day

You may have more luck with the firefox portable in the future.
My advice in this situation would be to totally uninstall firefox and use the pfile find tool to remove all entries and then run the portable.

Just to test the save maybe being corrupted.

Do you know how to boot up and not use the save?
When you boot not using the save.
Will need to set the correct time and setup the network connection to access the internet.
Try running the Firefox sfs now.
If still not working.
Then shutdown and do not make a save when asked.

Now boot normal using the save.

I assume the Firefox SFS you got by using the Applications->Internet->Get web browser

I would delete the firefox sfs you now have.
Use get web browser to download a fresh firefox sfs.

Bionicpup32 8.0 updates using delta files or simply download the latest version iso, do a fresh ftugal install with it, and use the old save with it, if nothing is wrong with the old save.

@cobaka :-

You shouldn't be getting this behaviour, Les. Currently, the whole of Firefox is compiled against 2.17; that is the oldest GLIBC that will support Firefox.

If you're getting this kind of error, it usually indicates that Firefox is picking up on something newer than what it expects to find. That, in turn, then often expects other, newer dependencies.....and the process simply "snowballs".

More likely, you've upgraded something in your system that's overwritten an item that was originally in the base Puppy. From experience, this is what often happens. Normally, the GLIBC is backwards compatible, but some related items point-blank insist on 'matching', same-generation dependencies.

Mike.

I would recommend not putting Firefox in a PUPSAVE or .sfs but running it standalone on whatever connected media you have with ample storage.

In the PUPSAVE you save a .desktop file (virtually no space) that runs Firefox on your media no problem if it always happens to reference the same partition.

The .desktop launcher is your menu option.

If your media were not connected, it simply wouldn't run even though you'd still have it in the menu (.sfs tend to revise the menu upon loading/unloading). Connected you'd run Firefox standalone.

.sfs are mostly for saving media space and personal storage (ram), but working with the massive uncompressed Firefox is faster and easier.

I agree with user xenial. Get yourself unburied and go portable.

@bigpup @Jassy
@mikewalsh @xenial @Feek Woof
Thanks for your postings!

Here is the result of following @Bigpup's suggestions.

Action ................................................................. Result
Boot uPupBB32 w/out savefile ........................Normal boot - n/w running.
firefox.sfs prev. downloaded used to
install FF found. <click> ............................... Firefox loaded/ran. (chased postman on bicycle)
uPupBB shutdown. Make Savefile? No!! ........ uPupBB slept peacefully overnight.
uPupBB booted. Light OK. Palemoon OK
used applications > get web browser > Chrome ===>> Chrome installed, loaded running!
found firefox.sfs mentioned above. <click!> ..... Saw button for FF in the applications > internet
<click!> ..........................................Nothing. ... (bit postman. Evaded council dog catcher!)
Decided I have not made progress.
People say I might have a corrupt save file.
I think I left some 'garbage' in the save file when I (accidently) deleted FF some days ago.


I will read other postings on this thread and consider my options.
I do have a verrry old save-file, but I may just re-install. That's
I have chrome, paleMoon, I'm not on a desert island without a telegraph pole.
Can I assume I nobbled my savefile?
Thanks to all who posted on this thread.

I think in the save it has what mikewalsh suggests:

More likely, you've upgraded something in your system that's overwritten an item that was originally in the base Puppy. From experience, this is what often happens. Normally, the GLIBC is backwards compatible, but some related items point-blank insist on 'matching', same-generation dependencies.

Welcome to Linux software!

Program pet packages, specifically compiled for Puppy, usually never do this.
But, other Linux software, packaged and compiled not exactly for Puppy, Well, they can and sometime do, mess it up.

@bigpup

Clearly I lack glib_2.something.
I can download this library from the net.
If I get the missing glib file and copy it to some directory (or even a "folder" if you wish to use a foreign language), can I do some damage. (I think "no"). I would like to try that.
I don't have a single glib on my Linux box.
Proof:
# find / -iname 'glibc_*'
/initrd/pup_ro2/var/packages/builtin_files/glibc_locales
/var/packages/builtin_files/glibc_locales

What do you say?
Where directory? would I put glibc_2*
Cobaka

I don't have a single glib on my Linux box.
Proof:
# find / -iname 'glibc_*'

There is a difference between glib and glibc.

find /usr/ -iname 'glib*'

find /usr/ | grep -i glib

@williams2

I can get firefox working by various means.
If I track down the specific problem then I learn something.
Even if I don't solve the problem, I still learn something.
So I persist in the painful learning process ....

Here is the problem FireFox faces:

# firefox
XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /usr/lib/firefox/libmozgtk.so:
/lib/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.29' not found (required by /usr/lib/firefox/libgtk-3.so.0)
Couldn't load XPCOM.
#

I tryed to open libmoxgtk.so using Geany. > It seems that this file is a shared library file, but not a text file.
Pls, can you give me a reference where I can read about shared library files?

Tnx and woof!

PS. I read that shared "*.so" files are 'shared object' libraries and so I presume that an shared object file is executable object code, i.e. binary code. Machine code instructions.
I read that library files are located in /usr/local/lib/. That's 'normal' Linux, I think.
But here, in the kennel, library files are in the directory /usr/lib/ - I think.
Also: I see /usr/lib/glib-2.0, (and other glib files in my system, but not 2.29)
So ... should I download glibc_2.29 into my Linux box and see if solves the problem?

@cobaka :-

Have a look in /usr/lib, Les. I'd be extremely surprised if you didn't have a 'libglib2' in there somewhere.....

Mike.

Hello @mikewalsh

Yes, this is what I have:

# find /usr/lib/ -iname 'libglib*'
/usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0
/usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so.0.5600.4
/usr/lib/libglibmm-2.4.so.1
/usr/lib/libglibmm-2.4.so.1.3.0
/usr/lib/libglibmm_generate_extra_defs-2.4.so.1
/usr/lib/libglibmm_generate_extra_defs-2.4.so.1.3.0
/usr/lib/libglib-2.0.so
/usr/lib/libglibmm-2.4.so
/usr/lib/libglibmm_generate_extra_defs-2.4.so
#

I don't want to put myself forward as a troubleshooter of Puppy, but the trouble appears to an absent file requested from a 'shared object' file used by FireFox -

# firefox
XPCOMGlueLoad error for file /usr/lib/firefox/libmozgtk.so: <-- the shared object file
/lib/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.29' <-- the missing file not found (required by /usr/lib/firefox/libgtk-3.so.0)
Couldn't load XPCOM.

So - as I understand this object code is calling for a specific library file == GLIBC_2.29.
I cannot alter the shared object code file so I must download/install glibc_2.29.
Yes? Hope I understand this correctly.

cobaka
PS I love 'bash' - the command line interpreter.

See, this is the bit that makes no sense.

Bionic comes with glibc 2.27 OOTB, yeah? I'm in Xenialpup 7.5 (the 32-bit one) ATM, which was built around glibc 2.23.....and I'm posting this from the current FF v94.0) portable build right now. So FF certainly doesn't NEED glibc 2.29 to run.

You said you run Chrome further back in the thread. You must mean Chromium, surely? There hasn't been a 32-bit Chrome build for nearly 6 years.....and I know not only is UpupBB one of peebee's projects, he's always been responsible for the Puppy Chromium builds.

So; Chrome OR Chromium? Just curious, y'see, 'cos if this is a very recent Chromium package, Peter may have had to add some newer items to get it to run.....which in their turn, could have over-written other items from the base UpupBB files, and be throwing everything else out.

Don't take this as gospel; I'm only theorizing here!

Mike.

/lib/libm.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.29' not found (required by /usr/lib/firefox/libgtk-3.so.0)

This is saying that the file in Firefox named libgtk-3.so.0
requires the file in /lib/ named libm.so.6
and the firefox file demands that libm.so.6 is version 2.29

You have the file libm.so.6 but it is the wrong version.

GLIBC_2.29 is not a file, it is like a bash or C variable.

In my BionicPup64:

# file /lib/libm.so.6 
/lib/libm.so.6: symbolic link to libm-2.27.so
#

EDIT: AFAIK, GLIBC_2.29 means that the source for the .so file libc.so should be version 2.29

file /lib/libc.so.6
/lib/libc.so.6: symbolic link to libc-2.27.so

If you search for shared object files there are many web pages with a lot of information.

For example: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shared_object

All my Firefox executables are in one dir.
Originally, it was about version 58.0, now it is ver. 94.0.1

There are temporary cache files in /root/.cache/mozilla/firefox/
That dir can be deleted, and it is deleted from my script that starts Firefox.

All my configuration, bookmarks, etc are in /root/.mozilla/firefox/

Every time I start Firefox, the cache files and the program files and the configuration files are all deleted, and the program files and the configuration files are restored by unzipping 2 tar.gz files.

I would try deleting the Firefox cache files, then try to start Firefox.
If Firefox starts, you have found the problem.

Then I would try renaming /root/.mozilla/firefox/ to maybe /root/.mozilla/firefoxBAK/
If Firefox starts, you have found the problem.

If it does not start, probably there is a file (executable, library, or configuration file) in the save dir that has been replaced or deleted or added to the program files in the sfs.

Did you update Firefox?

In particular, are the files that are in /initrd/mnt/dev_save/OS_BOOT/upupbbsave-GByt/usr/lib/firefox/ in the sfs?
What is firefox-run1 ?

You can also try to download the latest firefox.sfs from here:

https://sourceforge.net/projects/lxpup/ ... /browsers/

and then verify the checksum of the downloaded file (e.g. with pupmd5sum).
If it matches then replace the old one in /mnt/home with the new one.