Closed Bug 1462224 Opened 6 years ago Closed 6 years ago

can't update to the latest version unless root, but won't run as root

Categories

(Toolkit :: Application Update, defect)

Product:
Toolkit
Component:
Application Update
Version:
60 Branch
Platform:
x86_64
Linux
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
major

Tracking

()

Status:
RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 1460297

People

(Reporter: dcmay, Unassigned)

References

Details

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux x86_64; rv:60.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/60.0 Build ID: 20180503164101 Steps to reproduce: Untar Firefox amd64 on Ubuntu 16.04 as root user. Files in primary directory (ie. not user profile) are owned by root. Firefox runs fine as a normal user. Update becomes available. Actual results: Firefox displays "Firefox can't update to the latest version. Download a fresh copy of Firefox and we'll help you install it." sudo to become root. Run firefox (as sudo'd root). Firefox displays "Running Firefox as root in a regular user's session is not supported. ($XAUTHORITY is ... .Xauthority which is owned by ..." This problem occurs in both ESR and regular versions. Expected results: Firefox used to run as root. Then, Help > About Firefox would allow updates to be installed. Now Firefox doesn't allow root to run, but makes no attempt to gain privileges to install updates. It just fails. The only way to install updates is to download a complete full tarball, and unpack it over (in place of) the older version.
(In reply to Dietmar May from comment #0) > Now Firefox doesn't allow root to run Bug 1323302 Bug 1460297 > makes no attempt to gain privileges to install updates. It just fails. So you don't think I'm ignoring this bit, I don't know how updates are supposed to go in this scenario. Someone else will clarify, I'm sure.
Severity: normal → major
Has STR: --- → yes
Component: Untriaged → Application Update
OS: Unspecified → Linux
Product: Firefox → Toolkit
Hardware: Unspecified → x86_64
Status: UNCONFIRMED → RESOLVED
Closed: 6 years ago
Resolution: --- → DUPLICATE

I'm not fully convinced that this bug is a simple duplicate of bug 1486248. For a solution, I wrote a script for installation and updates which can coexist with other installs (unless you add it to your PATH).

If you already have a tarball installed somewhere other than /opt/firefox-dev-edition, close all running instances of it, open the new install and visit about:profiles. Make your existing profile the default, after which you must fully close and re-open the new Firefox. Don't use the restart button in the about:profiles page, as that uses the same profile it was launched with even if no longer default. Once the new install is verified to be working, you can remove the other tarball install, and (optionally) visit about:profiles again to delete the unused skeleton profile.

I forgot to add, I still get that notification but when I do, I Ctrl + Q to close all Firefox windows, then run sudo firefox-dev-edition-update, and open Firefox again.

If you don't use Developer Edition, choose a different version at https://www.mozilla.org/firefox/all/ as per the instructions for installing that updater script.

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