Re: firefox won't start, 2011Q2

[Anne Bennett <anne%porcupine.montreal.qc.ca@localhost>]

Thomas Klausner <wiz%NetBSD.org@localhost> writes:

>> Note: I was at 2010Q4; 2011Q2 is indicated as "latest stable" on
>> the web site, so I was disappointed that "pkg_add" reported no
>> package available for almost all the software.

> I can't help you with the firefox problem.
> However, since a few days ago, at
> ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/i386/5.1_2011Q2
> you can find about 14GB of binary packages.

Well, I am [was!] mystified.  Yesterday I had edited /etc/pkg_install.conf
to have:
   PKG_PATH=ftp://ftp.NetBSD.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/i386/5.1_2011Q2/All
but I was still getting (for example):

   pkg_add: no pkg found for 'pkg_tarup', sorry.
   pkg_add: 1 package addition failed

Ah-ha!  When I installed vim, I got an error because it didn't find
my license acceptance, and it suggested modifying
"/usr/pkg/etc/pkg_install.conf", so I symlinked
/usr/pkg/etc/pkg_install.conf to /etc/pkg_install.conf at that
time, but I did not retry the "pkg_add" commands at that point.
That link seems to make the difference: with it in place, I no
longer get the "no pkg found" errors.

The bad news is that I wasted several hours doing unnecessary
compilations yesteray.  The good news is that I can get those binary
packages now.  The bad news is that after doing a "pkg_add -U" on
"firefox" and "xulrunner", I still have the same firefox problem.

I'm not sure which will be the least time consuming (or most likely
to succeed): re-installing all 240 programs onthe system with
"pkg_add -U", or trying to debug the firefox invocation.  :-(

> I'm not sure why it's not linked yet to the default
> ftp://ftp.netbsd.org/pub/pkgsrc/packages/NetBSD/i386/5.1

Definitely there should be consistency between the "latest stable
release", the release announcement, and that symlink.

Thanks for pointing me in a helpful direction.

I'm still hoping someone out there knows why firefox would close as
soon as it starts, without opening any windows.


Anne.
-- 
Ms. Anne Bennett, as a private citizen:  anne%porcupine.montreal.qc.ca@localhost
Also reachable more officially at work:  anne%encs.concordia.ca@localhost