LONG: [Way Over My Head] Firefox 0.9 doesn't like me

[Damian Gerow]

All antsy-in-my-pantsy (and eager to work around some odd issues I have with
0.8), I just updated Firefox to 0.9.  It was segfaulting, so I re-sup'ed,
and updated to 0.9_1.  I'm still getting the following error:

    # firefox
    [: Segmentation: unexpected operator
    Fatal error 'Spinlock called when not threaded.' at line 88 in file /usr/src/lib/libpthread/thread/thr_spinlock.c (errno = 0)
    Segmentation fault (core dumped)
    #

The first error seems to occur on line 139 of
/usr/X11R6/lib/firefox/bin/firefox:

    137: ALREADY_RUNNING=`check_running`
    138:
    139: if [ $ALREADY_RUNNING -eq 1 ] && [ -z "$1" ]; then
    140:    exec $MOZ_CLIENT_PROGRAM -a firefox "xfeDoCommand(openBrowser)" 2>/dev/null >/dev/null
    141: fi
    142: # End of section that checks for currently running instance. - jtg

FWIW, I do /not/ have the file 'check_running' on my system anywhere.  This
is after a 'portupgrade -f firefox'.

The second error occurs when running '$dist_bin/run-mozilla.sh', way down on
line 181.  Chasing that down is slightly more difficult.  Forging blindly, I
set 'moz_debug=1' in run-mozilla.sh, which brought me to GDB.  A quick 'run'
and 'backtrace' later, this is what I see:

    (gdb) run
    Starting program: /usr/X11R6/lib/firefox/lib/firefox-0.9/firefox-bin 
    (no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...
    (no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...
    (no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...
    (no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...
    (no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...
    (no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...
    (no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...
    Fatal error 'Spinlock called when not threaded.' at line 88 in file /usr/src/lib/libpthread/thread/thr_spinlock.c (errno = 0)
    (no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...
    Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
    0x28913e24 in pthread_sigmask () from /usr/lib/libkse.so.1
    (gdb) backtrace
    #0  0x28913e24 in pthread_sigmask () from /usr/lib/libkse.so.1
    #1  0x28913de0 in sigprocmask () from /usr/lib/libkse.so.1
    #2  0x28ab8500 in abort () from /lib/libc.so.5
    #3  0x2892675f in pthread_testcancel () from /usr/lib/libkse.so.1
    #4  0x28912bf8 in _spinlock () from /usr/lib/libkse.so.1
    #5  0x28912cff in _spinlock_debug () from /usr/lib/libkse.so.1
    #6  0x289f8e7a in _thread_fd_table_init () from /usr/lib/libc_r.so.5
    #7  0x289f74c2 in _thread_init () from /usr/lib/libc_r.so.5
    #8  0x289ed391 in _thread_init_hack () from /usr/lib/libc_r.so.5
    #9  0x289fa0c1 in _find_thread) from /usr/lib/libc_r.so.5
    #10 0x289e9b36 in _init) from /usr/lib/libc_r.so.5
    #11 0x2805dff9 in _rtld) from /libexec/ld-elf.so.1
    (gdb) 

I /am/ running -CURRENT from June 6, with libmap and not libkse.  Once I
libmap libpthread over to libkse, it then complains about an Illegal
Instruction.  Now I'm way over my head:

    # firefox
    [: Segmentation: unexpected operator
    *** loading the extensions datasource
    Illegal instruction (core dumped)
    #

Do the debug edits, and try again:

    (gdb) run
    Starting program: /usr/X11R6/lib/firefox/lib/firefox-0.9/firefox-bin
    (no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...
    (21 more of those lines)
    (no debugging symbols found)...
    Program terminated with signal SIGTRAP, Trace/breakpoint trap.
    The program no longer exists.
    (gdb) quit

Okay, so as a stab in the dark, I yank all plugins.  Voila.  It works.
However, 'mozilla-xremote-cli' is core dumping on me now.

And the incredibly strange thing: once I move all plugins /back/ into
/usr/X11R6/lib/browser_plugins, firefox continues to work.  Huh?  Howzzat?
The plugins haven't changed from the original run -- is this an extension of
the 'firefox must be run as root first' issue?  Or is it just too late at
night, and I'm terribly, terribly confused?

So now I have a mystically working firefox, although I'm still getting
that first complaint above.  But it works.  Mysteriously.

  - Damian