[Add-on Name] could not be installed

Discussion of bugs in Mozilla Firefox
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Ironlink
Posts: 5
Joined: March 10th, 2011, 5:50 pm

[Add-on Name] could not be installed

Post by Ironlink »

When I try to install an addon from AMO (in this case, Media Hint), I get an error message looking like this:
Media Hint could not be installed because Firefox cannot modify the needed file.

I haven't seen this before, so I tried googling for the error message and found a tip about enabling "extensions.logging.enabled" and looking at the Error Console. Doing so gave me this log entry:
Timestamp: 2012-11-07 00:54:05
Error: ERROR addons.xpi: Failed to remove file C:\Users\Ironlink\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox\Profiles\ibhkfwnd.default\extensions\trash\firebug@software.joehewitt.com.xpi: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED) [nsIFile.remove]" nsresult: "0x80520015 (NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED)" location: "JS frame :: resource:///modules/XPIProvider.jsm :: recursiveRemove :: line 1256" data: no]
Source File: resource:///modules/XPIProvider.jsm
Line: 1256

Obviously Firefox should have R/W access to its own profile data (and I verified that it does), so the next suspect is that the file is in use. Process Explorer confirms the file is being used, by Firefox: Image

I see two problems with this:
  • Firefox appears to be blocking itself from deleting that file.
  • The add-on I'm trying to install should not in any way depend on that file being deleted. If this unnecessary operation was not part of the install, I would happily be using my new add-on.

Comments / suggestions as to where I go from here are welcome.

Edit:
Perhaps I should say that I'm on Firefox 16.0.2;
Windows 7 x64, all current updates applied.
Last edited by Ironlink on November 6th, 2012, 5:42 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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JayhawksRock
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Joined: October 24th, 2010, 8:51 am

Re: [Add-on Name] could not be installed

Post by JayhawksRock »

Obviously Firefox should have R/W access to its own profile data

Does the user installing the extension have rights to install software? Did you launch Firefox as Admin?
"The trouble with quotes on the internet is you never know if they are genuine" ...Abraham Lincoln
Ironlink
Posts: 5
Joined: March 10th, 2011, 5:50 pm

Re: [Add-on Name] could not be installed

Post by Ironlink »

I can verify that my user is allowed to install software and that Firefox is running as my user.
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patrickjdempsey
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Re: [Add-on Name] could not be installed

Post by patrickjdempsey »

From what I can tell this problem is caused by the character length of the extension name and needs to be fixed by the author of the extension.

See here:

https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/800777
https://forums.mozilla.org/addons/viewt ... =27&t=3471
viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2425973

Edit: long profile names and Windows user names also impact this.
Tip of the day: If it has "toolbar" in the name, it's crap.
What my avatar is about: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamonkey/addon/sea-fox/
Ironlink
Posts: 5
Joined: March 10th, 2011, 5:50 pm

Re: [Add-on Name] could not be installed

Post by Ironlink »

My understanding is that the file name issue generates "NS_ERROR_FILE_NAME_TOO_LONG" or "NS_ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND", whereas I am facing "NS_ERROR_FILE_ACCESS_DENIED".
Besides, such an issue would have surfaced when I installed or updated Firebug (file creation), rather than this file deletion. This error seems to be related to removing an old version of Firebug when I want to install Media Hint.
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patrickjdempsey
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Location: Asheville NC
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Re: [Add-on Name] could not be installed

Post by patrickjdempsey »

Try this:

Help > Troubleshooting Info > Show Folder.
Close Firefox.
Go into the extensions folder and manually remove Firebug.
Restart Firefox.
Tip of the day: If it has "toolbar" in the name, it's crap.
What my avatar is about: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamonkey/addon/sea-fox/
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