Firefox profile gone

**fuerstu** · 18-Jul-2020, 21:20

Hi after updating to version 20200716 suddenly firefox is not working any more. when I click on the icon a window opens with the following text: "<toolbarbutton id="UITourTooltipClose" class="close-icon"--------------^". Otherwise everything seems to be working fine. I uninstalled firefox and reinstalled it (version 78.0.2). The result is the same. However I can open firefox from command line and firefox opens with the following response:

Code:

firefox
QStandardPaths: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not set, defaulting to '/tmp/runtime-root'
QStandardPaths: XDG_RUNTIME_DIR not set, defaulting to '/tmp/runtime-root'

With the new firefox all my Add-ons are gone and my profile has disappeared. What happened? How can I go bakc to open firefox from the icon and is it possible to get my profile back?

**nrickert** · 18-Jul-2020, 21:23

Are you running "firefox" as the root user or as yourself?

That output you showed is suggesting that you were running it as root.

**fuerstu** · 18-Jul-2020, 21:30

Yes, nrickert you are right - I was root when I typed firefox. I tried typing it as user and I get the same strange window with the text. What is going on?

**mrmazda** · 18-Jul-2020, 22:14

That you were running as root and didn't know it suggests you may have corrupted permissions in your user's /home/ directory. As root you could most likely fix them thus (assuming you have only one ordinary user):

Code:

chown -R 1000.100 /home/<username>

First you should peruse your homedir observing whether permissions are correct, no need to fix what isn't broken.

**fuerstu** · 18-Jul-2020, 22:45

No, mrmazda, I was root in the console after I removed and re-installed firefox. since firefox at that time didn't open when I clicked the icon I thought I try now whether I get any response from the command line and typed it there without entering ctrl and d first to log off as root. Strangely enough firefox worked yesterday after I rebooted after zypper dup. Today I had a busy day and wanted to quickly check emails and suddenly firefox didn't work.