Firefox gives confusing error message (or crashes) when TBB is run from a directory which it cannot write to

I can't run Tor Browser Bundle properly as a normal user on Windows 7. Vidalia starts and loads well, but after the connection is established, a message box says : "Firefox is already running. Please ..." whereas all instances of firefox are closed (yes I'm sure). And so the application exits.

As an administrator, there is not the same problem.

Trac:
Username: kikoulol

changed milestone to %TorBrowserBundle 2.3.x-stable

added component::applications/tor browser milestone::TorBrowserBundle 2.3.x-stable owner::mikeperry priority::high reporter::kikoulol resolution::duplicate status::closed tbb-3.0 tbb-disk-leak tbb-firefox-patch tbb-helpdesk-frequent tbb-usability-stoppoint-app type::defect labels

I just tested this on Win7, fully patched. Latest TBB works fine in 64bit win7 pro as a normal user.

Trac:
Component: - Select a component to Tor Browser
Owner: N/A to mikeperry

Can you start the bundle via command line, passing --debug to the 'start tor browser.exe' command? It should create a debug log in the same directory which will detail what is occurring on start up.

Replying to phobos:

Can you start the bundle via command line, passing --debug to the 'start tor browser.exe' command? It should create a debug log in the same directory which will detail what is occurring on start up.

The Windows TBB startup program doesn't support a --debug option.

Replying to kikoulol:

I can't run Tor Browser Bundle properly as a normal user on Windows 7. Vidalia starts and loads well, but after the connection is established, a message box says : "Firefox is already running. Please ..." whereas all instances of firefox are closed (yes I'm sure). And so the application exits.

As an administrator, there is not the same problem.

Did you unpack TBB as an administrator? It should be unpacked by the user account which will run int.

Trac:
Status: new to needs_information

Replying to rransom:

Did you unpack TBB as an administrator? It should be unpacked by the user account which will run int.

That's it ! Thank you for you very quick response :-)

Trac:
Username: kikoulol
Status: needs_information to closed
Resolution: N/A to not a bug

Reopening, because velope reports that multiple users have asked for help with this in #tor. We should try to detect this situation (TBB started by a user who does not have write access to the TBB directory, whether due to permissions or a read-only filesystem) before starting Firefox.

This check can be implemented either in Vidalia or in RelativeLink.c (compiled to “Start Tor Browser.exe”), and it may require marking the program which performs the check so that Windows won't ‘virtualize’ the filesystem (i.e. divert writes to a subdirectory of the user's AppData directory).

Trac:
Cc: N/A to erinn, chiiph
Resolution: not a bug to N/A
Summary: Impossible to run Tor Browser Bundle on Windows 7 as normal user to Firefox gives confusing error message when TBB is run from a directory which it cannot write to
Status: closed to reopened

Trac:
Cc: erinn, chiiph to erinn, chiiph, Shondoit

Replying to rransom:

This check can be implemented either in Vidalia or in RelativeLink.c (compiled to “Start Tor Browser.exe”), and it may require marking the program which performs the check so that Windows won't ‘virtualize’ the filesystem (i.e. divert writes to a subdirectory of the user's AppData directory). The 'marking' needs to be done by the programs writing files. Since Firefox is already signed with a manifest file, it won't write to the VirtualStore (it's also why it gets a 'permission denied' for the lock). Tor itself is not signed and probably does have this problem when TBB is unpacked in restricted folder. (Same for Vidalia.)

Recommendation: Sign tor.exe and Vidalia.exe as well as perform a 'writable' check in RelativeLink.c.

I suspect this is a dup, but I can't find the canonical bug atm.

Trac:
Version: Tor: 0.2.2.35 to N/A
Keywords: N/A deleted, tbb-disk-leak added
Milestone: N/A to TorBrowserBundle 2.3.x-stable

#4894 (moved) is a similar permissions issue.

arma says in #6129 (moved)

If this is actually the behavior, one of the steps we should take is filing the bug with upstream. That's a mighty misleading error message for "I can't write to disk".

Trac:
Keywords: N/A deleted, tbb-usability added

Apparently, TBB 3.0 simply crashes in this case on Windows.

Trac:
Summary: Firefox gives confusing error message when TBB is run from a directory which it cannot write to to Firefox gives confusing error message (or crashes) when TBB is run from a directory which it cannot write to
Priority: normal to major
Keywords: N/A deleted, tbb-3.0 added

To reduce confusion, the "Firefox is already running" message should be changed. There are occasions when an error message stating "Tor Browser is already running" would be accurate, but none when "Firefox is already running" would be. Users are trying to uninstall their installed Firefox to remedy this problem when they see it.

Trac:
Keywords: N/A deleted, tbb-helpdesk-frequent added

Trac:
Keywords: N/A deleted, tbb-firefox-patch added

Trac:
Component: Firefox Patch Issues to Tor Browser

Trac:
Keywords: tbb-usability deleted, tbb-usability-stoppoint-app added

Trac:
Cc: erinn, chiiph, Shondoit to erinn, chiiph, Shondoit, gk

The work to provide improved error messages when profiles are not writeable, etc. is now being done in #14631 (moved).

Trac:
Status: reopened to closed
Resolution: N/A to duplicate

closed

mentioned in issue #6129 (moved)

mentioned in issue #12256 (closed)

mentioned in issue #14631 (moved)

mentioned in issue tpo/web/trac#6129 (closed)

moved to tpo/applications/tor-browser#4782 (closed)