IceCat does not start with en_GB.utf8 locale

I cannot start IceCat with a non-C locale. It opens an almost-blank

window, and I cannot open new tabs or navigate to any URL.

If I run `LANG=C icecat', then it works fine.

I use `guix system' and `guix home', and have IceCat installed in my

`guix home' profile.

I have my operating-system configured with the following locales:

(locale "en_GB.utf8")

(locale-definitions

(list (locale-definition (name "en_GB.utf8") (source "en_GB"))

(locale-definition (name "en_US.utf8") (source "en_US"))

(locale-definition (name "fr_FR.utf8") (source "fr_FR"))))

This is the output when running IceCat in my terminal (without

explicitly setting LANG, so that it retains its value of

"en_GB.utf8"):

$ icecat

ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.

ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.

ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.

JavaScript error: chrome://pocket/content/SaveToPocket.jsm, line 130: NS_ERROR_FAILURE: Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIStringBundle.formatStringFromName]

JavaScript error: chrome://browser/content/tabbrowser.js, line 7004: NS_ERROR_FAILURE: Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIStringBundle.GetStringFromName]

JavaScript error: chrome://browser/content/tabbrowser-tabs.js, line 64: NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED: Component returned failure code: 0x8000ffff (NS_ERROR_UNEXPECTED) [nsIStringBundle.GetStringFromName]

JavaScript error: resource:///modules/sessionstore/SessionStore.jsm, line 2458: TypeError: browser is undefined

JavaScript error: resource:///modules/UrlbarInput.jsm, line 2641: NS_ERROR_FAILURE: Component returned failure code: 0x80004005 (NS_ERROR_FAILURE) [nsIStringBundle.GetStringFromName]

JavaScript error: chrome://browser/content/browser.js, line 8052: TypeError: browser is undefined

JavaScript error: resource:///modules/sessionstore/TabStateFlusher.jsm, line 230: TypeError: browser is undefined

Missing chrome or resource URL: resource://gre/modules/UpdateListener.jsm

Missing chrome or resource URL: resource://gre/modules/UpdateListener.sys.mjs

console.error: "Error during quit-application-granted: [Exception... \"File error: Not found\" nsresult: \"0x80520012 (NS_ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND)\" location: \"JS frame :: resource:///modules/BrowserGlue.jsm :: _onQuitApplicationGranted/tasks< :: line 1996\" data: no]"

$ guix shell glibc -- locale

LANG=en_GB.utf8

LC_CTYPE="en_GB.utf8"

LC_NUMERIC="en_GB.utf8"

LC_TIME="en_GB.utf8"

LC_COLLATE="en_GB.utf8"

LC_MONETARY="en_GB.utf8"

LC_MESSAGES="en_GB.utf8"

LC_PAPER="en_GB.utf8"

LC_NAME="en_GB.utf8"

LC_ADDRESS="en_GB.utf8"

LC_TELEPHONE="en_GB.utf8"

LC_MEASUREMENT="en_GB.utf8"

LC_IDENTIFICATION="en_GB.utf8"

LC_ALL=

$ guix shell glibc -- locale -a

C

en_GB.utf8

en_US.utf8

fr_FR.utf8

POSIX

$ guix describe

Generation 2 Mar 02 2023 13:25:29 (current)

[one non-free channel omitted]

guix a7763e0

repository URL: https://git.savannah.gnu.org/git/guix.git

branch: master

commit: a7763e067d86908210758aab80d33e4f8b815b1c

GUIX_PACKAGE_PATH="/home/twilken/src/guix-decls"

$ ls -l "$(which icecat)"

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 84 Jan 1 1970 /home/twilken/.guix-home/profile/bin/icecat -> /gnu/store/bwcrfgfrri9bpglgb5raih167jaxibkv-icecat-102.8.0-guix0-preview1/bin/icecat

Hi Timo,

Timo Wilken <timo.wilken@cern.ch> writes:

This is very odd, I've never seen that while testing locales stuff with

IceCat.

Could you try running with a fresh profile? E.g., 'icecat

--ProfileManager', create a new profile, and start it from there?

It should work. I suspect the problem may be caused by

'intl.locale.requested' being set to something. It needs to be unset

for the system locale to be honored, so if that's the problem with your

current profile, you could try clearing it by visiting "about:config" in

the URL bar.

--

Thanks,

Maxim

tags 61914 + moreinfo

quit

Hello Timo,

(Please don't forget to keep the bug in CC so that our discussion

remains public so that anyone can jump in to help!)

Timo Wilken <timo.wilken@cern.ch> writes:

Interesting. I would have expected that the language packs extensions,

which are shipped with icecat itself (they are in its application global

directory, under for example

/gnu/store/...-icecat-102.8.0-guix0-preview1/lib/icecat/browser/extensions),

would have self-updated when the browser would have changed.

Perhaps it depends on the version string of icecat changing, or their

date stamp, which is purposefully set to 1970 for reproducibility.

Browsing about:config, I see:

I wonder if this could make a different to be set to true instead. It's

set to false by the makeicecat.sh script we run to transform the Firefox

source into GNU IceCat. I guess we'll have to look at the source for

more clues as to how language pack updates are handled exactly.

--

Thanks,

Maxim

Hi Maxim,

Thanks for your reply!

What finally worked for me was the following:

$ sed -i.bak 's|/gnu/store/hhfcn8viysyz2qz9rvvqkj91i5nxzd9s|/gnu/store/bwcrfgfrri9bpglgb5raih167jaxibkv|g' \

~/.mozilla/icecat/vfc41hol.default/extensions.json \

~/.mozilla/icecat/vfc41hol.default/addonStartup.json.lz4

After running that, IceCat suddenly worked fine.

No directory starting with /gnu/store/hhfcn8viysyz2qz9rvvqkj91i5nxzd9s

exists on my system.

I guess that means the "guix gc" I did yesterday is to blame!

There were lots of entries like the following in my extensions.json:

"rootURI":"jar:file:///gnu/store/hhfcn8viysyz2qz9rvvqkj91i5nxzd9s-icecat-102.8.0-guix0-preview1/lib/icecat/browser/extensions/langpack-xh@icecat.mozilla.org.xpi!/",

...and then when guix gc deleted an old IceCat directory, these files

were gone.

Is there some way of forcing IceCat not to embed the /gnu/store path

in the user's profile at runtime?

On Thu Mar 2, 2023 at 3:54 PM CET, Maxim Cournoyer wrote:

This works, as does using icecat --safe-mode (which presumably avoids

loading all extensions and language packs). The new profile has the

right /gnu/store paths embedded in extensions.json (i.e. those

pointing to the "current" IceCat). I suppose this will blow up as well

on the next guix gc...

This setting was already cleared.

Cheers,

Timo

Hi,

Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com> writes:

[...]

I have the same problem, where the French language pack I used with a

previous version of IceCat (102.7.0) is not updating to the

system-provided one. Setting 'extensions.systemAddon.update.enabled' to

'true' does not help.

I've now reported the issue upstream:

I've also taken a peek at the source, and it seems the update/cache of

language pack modules would be handled in the

toolkit/mozapps/extensions/internal/XPIDatabase.jsm, e.g. in

processFileChanges and updateExistingAddon. It seems the cache should

be invalidated in our situation, based on the comment and logic:

To be continued...

--

Thanks,

Maxim

Hi Timo,

Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com> writes:

Trying to reproduce the above, I'm not sure if I still can! One

hypothesis, is that perhaps I had installed the french language pack

(the .xpi file produced by Guix) manually while testing. I also

remember testing other languages, such as with LC_ALL=es_ES.utf8, and I

don't see the problem where that one "stuck". It could be because I

hadn't tried with an older version, but not having a clear reproducers

make things muddy.

Could it be that you had previously installed the language packs

manually?

--

Thanks,

Maxim

Hi,

Maxim Cournoyer <maxim.cournoyer@gmail.com> writes:

I haven't heard back from you, and I wasn't able to reproduce the

problem, so I'm tentatively closing this. Please do reopen if you still

encounter the problem (and ideally, can narrow down a reproducer).

--

Thanks,

Maxim