Update to 6.5.1 failed on Linux

[reticulatus]

What happened?

When I checked Help -> About it said that release 6.5.1 was available.

I clicked to download the update, but when I restarted Waterfox, it failed to reappear.

I tried running it from a terminal, but got the following error message:

richardt@Pavilion:~ $ waterfox
/opt/waterfox/updater: error while loading shared libraries: libmozsqlite3.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

Edit: I am using Mint 22.

Reproducible?

• I have checked that this issue cannot be reproduced on Mozilla Firefox.

Version

G6

What platform are you seeing the problem on?

Linux

Relevant log output

[reticulatus]

I have just done a full install of 6.5.1 and it appears to be working.

[KrzysztofMr]

I've got the same issue in Debian 12. Had to 'downgrade' to v6.5.0

[TruthInFiction]

I've run into the same problem with Mint 21.3.

[T0nd0Tara]

I have got the same problem with ubuntu 24.04

[tgolightly]

I am experiencing the same issue on two of my laptops one running kubuntu 24.04 and kde neon 23.x.

[krivine]

Same here. Mint 21.3

[csylvain]

problem is updater doesn't find libmozsqlite3.so in the current directory.

workaround:

$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. waterfox

(see output of "$ ldd updater")

[jcea]

I was going to post the same workaround that @csylvain but he/she/it was faster :-).

That workaround is only needed during the upgrade. After you are running 6.5.1, just close it and launch Waterfox like you always do.

[thecnoNSMB]

Issue occurs on Nobara 40. I'm honestly surprised that this failure state is even possible.

[N8ouy]

Please explain or give an example of "$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. waterfox" After a 16 hour shift, I am not really here.
never mind...... The ./ is what I forgot when using the cli

/waterfox$ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./waterfox

Thank you for finding this!

[Ketrel]

I have/had this issue on Arch, with the browser manually installed from the .bz2 download on the website.

[kkds1999]

Trying the LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./waterfox option but not working for me. In the waterfox download directory if i do:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=. ./waterfox

and afterwards ldd updater | grep libmozsqlite3.so i get libmozsqlite3.so => not found

Trying to run waterfox from terminal gives:
/home/xxx/Downloads/waterfox/updater: error while loading shared libraries: libmozsqlite3.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

[ibrahimBeladi]

I tried LD_LIBRARY_PATH, but it did not work for me either, I am on Linux Mint 22

However, I found another workaround, it may or may not work for you:

1. Launch the browser in first-startup mode, /home/YOUR_PATH/waterfox --first-startup
2. Go to the 3-dash icon, then Help, then Troubleshoot Mode, and then restart the browser, then Open

[kkds1999]

I tried LD_LIBRARY_PATH, but it did not work for me either, I am on Linux Mint 22

However, I found another workaround, it may or may not work for you:

1. Launch the browser in first-startup mode, /home/YOUR_PATH/waterfox --first-startup
2. Go to the 3-dash icon, then Help, then Troubleshoot Mode, and then restart the browser, then Open

Excellent, thank you. That is now working for me on Mint 22 as well. I also disabled auto update option as well.

[Ketrel]

If you're using LD_LIBRARY_PATH=.

1. Try ./ rather than just .
2. Make sure you're IN the waterfox directory that contains that .so file when you do this

(deleted/reposted because formatting was broken, and editing wasn't fixing it)

[Enkidu70]

Same here (Mint 21.3) but workaround worked.

[hiiiha]

Reproducible here. A full new install works and the profile remained

[MrAlex94]

Hi all,

Just a note I am aware of this issue, and so are Mozilla - this seems to be an upstream issue that we're all investigating. Doing my best to work with them on this as quickly as possible.

I do apologies about this!

[N8ouy]

Stranger things have been known to happen. Thank you for digging into it.

[Ketrel]

Sounds like adding an rpath to the updater to point to . would work

[explor202]

Is this issue restricted to Linux installs?