Keep losing Bookmarks

My AA1 has worked for months then today I lost all my Firefox bookmarks.

I've tried to add them back but when I open Firefox again they are gone.

Looking at the advice on this forum, I've tried to use one of the dated back ups to replace bookmarks.html but I can't edit or rename bookmarks.html (gives an input/output error). Is there a Preference to let me delete or rename this file so I can replace it with the back up?

I've also tried using the organise Bookmarks function in the browser. It lets me paste in the contents from the backup and looks fine, but again when I restart Firefox they are gone.

I'm not that confident about installing Firefox 3 but will try as a last resort.

Any more suggestions appreciated.

Thanks
David

 

You may need root privileges to delete the bookmarks file.

It's easiest to use ALT-F2 to get a run dialog, type 'sudo thunar', and hit run. You then get a file manager running with root privileges - it has a red warning bar at the top. Use it only to delete the file you need to delete and go back to a non-root one afterwards to avoid damaging things.

 

That sounded promising. However, it still wouldn't let me delete,cut or rename bookmarks.html. Still gives an input/output error message.

Any other suggestions?

Many thanks
David

 

OK, let's try the all-powerful terminal to find out what's going on here

Use the file manager to get to the directory concerned, then click on 'File' on the menu and 'Terminal' from the options which drop down. This opens the terminal already in the right directory.

Now, in the terminal, type this:

Code:

ls -l | grep bookmark
sudo rm bookmarks.html

The first line will list in detail any files with the word 'bookmark' in the name; the second should delete the bookmarks.html file. If it won't, then the error message it gives and the previous listing of details should be useful in working out why. Copy the terminal session with these commands and the responses and paste them back into a reply here.

 

Here's what I got...

[user@localhost 291alhsl.default]$ ls -l | grep bookmark
drwx------ 2 user user 4096 2009-04-14 15:44 bookmarkbackups
-rw-r--r-- 1 user root 58306 2009-04-10 19:02 bookmarks-2009-04-10.html
---------- 0 user user 60448 2009-04-16 19:24 bookmarks.bak
---------- 0 user user 15 2009-04-16 19:24 bookmarks.html
[user@localhost 291alhsl.default]$ sudo rm bookmarks.html
rm: cannot remove `bookmarks.html': Input/output error

The file ending bookmarks-2009-04-10.html is the backup I copied into this directory ready to rename as bookmarks.html once I delete the original.

Thanks for you continued help.
David

 

This could be a bit of a problem.

It's odd that the file list is showing no permissions at all for the file; that's one of those things which shouldn't happen (the bit which goes '--------' in the listing). Allied with the input/output error, there is the possibility that the filesystem has corrupted.

If you reboot, does the situation change?

If you open a console and type 'dmesg', what output do you get (probably lots! Again, copy and paste here).

If not, there are two options which might work:

1. Put another Linux version onto a USB key, boot from that, and then run a filesystem check on the internal SSD. You can't run the check while running Linux from the internal drive as the partition has to be unmounted to be checked

2. Move all the remaining files in the folder to another directory, then do directory renames to make the new directory have the name Firefox is expecting. This may run into trouble at the renaming stage if there is a corruption in the filesystem.

What would you like to try?

 

I could try either. The second option sounds easier. I think you are saying I copy the whole directory that bookmarks.HTML is in. Then replace bookmarks .HTML in the new directory with the backup file, then delete the original directory and rename the new one with its name. Is that correct?

I was also wondering, could I run the add/remove programmes app which brings up 'Package Manager' to remove Firefox from the system, then re-install Firefox in the same way? If I did that, I can imaging having problems with the Icon disappearing from the main Linpus GUI.

Maybe I should go for Firefox 3 after all?

I do have a reinstall USB which I made from a PC when I fist bought the Acer but I assume that would wipe everything.

Thanks
David

 

That's right - why not give that a go? You can probably do it all reasonably easily with the File Manager.

Not just that; there are several Acer applications which use libraries from the Firefox2 installation It's safer to leave it there!

It does have advanatages, but install it *in addition to* FF2, not instead of. There are instructions on Macles blog

It would , yes!

 

Brilliant. Thanks to your help, I've cracked it.

I decided to install Firefox3 using the instructions on Macles blog.

The first two attempts failed. Then I realised the blog entry was a year old and refrerred to 3.0.1 but the version on the server is now 3.0.8.
With that small change (plus switching to the GB english version) it worked a treat including the proper firefox icon. I'd previously saved my bookmarks on the 'XMarks' server, so I've now imported them back into the browser.

Many thanks
David