Chromium Browser Issue under Ubuntu

Chromium Web Browser

This evening while I was web surfing, I decided to make a couple of changes to my Ubuntu desktop and thought I'd simply sign out and back in to see if the changes would stay upon a reboot/log off.  My changes worked fine.  However, I didn't exit the Chromium Web Browser properly when logging off.  In short, I logged off while I had the browser minimized to the Unity dock.  I honestly didn't think anything else about it.

Upon signing back in, and launching the Chromium Web browser again I was greeted with an error I hadn't previously seen. (See pic below)

Bad Profile??

"Your profile could not be opened correctly.  Some features may be unavailable.  Please check that the profile exists and you have permission to read and write its contents." This is the error message I got, and was unable to proceed past the error.

Upon further inspection, by right clicking the Chromium launcher in the Unity dock, I was able to select 'Open a New Window with a Temporary Profile' to do some research on the issue.  In short, I found a bunch of links with very similar information.  There are two ways to go about fixing this issue.

The first, basically make a backup of the Chromium Configuration File and then launch Chromium to let the profile rebuild itself.  Or just launch Chromium and let it build a new profile configuration anyways (this option will cause you to loose all of your browsing history, bookmarks, cookies, etc.

*Hit enter after each command entered into Terminal.

Step 1: Close Chromium.
Step 2: Launch the Terminal (Alt + Ctrl + T)
Step 3: Type the following:    mv ~/.config/chromium/Default ~/.config/chromium/Backup
Step 4: Launch the Chromium again.  This time is should open without an error.
Step 5: Once you have verified it works, close Chromium again.  We will restore your data.
Step 6: Go back into Terminal and type:  rm -rf ~/.config/chromium/Default
Step 7: Still in Terminal, type:   cp -R ~/.config/chromium/Backup ~/.config/chromium/Default
Step 8: Exit Terminal and open Chromium and verify your data has returned (bookmarks, etc.)

If you aren't particularly picky, and don't mind loosing things like your bookmarks, cookies, and browsing history.  Then you can simply just launch Terminal and type the following command and hit enter:   rm -rf ~/.config/chromium/Default

This will remove the existing Chromium configuration file.  By removing the configuration file, Chromium will be force to create a new profile configuration the next time it is run.  Essentially starting with a blank slate as if it were just installed.

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What Web Browser Do You Use?

One day, many years ago we were introduced to this piece of software called 'Internet Explorer'.  And at the time it was awesome.  It would quickly become adopted as our window into the online world.  Many fond evenings were spent navigating the early web where even the simplest of websites seemed to be almost magical.

Fast forward to 2011 where the web browser is a common tool used in everyday computing.  And much has changed since those early days.  Now we have so many choices.  We have Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera, and I'm sure a handful of other browsers I haven't even stumbled across yet.  The goal of all of these projects is rather simple: to be the best at presenting the web to their user's.

But as time progresses on, so does advancements within code and programs.  Some become faster, more stable and secure.  While others tend to look pretty and have big security holes.  So what sets them apart?  Features, speed, reliability, trust in the developers; you name it.  And right now the web browsers leading the pack seem to be Internet Explorer and Firefox (numbers 1 and 2 respectively).

But according to StatCounter (an analytics company) who have been measuring web browser popularity and usage; Google's Chrome Web Browser is in a good position to dethrone Mozilla's Firefox in the Number 2 position.  And no surprise since Google has been ramping up the advertising around Chrome as of late with all of those television commercials.

And while we're discussing Chrome, it looks as if Chrome will be making the official port to Android devices as well.  Making it even more widespread than it already is.  Is Mozilla in danger of indeed slipping to the Number 3 spot?  We'll see.

With all of the web browser offerings out there, what browser do you use and why?  Leave a comment below the article and let's chat about it.

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Firefox 7 and the Rapid Release Schedule

Earlier in the year Mozilla announced that with the release of Firefox 6, they will start aiming at an 18 week development cycle.  Essentially meaning every 18 weeks the next version of Firefox will be released.  So, in the spirit of updating, I finally updated my Firefox to version 6.0.2 just the other day (I use many web browsers, so updating sometimes gets neglected).

And today, I decided to jump back into Firefox for a few minutes and guess what?  Yep, a new update is ready that will bounce my Firefox up to version 7.  What is included in the latest version of Firefox?

-On the web developer side, Mozilla has included some extra tools to help with HTML5 features using hardware-acceleration for things like games and animations, etc.  And developers now have access to native Firefox tools that will measure page load time versus traffic, user bandwidth, etc.

-An opt-in feature called Telemetry is now included.  This feature allows Firefox on a user's computer to feed data back to Mozilla concerning the way version 7 runs on the various types of computer hardware out there in the world. I usually turn this option off myself when other apps prompt for this type of feature.  But for those who choose to participate, you will essentially be providing benchmarks for Mozilla to consider when it comes to future releases of their web browser.

-User's will notice Firefox 7 includes more efficient memory management.  Not that big of a deal if you typically only open a tab or two and only casually surf the web.  But for those of us who populate our web browsers with tabs and open pages (my Chrome browser currently has 7 open tabs, and I'm just getting warmed up); will notice quicker navigation and tab switching.

So, with the release of version 7, we already have several decent updates (especially if you are a web developer).  Also, Mozilla is shooting for near perfect compatibility with Browser Add-Ons from version 6 with the release of Firefox 7.  Chances are you may have already downloaded it; however it you didn't be sure to click on:
1- Help (in the menu bar)
2- Click on 'About Firefox'

And the 'About Firefox' dialog box will check your version against the latest release on their servers and download accordingly.  And if you haven't downloaded Firefox yet, I'd highly recommend it.  So head on over to Mozilla.org or click on:







Happy Surfing!

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