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Cannot start Thunderbird due to XML parsing error

  • 5 cavab
  • 3 have this problem
  • 7 views
  • Last reply by nocom

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For some unknown reason I cannot start Thunderbird anymore. The error is:

XML Parsing Error: undefined entity Location: chrome://messenger/content/messenger.xhtml Line Number 905, Column 3:

 <key id="openLightningKey"
</pre>

--^

Because it won't even start I don't know ehere to start and I am even more mystified that there seems to be a path to chrome which I have not installed as far as I know. I did install lightning a year ago and this worked nicely until know it seems.

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

For some unknown reason I cannot start Thunderbird anymore. The error is: XML Parsing Error: undefined entity Location: chrome://messenger/content/messenger.xhtml Line Number 905, Column 3: <key id="openLightningKey" --^ Because it won't even start I don't know ehere to start and I am even more mystified that there seems to be a path to chrome which I have not installed as far as I know. I did install lightning a year ago and this worked nicely until know it seems. Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Attached screenshots

All Replies (5)

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I am able to run Thunderbird only in safe mode. Disabling add-ons and resetting controls is not enough.

The problem started when I disabled all the calendars because I kept getting notifications that I couldn't dismiss, so I decided not to use the in-built calendar. I was using TBsync add-on with Caldav provider, but disabling and uninstalling them is still not enough.

I'm running Thuderbird 78.3.2 that came with Ubuntu 20.10.

Modified by entodoays

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I can only run Thunderbird in safe mode using "thunderbird -safe-mode" from a terminal window

The problem started about an hour ago, researching it seemed to point to a problem with the calendar, the last thing I did on the calendar was edit an appointment to move it a week into the future, so while in safe mode I had a look at that & deleted that appointment but I'm still getting the error on Thunderbird on startup

Error text is

XML Parsing Error: undefined entity Location: chrome://messenger/content/messenger.xhtml Line Number 905, Column 3:

 <key id="openLightningKey"
</pre>

--^

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I downloaded Thunderbird 78.4.0 from the thunderbird.net site and this version works flawlessly it seems. At least no XML error pops up when trying to open the app not only with a new profile, but also when opening the same profile I was using in the version installed with the system.

Modified by entodoays

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Mine has been upgraded to 78.4.0 as part of the normal linux upgrade process, also seems to work fine

Suggests a the previous update was a little dodgy, latest version seems to sort out the problem

This can be closed for me

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I manually downloaded and installed version 78.4.0 and that did the trick. Thanks for the suggestions!