Problem updating the read-only profile after a Firefox update

Something wicked seems to happen every time I let Firefox update my clean profile and then try to sync it back to my stash. I suspect it’s Owncloud-related (the stash directory is under Owncloud’s sync directory), but anyway, here’s what happens:

  1. I update Firefox. This causes it to check extension compatibility on every startup (because read-only profile).
  2. I close Firefox, manually copy the pristine profile to ~/.mozilla/firefox and start Firefox from the command-line (with -P clean). I let Firefox do its compatibility check thing and close it again.
  3. I rename the old stash directory to have a .O postfix. I then copy (cp -a) the updated profile from ~/.mozilla/firefox to the original stash location. (This is how I created it in the first place.)
  4. I start Firefox with my read-only profile script, and watch it go nuts (search engines are reset, Pocket integration is all fucked up etc.).

Like I said, the syncing back is no different from how I originally created the profile, and this issue doesn’t always manifest itself. When it does, I have to use some yet-to-be-pinpointed-exactly combination of cp’s, rsync’s, stoppings and startings of Owncloud to make work as intended.

The irritation this causes naturally correlates with how often Firefox gets updated.

In other, unrelated news, I finally dropped Tor browser from Firefox’s .desktop file. I simply never used it and it only caused me to accidentally launch it when I just wanted a new disposable Firefox.