FF 3.0.15 said to be incompatible with Gears 0.5.33.0

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What steps will reproduce the problem?
1. Start with FF 4.0.15 without Gears.
2. Install by clicking the install link on gears.google.com.   It installs
0.5.32.0.
3. After the Firefox restart, check for extension updates and allow it to
try to install 0.5.33.0

What is the expected output? What do you see instead?
You expect the offered update to install.   Instead it pops up a box that
says   "Google Gears" could not be installed because it is not
        compatible with your Firefox build type (Linux_x86-gcc3). Please
        contact the author of this item about the problem."

What version of the product are you using? On what operating system?
I'm using Ubuntu 9.4 (Jaunty Jackalope).

Please provide any additional information below.
See
http://groups.google.com/group/gears-users/browse_thread/thread/dd48ced4bc35c2ff
- Gears won't update.

See
http://groups.google.com/group/gears-users/browse_thread/thread/4855fd8df82b11e4
- Januty [sic], Firefox 3.0 and gcc3 issue

See
http://groups.google.com/group/gears-users/browse_thread/thread/317d178b1cb5c055
- Google Gears is not compatible (Linux_x86-gcc3)  

There are disturbingly many other open issues that are awfully close to
this one, but that involve different versions of Firefox.   Seems like
Gears is having a lot of trouble keeping up with new revs of Firefox.  That
is worrisome.

Drew

Original issue reported on code.google.com by r.drew.d...@gmail.com on 12 Nov 2009 at 10:25

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Minor note, step one should be 3.0.15 not 4.0.15 :) Fedora 10 used here, same FF
version 3.0.15 is installed.

Original comment by troyengel on 13 Nov 2009 at 3:50

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This is also happening with Ubuntu 9.10 and Firefox 3.5.* with the exception 
that
checking for extension updates in Firefox shows no update available for Gears
(installed version is 0.5.32.0). The Gears update that Ubuntu 9.10 (Update 
manager?)
is trying to install is 0.5.33.0. Going to the Gears website only shows 0.5.32.0
available for Firefox 3.5.*.

Original comment by tbeposts on 13 Nov 2009 at 8:12

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Also happening with Ubuntu Hardy 8.04 LTS, FF 3.0.15

Original comment by stevenrk...@gmail.com on 14 Nov 2009 at 1:31

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Comment 1 is correct.    Does this system have a way that I can go back to fix 
typos?

Drew

Original comment by r.drew.d...@gmail.com on 15 Nov 2009 at 8:27

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same as Comment 3 for me too.

Original comment by osk...@gmail.com on 16 Nov 2009 at 5:22

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Also happening with Debian Sid + FF 3.5.5-1 and Ubuntu 9.10 + FF 3.5.5

Original comment by gyorgy.v...@gmail.com on 16 Nov 2009 at 4:28

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Same for me. Ubuntu 9.10 + FF 3.5, using the Gears version from official Ubuntu
repository.

Original comment by christia...@googlemail.com on 16 Nov 2009 at 5:10

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I have similar results as Comment 2. I try to manually update, within Firefox, 
but no
updates are available. However the error message will pop-up about once a day
indicating that it does try to update. Using FF 3.5.5 on OpenSuSE 11.1 and KDE 
4.3.

Original comment by cwoelk...@gmail.com on 16 Nov 2009 at 5:47

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[deleted comment]

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FF 3.5.5 and Ubuntu 9.10 - same error

Original comment by pieterma...@gmail.com on 16 Nov 2009 at 6:27

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This thing is driving me crazy, I hope someone comes up with a fix soon, I have 
it
pop up on my Ubuntu 9.10 machines (2) and my SuSE 11.1 machine, so it is the 
same
for all machines.
Firefox is 3.5.3
OS is SuSE 11.1

One the Ubuntu 9.10 machines
Firefox is 3.5.5

Original comment by wch...@gmail.com on 16 Nov 2009 at 10:33

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Getting the same error on Debian Squeeze with IceWeasel 3.0.14. This really 
wouldn't
be much of an issue for me if the linux version of chrome supported Gears.

Original comment by evJer...@gmail.com on 16 Nov 2009 at 10:39

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Same problem Ubuntu 9.10 Firefox 3.5.5

Original comment by vaccaric...@gmail.com on 17 Nov 2009 at 8:53

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Same problem Ubuntu 8.04.3 LTS FF 3.0.15
niarf 

Original comment by pronoia...@gmail.com on 17 Nov 2009 at 5:34

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Same problem on Fedora 11, Firefox 3.5.3

Original comment by johnf...@gmail.com on 17 Nov 2009 at 8:02

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Same here FF 3.5.5 on Ubuntu 9.10

Original comment by gar...@gmail.com on 17 Nov 2009 at 10:21

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Same with openSUSE 11.1 and 11.2

Original comment by mgm...@gmail.com on 18 Nov 2009 at 1:28

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this solved my issue:
http://forums.techarena.in/tips-tweaks/1239847.htm

Original comment by mgm...@gmail.com on 18 Nov 2009 at 1:36

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mgmuer, 
your "solution" consist of manually installing a rather old version of gears 
(version 25, instead of 33)
This is certainly not the way to go, isn't it?

Original comment by dimp...@gmail.com on 18 Nov 2009 at 2:28

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Well, it solved my issue, nothing less, nothing more ;-)

Maybe it could give the devs a hint, what went wrong in the dev tree...

Original comment by mgm...@gmail.com on 18 Nov 2009 at 2:52

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Re: comment 18 ... that solution was also proposed in:

http://groups.google.com/group/gears-users/browse_thread/thread/317d178b1cb5c055

However, as noted in that thread, this "solution" only downgrades Gears to the
previous version. The next time you restart Firefox, Gears will want to 
upgrade, and
you're back in the soup.

It turns out that, despite the wording of the error message, the problem has 
NOTHING
to do with the type of build. Firefox correctly returns "Linux_x86-gcc3" (or, 
for
Ubuntu Edgy Eft, "linux-gnu_x86-gcc3"), which is precisely what Gears is 
looking for.
So the error message is misleading.

That thread, however, also makes reference to a proposed solution for Mac users:

http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/forum/1/398497?s=google%20gears%20compatible

This ALMOST works for Linux, but not quite. I did some checking, and the 
problem is
indeed in the "install.rdf" file in the line cited. The proposed solution notes 
that
Gears changed the "maxVersion" value that it accepts from Firefox. 
The line *used* to read:

<em:maxVersion>3.6</em:maxVersion>

This was changed in Gears 0.5.32.0 to read:

<em:maxVersion>3.5.*</em:maxVersion>

The Mozilla documentation says that 3.5.* should work, but apparently it 
doesn't.
Changing it back to 3.6 fixed the problem, for me anyhow. So the detailed 
solution is:

1) In an empty directory, use wget to download the Gears xpi file, then unzip 
it:
% wget http://dl.google.com/gears/current/gears-linux-opt.xpi
% unzip gears-linux-opt.xpi

2) Edit the "install.rdf" file, changing "3.5.*" to "3.6"

3) zip and rename the file
% zip -r gears-linux-new.xpi .

4) Start up Firefox and open the new XPI file using File ... Open. Allow the 
install.

I'm attaching the corrected XPI. Hope this works for you ... let me know ...

Original comment by johnf...@gmail.com on 18 Nov 2009 at 3:04

Attachments:

• gears-linux-new.xpi

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@johnfsca - I follow your fix, but that wget download and your fix are 
0.5.32.0, not
0.5.33.0. You'll still get the upgrade dialog now -- part of the problem is 
their
official website is offering a version older than that automatic upgrade is 
trying to
get.

See if you can find a direct download URL to 0.5.33.0 XPI?

Original comment by troyengel on 18 Nov 2009 at 3:46

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Yeah, I'm baffled by references to 0.5.33. The official Gears site has 0.5.32. 
I just
downloaded their MacOSX version as well -- also 0.5.32.

So where are you seeing upgrade requests? And where are you getting a ".33" 
version
from? 

I have my corrected .32 installed, and all is happy. No upgrade requests, works 
fine.

I also note that this may well be a Firefox bug, and might be limited to the 
Linux
version. Gears asks for "3.5.*", which according to Mozilla is a valid specifier
(equivalent to "less than 3.6"). But that request fails, while the request for 
"3.6"
(which I think means "less than or equal to 3.6.0, but not including 3.6.1") 
succeeds.

Original comment by johnf...@gmail.com on 18 Nov 2009 at 4:13

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As far as I can tell there is no Gears version 0.5.33. The latest version of 
Gears
0.5.32 and there's no update available.

I'm running Ubuntu 9.10 with Firefox 3.5.6pre (currently) and was seeing this 
same
problem. I had installed Gears by installing the 0.5.32 .xpi file via the Gears
website. But for some reason, Gears 0.5.32 was also installed via the Synaptic
package manager. This is a separate install from the .xpi file found on the 
Gears
website and appeared to have been causing the problem. I removed Gears via the
package manager and the problem disappeared. This *did not* remove the Gears
extension from Firefox.

My guess is that a conflict was caused by the system attempting to install 
Gears into
Firefox when the latest version was already installed via an extension.

I don't know what other ditros use for a package manager but I would suggest 
checking
to see if your version of Linux already has Gears installed as a package and if 
so,
remove it and use the "official" .xpi version of the Gears website. This way 
will
guarantee regular updates which you may not get via the repositories.

HTH

Original comment by tbeposts on 18 Nov 2009 at 4:58

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@johnfsca Go into the Tools -> Add-ons dialog and it should show 0.5.32.0; now 
click
Find Updates and it should download a 2.7mb 05.33.0 and try (and fail) to 
install it.
This will probably happen to you automatically in one day or whenever FF 
usually does
it's checking behind the scenes.

One though I had was to try and use Wireshark (sic) to capture the network 
packets
during this mysterious 0.5.33.0 download and get the URL to the XPI file from 
that
and see what we've got going on. It's... interesting that the "new" one is only 
2.7mb
when the old one 0.5.32.0 is almost +1mb larger.

@tbeposts I follow your logic; on my system there is no rpm package for gears
installed (Fedora) however. If you go to the Tools -> Add-ons and click Find 
Updates
now, does anything happen?

Original comment by troyengel on 18 Nov 2009 at 5:23

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[deleted comment]

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am i right that this is more than an annoyance? that is, as long as this error
occurs, Gears won't function. right?

i just tried the well described fix in Comment 21  by johnfsca. i'm not sure 
how long
to wait to before believing that it is fixed. a day? so far, so good.

regarding Comment 24  by tbeposts - gears doesn't show up in my package manager.

Original comment by ron.e.w...@gmail.com on 18 Nov 2009 at 5:49

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OK, inside the 0.5.32.0 install.rdf file you can piece together the Update URL 
that
it's using to find 0.5.33.0:

https://tools.google.com/service/update2/ff?guid={000a9d1c-beef-4f90-9363-039d44
5309b8}&version=0.5.32.0&application={ec8030f7-c20a-464f-9b0e-13a3a9e97384}&appv
ersion=3.0.11&dist=google&os=linux

Visiting that link returns a XML stream, which includes the link to the 
0.5.33.0 file
that's giving us grief:

https://dl-ssl.google.com/gears/0.5.33.0/gears-linux-opt.xpi

Running a diff on the install.rdf from both version yields:

$ diff -uN install.rdf.old install.rdf
--- install.rdf.old 2009-11-18 09:47:20.000000000 -0800
+++ install.rdf 2009-10-16 14:15:54.000000000 -0700
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@
       contains the quad "beef". I mean, what are the chances of that?
    -->
     <em:id>{000a9d1c-beef-4f90-9363-039d445309b8}</em:id>
-    <em:version>0.5.32.0</em:version>
+    <em:version>0.5.33.0</em:version>

     <!-- 
     For Up-To-Date Documentation of this Format Please See: 
@@ -73,9 +73,7 @@
     </em:targetApplication>

     <!-- Prevent this XPI from being installed on the wrong platform. -->
-    <em:targetPlatform>Linux_x86-gcc3</em:targetPlatform>
-    <!-- Ubuntu Edgy Eft requires "linux-gnu" for the OS_TARGET prefix. -->
-    <em:targetPlatform>linux-gnu_x86-gcc3</em:targetPlatform>
+    <em:targetPlatform>Linux_x86_64-gcc3</em:targetPlatform>

     <em:name>Google Gears</em:name>
     <em:description>These are the gears that power the tubes! :-)</em:description>

So... the problem "seems" obvious, they've inserted x86_64 in place of where 
x86 (non
64) used to be in the old version. Ooops. (I'm on a 32bit x86 install) So the
question is (was), was this really a 64bit install?! Yes, it is:

$ file ff30/libgears.so 
ff30/libgears.so: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), not 
stripped

$ file ff35/libgears.so 
ff35/libgears.so: ELF 64-bit LSB shared object, x86-64, version 1 (SYSV), not 
stripped

So, the real bug seems to be that Google uploaded a 64bit install of the new 
0.5.33.0
Gears code into the 32bit update "channel" by mistake or design, I'm unsure 
what.
Firefox is correctly telling us it can't install this update because we're a 
32bit
browser and cannot run this accidental 64bit new version.

There is nothing we users can do, Google Gears team need to either pull the 
download
or upload a proper 32bit upgrade for our browsers. I imagine anyone running a 
64bit
FF is not seeing this problem? (I have no machines of that nature to check)

Original comment by troyengel on 18 Nov 2009 at 5:52

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@troyengel: Impressive detective work. BTW, when I follow your suggestion to 
Find
Updates to 0.5.32.0, it says "No updates were found". Weird. On the other hand, 
when
I just restarted Firefox I got the bad old error message, though Gears seems to 
be
working fine (on WordPress, for example, or running the tests on the Gears 
site).

Original comment by johnf...@gmail.com on 18 Nov 2009 at 9:26

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@johnfsca There's a KB article on how to disable updating for a single add-on:

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Updating_extensions#Disabling_update_checks_for_indivi
dual_add-ons_-_Advanced_users

So, I just added to about:config this:

extensions.{000a9d1c-beef-4f90-9363-039d445309b8}.update.enabled = false

...and now Gears no longer tries to download that bad 0.5.33.0 64bit update. 
This
isn't an actual fix for the problem, just a workaround to get rid of the 
annoying
dialog until Google fixes it upstream.

Original comment by troyengel on 18 Nov 2009 at 9:35

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Indeed, my fix didn't work :-(

But I seriously wonder, why this can't be fixed... It doesn't look like a 
technical
issue, just like a typo in the versioning...

Original comment by mgm...@gmail.com on 19 Nov 2009 at 4:16

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I tried troyengel's solution, and it seemed to work at first, since Firefox 
wasn't
able to find an update for Google Gears anymore. However, after I restarted 
Firefox,
I got the same usual error message: "Google Gears" could not be installed 
because it
is not compatible with your Firefox build type (Linux_x86-gcc3). Please contact 
the
author of this item about the problem."

Then I checked about:config again and I noticed there was another line 
pertaining to
Google Gears: extensions.google.updater.{000a9d1c-beef-4f90-9363-039d445309b8}, 
which
was assigned a string value. At first I tried to delete it from the prefs.js 
file,
but it came back as soon as I restarted Firefox. Then I tried to mess with the
string's value, and I ended up finding a possible solution, which seems to be 
working
so far.

I switched the string's value to 9999999999999, and I stopped getting that error
message everytime I open Firefox. Then I tried 0000000000000 to see what would
happen, and not only I got the error message, but the value changed to a 
seemingly
random 13-digit number. I guess this string is supposed to represent the amount 
of
time the browser takes to search for an update.

In case I get the error message again, I'll let you know. Meanwhile, maybe one 
of you
could try this solution and see if it works long term, at least until the Google
Gears team fixes this bug.

Original comment by thiagofr...@gmail.com on 20 Nov 2009 at 6:23

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I tried the approach of thiagofreirels, and the annoying error message went 
away.
Thinking out loud: I am wondering if this effectively disables a check for a 
later
version (indefinitely), and perhaps this is what has been happening: FF goes 
off to
Gears to look of 0.5.33, finds the 64-bit version that troyengels found (though 
I
haven't), notes the build discrepancy (since it can't find a 32-bit version) 
and carps.

I'm still a bit mystified as to why I never saw a request to move beyond version
0.5.32, which the Gears site declares to be the current version. However, I 
note that
in my FF Config I have the following:

extensions.update.notifyUser = false

Perhaps, then, something is going on in the background that I don't see. 
(Changing
that value to true, however, seems to make no difference.)

In any case, I am not getting the error message, but I also suspect that 
automatic
checking for Gears updates has been disabled. Gears is working, though.

Original comment by johnf...@gmail.com on 20 Nov 2009 at 6:47

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I also note that this bug is now #4 on the list when sorted by stars. And the 
only
one this high that doesn't have an owner from the Google team.

Original comment by johnf...@gmail.com on 20 Nov 2009 at 6:49

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Thanks guys, I got the dialog again after my fix and also noticed that extra 
"beef"
key with the date/timestamp but hadn't had time to investigate. So, what I did 
was
deleted the updater.beef key and quit FF. I then ran:

  $ date +%s
  1258743226

Started FF, then went to about:config and the key was back (and I got the Update
error dialog right away). The value in the config key was:

  1258743223 836 (extra space mine, last 3 are...milli? secs)

Since the second value is lower (earlier), I can only deduce that this 
date/timestamp
is since the *last* check, not the next time *to* check. Setting it to 
99999999's
like thiagofreirels pointed out should tell the updater that the last time it 
checked
was, uh... "GMT: Sat, 20 Nov 2286 17:46:39 GMT" according to 
epochconverter.com. :)

Let's hope we don't see that dialog again now after setting both keys. I 
suspect that
the first key I came up with is for the extension itself (Gears), and the 
second key
is for a generic Google updater shim (there are several references to it in 
Google
for various softwares).

Original comment by troyengel on 20 Nov 2009 at 7:01

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I just noticed something.

troyengels, what version of FF are you using? I don't see this Config key:

extensions.{000a9d1c-beef-4f90-9363-039d445309b8}.update.enabled = false

I'm using FF 3.5.3. Instead, I see this key:

extensions.enabledItems = {000a9d1c-beef-4f90-9363-039d445309b8}:0.5.32.0

... which is a list of enabled extensions with their latest version number.

Original comment by johnf...@gmail.com on 20 Nov 2009 at 7:50

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@johnfsca you have to add it as per the KB link in comment #30 above, it's not 
there
by default. This is an official way that's supposed to stop an extension from 
trying
to update itself.

That other key you see is normal, don't touch it. Just rightmouseclick and Add 
new
boolean to get this key in your config.

Original comment by troyengel on 20 Nov 2009 at 8:21

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@troyengel thanks, but since I'm not having the problem of it trying to 
download a
version 33 (so far as I know), and all seems to be happy now, I'll skip adding 
that
key/value pair.

Original comment by johnf...@gmail.com on 21 Nov 2009 at 1:29

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Huge issue for me.  It is preventing me from distributing a desktop with Google 
aps
on the desktop.

Original comment by stephen.ewen on 21 Nov 2009 at 6:55

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You should at least remove the note about "please inform the author about the 
issue",
as this seems quite useless. ;-)

Original comment by mgm...@gmail.com on 21 Nov 2009 at 11:55

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regarding Comment 21  by johnfsca, Nov 18 & my attempt to follow that procedure 
per
Comment 27  by ron.e.wolf, Nov 18 - this fix doesn't seem to work (or stick?) 
as the
error is now back (if it ever went away in the first place). 

also, contrary to my conjecture in Comment 27, seems that Gears is working for 
me
even tho i get the error message. so am i right that this ius more than just an
annoyance at an error message unless there is actually something vital in the 
Gears
updates that aren't getting applied. if updates even exist, that is....

Original comment by ron.e.w...@gmail.com on 22 Nov 2009 at 3:25

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Same problem, running Ubuntu 9.04 netbook remix, Firefox 3.0.15

Original comment by grant.j....@gmail.com on 25 Nov 2009 at 5:42

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I'm runninh Debian Lenny and the fix proposed by  troyengel seems to work at 
least
for the time being

Original comment by tsvirtanen@gmail.com on 30 Nov 2009 at 4:18

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I think Google Gear is not for use now.
I have un installed it permanently after trying many times. Recently I have 
posted 
somewhere here that I was working for me but it is slow or no improvement. but 
it was 
not working. and I got error again after few days that Gear is not installed 
due to 
this this reason. 

Original comment by satyaka...@gmail.com on 30 Nov 2009 at 4:40

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These fixes work for me (firefox 3.0.15 on Ubuntu Jaunty):

Disable firefox updating this extension for now by adding the boolean key:

extensions.{000a9d1c-beef-4f90-9363-039d445309b8}.update.enabled = false

Set the google updater shim to check again on Jan first 2010 (hopefully it will 
be
fixed by then), by setting the key:

extensions.google.updater.{000a9d1c-beef-4f90-9363-039d445309b8}

to 1262304000000

The command to find that number is:

date -d "Fri Jan 1 00:00:00 GMT 2010" +%s

and add three zeros to the end.

I tend to forget about little fixes like these, so hopefully I'll get a 
reminder in
the new year that it's still not fixed and have to search for this thread to 
find out
what the hell it was ;)

Thanks to everyone who did the hard work!

Original comment by mega...@gmail.com on 3 Dec 2009 at 11:59

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Google just stop support for googlegears !!! 
http://www.korben.info/html5-google-gears.html (french) 

Original comment by pronoia...@gmail.com on 3 Dec 2009 at 12:42

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I heard that they won't develop Gears 2 as they will rely on HTML 5. I would 
still
expect them to support bugfixes like this for existing versions.

http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/google-plumps-for-html-5-over-gears-succe
sor-655358

Original comment by Martin.M...@gmail.com on 3 Dec 2009 at 12:50

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The detective work in this thread is outstanding.  While I admire meganox's
optimistic solution, I found that changing the <em:version> tag contents also 
worked:
<em:version>0.5.33.0</em:version>

Rationale:  I really don't know whether or not I should ever expect them to fix 
it. 
Jan 1st certainly doesn't look likely.  I figure this way, I'll just miss one 
minor
rev, should another one ever come out...

Original comment by zensoc...@gmail.com on 28 Dec 2009 at 6:02

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Google is shutting down "Gears" in favor of HTML5 instead.    See 
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/technology/2009/11/google-gears.html

So, I suspect Gears problems aren't going to get much attention.

Original comment by r.drew.d...@gmail.com on 29 Dec 2009 at 12:52

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I've created and uploaded an XPI file with the version number modified as 
suggested
by  zensocial.

You can get it here:
http://drop.io/gears_linux_0_5_33_version_hack/asset/gears-linux-opt-xpi

Original comment by jure....@gmail.com on 29 Dec 2009 at 2:49