Description:

When I update chromium to 9.0.597.84-2 it complained about a configuration error and crashed. Since I use the sync feature of chromium to store bookmarks and preferences, I cleared the ~/.config/chromium directory and let the browser create a new one. I then launched chromium and entered my credentials to use the sync feature but noticed that it would get stuck trying to log in. I let it try for 20 minutes and then canceled.

I figured out what the problem was when I launched chromium from a terminal. As soon as the browser starts it complains about the NSS database:

[8659:8673:69563894089:ERROR:base/nss_util.cc(181)] Error initializing NSS with a persistent database (sql:/home/$user/.pki/nssdb): NSS error code -8187

this error is followed by SQLite write errors that appear anytime I browse to a new page:

SQLite write error in seekAndWrite, cnt == 4, rc == -1, errno == 28
[8659:8668:69661472437:ERROR:webkit/appcache/appcache_database.cc(1010)] Failed to open the appcache database.

Now when I try to set up chromium sync, I put in my account information, and click "Sign In", and see the following in the terminal:

[8659:11424:69689033500:ERROR:chrome/browser/sync/engine/syncapi.cc(1487)] Could not open share for:user@domain.com

If I put in the wrong login information it immediately indicates that username/password do not match, which tells me it's not an authentication issue.



Steps to reproduce:

Install chromium and its dependencies. Execute chromium from a terminal, navigate to any web page, and note the output.

To reproduce the sync error, install chromium, run from a terminal, click on "set up sync" from the preference dialog, enter google account details and click "sign in".

Steps taken to try to alleviate issue:

I tried deleting both ~/.config/chromium and ~/.pki/nssdb, reinstalling chromium and nss, downgrading to chromium 8.x and 7.x builds, none of which helped.

I considered the possibility that there was a problem with permissions. When I lunch chromium as root the problem goes away. I checked my permissions for ~/.pki and it is the same as it is for root:

drwx------ 2 user users 4096 Feb 6 09:25 .
drwx------ 3 user users 4096 Feb 6 09:22 ..
-rw------- 1 user users 9216 Feb 6 09:25 cert9.db
-rw------- 1 user users 11264 Feb 6 09:25 key4.db
-rw------- 1 user users 441 Feb 6 09:25 pkcs11.txt

I also tried copying the nssdb directory from root over to my account, but this did not help.

I'm not sure if this is an NSS problem, chromium bug, or webkit related.

Additional info:

Arch x86_64, latest kernel 2.6.37-5, nss 3.12.9-1, chromium 9.0.597.84-2, libwebkit 1.2.6-1.

I see similar errors reported for chromium, but for much older versions:
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=21213

Also see:
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/wiki/LinuxCertManagement