gdk_threads_lock error when starting Firefox under OpenSuSE 10.3
 

I just installed OpenSuSE 10.3 as an upgrade from 10.2. Now, when I attempt to start up Firefox I get a message.
A Google search revealed that the same error was reported in LinuxQuestions.org a couple of years ago, but no solution was offered.

I'd guess that I'm missing a package -- but which one?

I found the explanation: the distribution version of Firefox was miscompiled, and gdk_threads_lock probably does not exist in any current library. I replaced the distribution version by the version from the Mozilla website and Firefox now loads and works correctly.

To check this I ran the following on various versions:

strings firefox-bin | grep gdk_thread

The defective version showed gdk_threads_lock but no other version did.