Two Chromium background instances and a browser window open on boot without my permission

[Aren Cambre]

When I log into my user session (type in my password on the login prompt after boot), Chromium auto-starts, and two instances of its background process automatically open: per the attached image, two Chromium icons appear in the top bar. Also, an instance of the browser appears in the middle of the screen.

When this happens, I get an inconsistent browsing experince in Chromium, where it is randomly unable to connect to web sites or download components referenced by web pages (e.g., CSS files, JS files, etc.).

I can fix by closing the browser and also both the background sessions, then restarting Chromium.

I have never configured Chromium to start up when I log into my session. This has happened without my explicit permission or consent.

If I go to Session and Startup's Application Autostart tab, Chromium appears in the list and is checked. I did not configure this.

Expected behavior: No part of Chromium opens at all, not even a background process, until I launch the browser for the first time.

I am using a copy of Xubuntu 13.04 that was upgraded from Xubuntu 12.10. This problem was happening for several weeks back with Xubuntu 12.10, too.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: chromium-browser 25.0.1364.160-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-19.29-generic 3.8.8
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-19-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8
Architecture: i386
Date: Thu May 2 08:18:13 2013
Desktop-Session:
 DESKTOP_SESSION = xubuntu
 XDG_CONFIG_DIRS = /etc/xdg/xdg-xubuntu:/etc/xdg:/etc/xdg
 XDG_DATA_DIRS = /usr/share/xubuntu:/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/:/usr/share
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
Env:
 MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH = None
 LD_LIBRARY_PATH = None
InstallationDate: Installed on 2013-01-02 (119 days ago)
InstallationMedia: Xubuntu 12.10 "Quantal Quetzal" - Release i386 (20121017.1)
MarkForUpload: True
SourcePackage: chromium-browser
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to raring on 2013-04-30 (1 days ago)
chromium-default: CHROMIUM_FLAGS=""
gconf-keys: /desktop/gnome/applications/browser/exec = b'firefox\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/https/command = b'sensible-browser %s\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/https/enabled = b'true\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/http/command = b'sensible-browser %s\n'/desktop/gnome/url-handlers/http/enabled = b'true\n'/desktop/gnome/session/required_components/windowmanager = b''/apps/metacity/general/compositing_manager = b''/desktop/gnome/interface/icon_theme = b'elementary-xfce-dark\n'/desktop/gnome/interface/gtk_theme = b'Greybird\n'

[Chad Miller (cmiller)]

Please reproduce it, open a terminal, and paste the output of "ps xfwww" .

[Aren Cambre (aren-arencambre)]

ac@mule:~$ ps xfwww
  PID TTY STAT TIME COMMAND
 1731 ? Ss 0:00 /bin/sh /etc/xdg/xfce4/xinitrc -- /etc/X11/xinit/xserverrc
 1804 ? Ss 0:00 \_ /usr/bin/ssh-agent /usr/bin/dbus-launch --exit-with-session /usr/bin/im-launch startxfce4
 1825 ? Sl 0:00 \_ xfce4-session
 1835 ? S 0:00 \_ xfwm4 --replace --display :0.0 --sm-client-id 28d4f5801-c6b4-48bd-abb5-c958ed5158e5
 1836 ? S 0:00 \_ Thunar --sm-client-id 2cd1ee051-5cc9-49a9-850a-d331300b5655 --daemon
 1837 ? Sl 0:00 \_ xfce4-panel --display :0.0 --sm-client-id 2b65b0fd7-1e99-4c2e-8742-41b8bbcc3030
 1887 ? S 0:00 | \_ /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/xfce4/panel/wrapper /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/xfce4/panel/plugins/libsystray.so 4 33554472 systray Notification Area Area where notification icons appear
 1890 ? Sl 0:00 | \_ /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/xfce4/panel-plugins/xfce4-indicator-plugin 5 33554473 indicator Indicator Plugin An indicator of something that needs your attention on the desktop
 1902 ? S 0:00 | \_ /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/xfce4/panel/wrapper /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/xfce4/panel/plugins/libactions.so 9 33554479 actions Action Buttons Log out, lock or other system actions
 1840 ? Sl 0:00 \_ xfdesktop --display :0.0 --sm-client-id 2b91284b4-592d-43ab-b8ec-f2d2afc2a8b8
 2355 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/bin/xfce4-terminal
 2368 ? S 0:00 \_ gnome-pty-helper
 2369 pts/1 Ss 0:00 \_ bash
 2429 pts/1 R+ 0:00 \_ ps xfwww
 2116 ? S 0:00 /usr/bin/obex-data-server --no-daemon
 2047 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfsd-trash --spawner :1.10 /org/gtk/gvfs/exec_spaw/0
 2036 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-gphoto2-volume-monitor
 2031 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-afc-volume-monitor
 2027 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-mtp-volume-monitor
 2023 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/lib/i386-linux-gnu/xfce4/notifyd/xfce4-notifyd
 2015 ? SLl 0:04 chromium-browser
 2052 ? S 0:00 \_ chromium-browser
 2055 ? S 0:00 \_ /usr/lib/chromium-browser/chromium-browser-sandbox /usr/lib/chromium-browser/chromium-browser --type=zygote
 2058 ? S 0:00 \_ chromium-browser --type=zygote
 2097 ? S 0:00 \_ chromium-browser --type=zygote
 2194 ? Sl 0:00 \_ /usr/lib/chromium-browser/chro
 2202 ? Sl 0:01 \_ /usr/lib/chromium-browser/chro
 2211 ? Sl 0:00 \_ /usr/lib/chromium-browser/chro
 2218 ? Sl 0:00 \_ /usr/lib/chromium-browser/chro
 2225 ? Sl 0:00 \_ /usr/lib/chromium-browser/chro
 2006 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/lib/zeitgeist/zeitgeist-fts
 2068 ? S 0:00 \_ /bin/cat
 1994 ? Sl 0:00 update-notifier
 1992 ? Sl 0:00 /usr/lib/gvfs/gvfs-udisks2-volume-monito...

[Aren Cambre (aren-arencambre)]

Whoops, I don't know how to force monospace in this bugtracker, so I've also attached a text file that preserves the whitespace.

[Larry Tate (cathect)]

I can confirm this is happening to me as well. It just started a few days ago after an update. When I log in, Chromium starts and opens two blank tabs w/o my permission.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for chromium-browser (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[alex (r0)]

I think this and #1176903 are the same. There is an option in the Chromium to keep browser running in the background. See Settings -> Advanced settings -> Continue running background apps when Chromium is closed. Just uncheck it.

[Aren Cambre (aren-arencambre)]

This problem went away for a while, but it's now happening again a few weeks after I installed Xubuntu 13.10. I am currently on Chromium Version 30.0.1599.114 Ubuntu 13.10 (30.0.1599.114-0ubuntu0.13.10.2).

@alex: #7 is not an acceptable resolution. There is a bug if two background processes are opening.

[Chad Miller (cmiller)]

Programs can't start themselves. The bug is in whatever is running chromium. I suggest consulting XFCE experts and assigning this bug to the responsible program there.

[Aren Cambre (aren-arencambre)]

Then can you help me reassign this bug instead of closing it? I'm not familiar with where to put it.

@strange_cathect: What distro are you on?

[Chad Miller (cmiller)]

I'm just guessing about this assignment.

[Aren Cambre (aren-arencambre)]

Is there anything in a stock install of Ubuntu that would cause applications to re-open if they were opened when Ubunutu was shut down? I noticed that a session of Terminal Emulator is reopened if it was running before I logged out or restarted. I wonder if the same process is causing the double instance of Chromium?

[Thaddaeus Tintenfisch (thad-fisch-deactivatedaccount)]

Please clear the session cache (Settings Manager > Session and Startup > Session) and make sure that the startup launcher for Chromium is deactivated. Does Chromium still launch automatically after clearing the cache and restarting the session?

[Aren Cambre (aren-arencambre)]

That's interesting: clearing the session cache seems to have improved things. I wonder if there is some odd interaction between the session cache and Chromium?

After clearing the cache, the Chromium icon in the bar at top, representing the background process, reappears whenever I reboot, but no windows are opened. I even opened Chromium to two news sites, rebooted, and later opened Chromium to Gmail and Facebook, rebooted, and in neither case did Chromium windows open after I logged in, just the Chromium icon in the top bar.

If I uncheck Chromium from the Application Autostart tab, it's rechecked once Chromium restarts.

[Thaddaeus Tintenfisch (thad-fisch-deactivatedaccount)]

Thanks for your quick reply. The session manager always tries to restore a previously saved session (~/.cache/sessions/). According to the dozens of reports and forum threads, this seems to happen regardless of the setting to "automatically save the session on logout". Only deleting the cache manually resolves this problem for most users.

List of reports on the Xfce bug tracker:
https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=9147
https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10141
https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10195
https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10593
https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10634
https://bugzilla.xfce.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10730

[Thaddaeus Tintenfisch (thad-fisch-deactivatedaccount)]

Furthermore, this bug report might be a duplicate of bug 1204919 (or vice versa).

[Thaddaeus Tintenfisch (thad-fisch-deactivatedaccount)]

Clearing the session cache resolved the core issue. So, should we close this report, mark it as duplicate or reassign it to chromium-browser which keeps updating the launcher in the autostart section?

[Thaddaeus Tintenfisch (thad-fisch-deactivatedaccount)]

Closing this report then.