Chromium browser window opens on startup even though I never configured this

[Aren Cambre]

When I start Xubuntu 13.04, a Chromium window opens after I log in to my session. I have never configured Chromium to open a browser window automatically. This happened even back with 12.10, before I upgraded the instance to 13.04.

Note that this is not the same as #1175601. With the other bug report, the problem is two background instances of Chromium are running at the same time. With this report, the problem is not the background instances but that the browser window opens without me having configured it to do so. What should happen is, by default, the Chromium browser window does not open until I manually open it.

I also have a 13.04 Xubuntu instance that I built from scratch. It also has chromium-browser installed, same version as on the machine with this problem. Not only does it not show a Chromium background process in the menu bar on the top right, running "ps xfwww" does not show any evidence of a Chromium background process running, so I am seeing inconsistent behaviors here. (Not sure if that informs this bug; I'd be happy to open a different bug report if appropriate.)

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 13.04
Package: chromium-browser 25.0.1364.160-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.8.0-19.30-generic 3.8.8
Uname: Linux 3.8.0-19-generic i686
ApportVersion: 2.9.2-0ubuntu8
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon May 6 08:21:23 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 (123 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 (5 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'

[Saikrishna Arcot (saiarcot895)]

This might be a little obvious, but is Chromium in the list of startup applications?

[Aren Cambre (aren-arencambre)]

Yes, it is, but this is supposedly only for the background process as it just runs /usr/bin/chromium-browser --no-startup-window.

I did not manually configure this, nor did I ever explicitly authorized this, although I think it could be reasonable for the background process to autostart.

[Saikrishna Arcot (saiarcot895)]

I ram that command, and it only immediately exited. It's supposed to remain as a background process, but it looks like that's been broken for a long time, or the status hasn't been updated (https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=58083).

If you want, you can delete that from the list of startup applications, although I don't think that will solve your problem. Is it going to a particular site?

You might also want to try deleting everything in ~/.cache/sessions/, although it's a thin possibility (http://askubuntu.com/questions/125718/how-can-i-stop-terminal-and-firefox-from-launching-on-startup)

[Aren Cambre (aren-arencambre)]

"you can delete that from the list of startup applications, although I don't think that will solve your problem"
OK, I went to Session and Startup > Application Autostart, unchecked Chromium, and rebooted. It still starts. In fact, when I go back to Session and Startup, Chromium is once again checked. Weirdly, if I uncheck it, close Session and Startup, then go back to it, it remains unchecked. However, when I reboot, it gets rechecked.

"Is it going to a particular site?"
No, just going to a default startup default page that shows my "Most visited" sites.

"You might also want to try deleting everything in ~/.cache/sessions/"
Closed Chromium completely by right-clicking on the top bar icon and selecting Exit. Deleted everything from ~/.cache/sessions/. Started Chromium again. Closed it. ~/.cache/sessions/ remains empty. Went back to Session and Startup and unchecked Chromium again. Rebooted. THIS TIME IT'S DIFFERENT! Chromium did NOT come back up after reboot, and the checkbox stayed unchecked.

AHA, but I don't think it's related to deleting everything in ~/.cache/sessions/: I closed Session and Startup, loaded Chromium again, and went back to Session and Startup. The Chromium box is re-checked. So looks like something in the Chromium background process is overriding whatever I put here. I do think that is a separate bug. Again, the problem here is that a Chromium _window_ is opening on startup.

[Aren Cambre (aren-arencambre)]

Just to be clear, http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=58083 is not the same as this. I assume that's what Saikrishna noted by removing the bug watch?

[Saikrishna Arcot (saiarcot895)]

It's a different bug, which I accidentally added to the remote bug watch by linking to it.

[divinebovine (danieldickerson)]

I just wanted to add that this bug also affects me. I'm running 13.04 with package 28.0.1500.71-0ubuntu1.13.04.1. Every time I boot, chrome launches, despite me removing it from startup applications.

[alex (r0)]

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. It seems to be useful for web-apps.

[alex (r0)]

And I think that this bug and #1175601 all have the same source. Just uncheck that option from #9.

[Lionel Gaillard (wxrstudios)]

Possibly a solution here. I had same problem.
Two "about:blank" pages was opened on startup. Sometimes in two distinct windows, sometimes in one window but in two tabs.
In my case, Chromium was not in "Startup applications", and "Continue running background apps when Chromium is closed" made no difference.
Problem stopped when I removed my Google account from my "Online accounts" in Ubuntu settings !

P.S: My Ubuntu is in french, so I'm not sure about names in english.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Ondřej Fibich (ondrej-fibich)]

Lionel is right! Removing of my Google account solves this issue. So it is a bug in the Online accounts.

[Aren Cambre (aren-arencambre)]

#9 is not an acceptable resolution, only a workaround. The background process should not cause this problem.

[Nathan Teodosio (nteodosio)]

Cannot reproduce it, not even with online account (as mentioned by #11). Marking it accordingly since the report is very old.

Please bump this if you still can still reproduce the issue.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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