Firefox fails to start

[David]

I have a ".desktop" file which opens Firefox.
I click the file and I see the mouse cursor icon is change to a "loading" icon, but firefox window doesn't appear.
The loading icon continues for a few seconds (about 10sec) and then the normal cursor icon is seen.

Overall, Firefox doesn't appear.
This issue started just recently, in the last week (probably due to an upgrade, I assume).
This issue happen only sometimes - meaning, sometimes when I click the ".desktop" file then firefox starts normally, but in some other times then Firefox will not appear.

I performed some debug and found out the it is related to the gnome-shell program, or more specifically to the extension "ubuntu-dock".
By inspecting the file "/var/log/syslog", whenever the issue happens, then the following error appears in the file (omitted irrelevant data):
"
gnome-shell[2129]: JS ERROR: TypeError: window is undefined#012activateWindow@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/main.js:764:30#012IsolatedOverview@/<email address hidden>/docking.js:1546:29#012_create/object[name]@/<email address hidden>/utils.js:290:68#012launchNewWindow@/<email address hidden>/appIcons.js:677:26#012activate@/<email address hidden>/appIcons.js:615:18#012vfunc_clicked@resource:///org/gnome/shell/ui/appDisplay.js:3168:14
"

-----------------------------

Info according to the guidelines:

1)
$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 22.04.1 LTS
Release: 22.04

2)
$ apt-cache policy "gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock"
gnome-shell-extension-ubuntu-dock:
  Installed: 72~ubuntu5.22.04.1
  Candidate: 72~ubuntu5.22.04.1
  Version table:
 *** 72~ubuntu5.22.04.1 500
        500 http://il.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://il.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy-updates/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     72~ubuntu5 500
        500 http://il.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://il.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main i386 Packages

3)
I expected a Firefox window to appear.

4)
Instead, a Firefox window doesn't appear.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

Thanks for the bug report.

Please check to see if Firefox is running at all:

  ps auxw | grep firefox

If it's not running then please check for crashes by https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Responses#Missing_a_crash_report_or_having_a_.crash_attachment

[David (david4)]

Hi Daniel van Vugt ( @vanvugt ),

* Firefox isn't running.

I executed the command:
$ ps auxww
and then searched "firefox" in the output of the terminal using the terminal search function (the search was case-insensitive) and nothing existed.
I also read all the terminal output and didn't find any firefox process.

Though I did notice this command:

gjs /<email address hidden>/ding.js -E -P /<email address hidden> -M 0 -D <omitted_string_in_format_of_integers_separated_by_colon>

* I searched for a crash in folder "/var/crash", but that folder is empty.

Please let me know if you need an additional info.

[Daniel van Vugt (vanvugt)]

If there are no crash files then please look at https://errors.ubuntu.com/user/ID where ID is the content of file /var/lib/whoopsie/whoopsie-id on the machine. Do you find any links to recent problems on that page? If so then please send the links to us.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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