Firefox is already running, but is not responding...

[Fred]

Binary package hint: firefox

I am using Ubuntu 8.04 with Mozilla Firefox 3.0 beta 5.

Sometimes when I close Firefox, or it crash, and I open it quickly after, then I get this error message;
* "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system."

Very annoying.

To start Firefox then, I have to open the terminal and type "killall firefox" and click on the icon again to make it start.

[Richard Seguin (sectech)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. However, your crash report is either missing or challenging to deal with as a ".crash" file. Please follow these instructions to have apport report a new bug about your crash that can be dealt with by the automatic retracer.

If you are running the Ubuntu Stable Release you might need to enable apport in /etc/default/apport and restart.

If you are using Ubuntu with the Gnome desktop environment - launch nautilus and navigate to your /var/crash directory and double click on the crash report you wish to submit.
If you are using Kubuntu or Xubuntu you can file the crash using /usr/share/apport/apport-qt --crash-file=/var/crash/_my_crash_report.crash in a terminal - where _my_crash_report.crash is the crash you would like to report.

I'm closing this bug report since the process outlined above will automatically open a new bug report which can then dealt with more efficiently. Thanks in advance for your cooperation and understanding.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Richard Seguin wrote:
| Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make
| Ubuntu better. However, your crash report is either missing or
| challenging to deal with as a ".crash" file. Please follow these
| instructions to have apport report a new bug about your crash that can
| be dealt with by the automatic retracer.
|
| If you are running the Ubuntu Stable Release you might need to enable
| apport in /etc/default/apport and restart.
|
| If you are using Ubuntu with the Gnome desktop environment - launch
nautilus and navigate to your /var/crash directory and double click on
the crash report you wish to submit.
| If you are using Kubuntu or Xubuntu you can file the crash using
/usr/share/apport/apport-qt
- --crash-file=/var/crash/_my_crash_report.crash in a terminal - where
_my_crash_report.crash is the crash you would like to report.
|
| I'm closing this bug report since the process outlined above will
| automatically open a new bug report which can then dealt with more
| efficiently. Thanks in advance for your cooperation and understanding.
|
| ** Changed in: firefox (Ubuntu)
| Status: New => Invalid
|
Richard i dont think it was the crash he was coincerned about since it
wasnt about a crash.
Fred i agree it does get annoying but when you see that dialog you
should just beable to click quit and it should kill the process but if
are you talking firefox crash or X crash and firefox is still running in
process?
Im not reopening this report since it is a feature not a bug.

- --
Sincerely Yours,
~ John Vivirito

https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito
Linux User# 414246
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[Fred (eldmannen+launchpad)]

I think this is a bug.

When this occurs, I have closed Firefox, it is not visible on the screen, but for some reason it is still running something in the background.

Every time I click on the Firefox launcher icon, it says "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system."

This makes it impossible to surf the web, since I cannot open a web browser. A clueless noob would have no choice but to restart this computer.
Clever as I am, I discovered a "work-around" by doing "killall firefox", but people shouldn't need todo this.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Fred wrote:
| I think this is a bug.
|
| When this occurs, I have closed Firefox, it is not visible on the
| screen, but for some reason it is still running something in the
| background.
|
| Every time I click on the Firefox launcher icon, it says "Firefox is
| already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must
| first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system."
|
| This makes it impossible to surf the web, since I cannot open a web
browser. A clueless noob would have no choice but to restart this computer.
| Clever as I am, I discovered a "work-around" by doing "killall
firefox", but people shouldn't need todo this.
|
| ** Changed in: firefox (Ubuntu)
| Status: Invalid => New
|
This is a bug, I'm sorry but i misunderstood it at first but yes once
firefox is closed there should be no processes for firefox running. Can
you please attach a screenshot of the firefox lines from command ps aux
after its closed a screen shot of the whole desktop plus ps aux terminal
in front so we can see what is going on.I am unablet o reproduce this in
Hardy Firefox b5

- --
Sincerely Yours,
~ John Vivirito

https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito
Linux User# 414246
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[Fred (eldmannen+launchpad)]

This can happen for example on Flash website, like YouTube.

$ ps aux | grep firefox
foobar 6630 3.6 2.0 198764 70408 ? Sl 13:27 0:06 /usr/lib/firefox-3.0b5/firefox
foobar 6721 7.7 0.8 93496 29548 ? Sl 13:30 0:00 /usr/lib/firefox-3.0b5/firefox
foobar 6728 0.0 0.0 3008 768 pts/0 R+ 13:30 0:00 grep firefox

Then I click on the OK button on the "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system." dialog.

$ ps aux | grep firefox
foobar 6630 3.3 2.0 198764 70408 ? Sl 13:27 0:06 /usr/lib/firefox-3.0b5/firefox
foobar 6732 0.0 0.0 3008 772 pts/0 R+ 13:31 0:00 grep firefox

So this means Firefox is running in the background even if I close it...

[Richard Seguin (sectech)]

Can you please indicate what flash version you have installed?

[Fred (eldmannen+launchpad)]

ii flashplugin-nonfree 9.0.124.0ubuntu2 Adobe Flash Player plugin installer

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Mon, May 19, 2008 at 06:28:07PM -0000, Fred wrote:
> Public bug reported:
>
> Binary package hint: firefox
>
> I am using Ubuntu 8.04 with Mozilla Firefox 3.0 beta 5.
>
> Sometimes when I close Firefox, or it crash, and I open it quickly after, then I get this error message;
> * "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system."
>
> Very annoying.
>
> To start Firefox then, I have to open the terminal and type "killall
> firefox" and click on the icon again to make it start.
>

ffox 3 bug ...

 affects ubuntu/firefox
 status invalid

 affects ubuntu/firefox-3.0
 status incomplete

So can we find step by step instructions how to reproduce this?

 - Alexander

[Fred (eldmannen+launchpad)]

Happens sometime when I visit YouTube, watch video, then close Firefox.
Then open it again.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Tue, Jun 10, 2008 at 03:46:11PM -0000, Fred wrote:
> Happens sometime when I visit YouTube, watch video, then close Firefox.
> Then open it again.
>

Doesn't this recover after a few seconds?

 - Alexander

[Fred (eldmannen+launchpad)]

Lately, I think yes it does recover after a few seconds. Not entirely sure.

But before, it did not recover, I had to use 'killall firefox'.

Eitherway, this needs to be fixed. Firefox on Windows does not suffer from this application. It is very annoying, and prevents me from recommending Ubuntu.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 03:11:36PM -0000, Fred wrote:
> Lately, I think yes it does recover after a few seconds. Not entirely
> sure.
>
> But before, it did not recover, I had to use 'killall firefox'.
>
> Eitherway, this needs to be fixed. Firefox on Windows does not suffer
> from this application. It is very annoying, and prevents me from
> recommending Ubuntu.
>

you still see this in RC1?

 - Alexander

[Jonathan Thomas (echidnaman)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!

[jemtallon (jemtallon)]

I am experiencing this same behavior currently on fully updated (as of this morning) Ubuntu 8.04 running Firefox 3.0.1+build1+nobinonly+0ubuntu0.8.04.3.

I'd guess 1 out of 10 times that I close Firefox at the end of the work day it stays running in the background like this and the next morning when I come in I have to kill it manually. It is rather frustrating but manageable since I know how to kill it. Still, if it can't be properly diagnosed and corrected, it would help to add a "force quit" button or similar to the dialog telling users that Firefox is already running. At least then newbies would have an option for remedying the issue without googling for a solution and dropping into command line.

If there are some logs or something I could capture for you guys that might help track the issue, please let me know what you need.

Jem Tallon

[jemtallon (jemtallon)]

Reopening since I am willing to collect requested data

[jemtallon (jemtallon)]

I've tried collecting data from firefox by changing my application launcher
from: firefox %u
to: gnome-terminal --command "firefox %u"

This opens a terminal and logs the output to it until firefox closes. The only errors reported are as follows:

** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)
** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2)
** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)
** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2)
** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)
** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2)
** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)
** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2)
** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)
** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2)
** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)
** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2)

(firefox:15376): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
(firefox:15376): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
(firefox:15376): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
(firefox:15376): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_widget_hide: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed
(firefox:15376): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_widget_destroy: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed
(firefox:15376): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_widget_hide: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed
(firefox:15376): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_widget_destroy: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed

In the week since I've made this change, firefox hasn't hung yet. I am going to put the launcher back to normal for a few days and see if the behavior comes back.

Jem Tallon

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Tue, Aug 12, 2008 at 08:14:23PM -0000, jemtallon wrote:
> I've tried collecting data from firefox by changing my application launcher
> from: firefox %u
> to: gnome-terminal --command "firefox %u"
>
> This opens a terminal and logs the output to it until firefox closes.
> The only errors reported are as follows:
>
> ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)
> ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2)
> ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)
> ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2)
> ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)
> ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2)
> ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)
> ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2)
> ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)
> ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2)
> ** Message: GetValue variable 1 (1)
> ** Message: GetValue variable 2 (2)
>
> (firefox:15376): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
> (firefox:15376): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
> (firefox:15376): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
> (firefox:15376): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_widget_hide: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed
> (firefox:15376): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_widget_destroy: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed
> (firefox:15376): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_widget_hide: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed
> (firefox:15376): Gtk-CRITICAL **: gtk_widget_destroy: assertion `GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)' failed
>
> In the week since I've made this change, firefox hasn't hung yet. I am
> going to put the launcher back to normal for a few days and see if the
> behavior comes back.

Thanks. Let us know.

 - Alexander

[jemtallon (jemtallon)]

The behavior came back now that I restored the launcher. Any ideas what might cause it to only hang when not specifically run from a terminal?

Jem Tallon

[jemtallon (jemtallon)]

Has anyone had any luck in reproducing this behavior yet?

I'm not too familiar with how the launcher works so troubleshooting it myself would take a wile but if I have to I can try. Hopefully there's a way to log its behavior so I can get started. If anyone has some suggestions on what I could do, please help me out.

[Richard Seguin (sectech)]

This issue is quite dated. Since Firefox 3 is well out of beta and this issue more then likely has already been resolved I am closing out this issue. If you are still having this issue please feel free to mark this issue as new again. Also please indicate that you have applied all of your updates and are running the latest version of firefox.

Thank you,

Richard Seguin

[Richard Seguin (sectech)]

* Marking as invalid due to issue is related to old version of firefox