firefox locks system

[TheGurke]

Binary package hint: firefox

After launching firefox I am unable to start any other new applications.
All the programs I started before firefox work fine and can open new windows.
For example, when I try to start synaptic from a terminal, I get the following error message:

ubuntu@pc:~$ synaptic
No protocol specified

(synaptic:7682): Gtk-WARNING **: cannot open display: :0.0

For other applications the message is similar.
I first encountered this bug Friday, 6th of June. When I press the power button of my computer and the action screen shows up (with standby, logout etc.) the options shutdown and restart are missing, however they work in a terminal. Also after I logout and log back in, the problem is gone until starting firefox again.

I use Hardy Heron patched to the newest version.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 03:06:12PM -0000, TheGurke wrote:
> Public bug reported:
>
> Binary package hint: firefox
>
> After launching firefox I am unable to start any other new applications.
> All the programs I started before firefox work fine and can open new windows.
> For example, when I try to start synaptic from a terminal, I get the following error message:

please restart your system.

and attach xorg.conf and Xorg.0.log to this bug

 affects ubuntu/firefox
 status invalid

i assume this is firefox 3 ?

 affects ubuntu/firefox-3.0
 status incomplete

 - Alexander

[TheGurke (the-gurke)]

yes, this is firefox 3.0 rc1, but the problem started with 3.0 beta 5.
also, perhaps it is of any help that sometimes, very rarely, it works. I suspect that it has something to do with starting firefox after an update process (of packages which are unrelated to firefox) until rebooting. But I cannot say this for sure.

[TheGurke (the-gurke)]

sorry that I do this in 2 steps, but I can't zip since firefox is open ;>

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 04:26:44PM -0000, TheGurke wrote:
> yes, this is firefox 3.0 rc1, but the problem started with 3.0 beta 5.
> also, perhaps it is of any help that sometimes, very rarely, it works. I suspect that it has something to do with starting firefox after an update process (of packages which are unrelated to firefox) until rebooting. But I cannot say this for sure.
>
> ** Attachment added: "xorg.conf"
> http://launchpadlibrarian.net/15200219/xorg.conf
>

OK, its intel with EXA ...

Try to use

 Option "AccelMethod" "XAA" in your xorg.conf Device section please.

 status incomplete

 - Alexander

[TheGurke (the-gurke)]

nothing changed.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 06:43:48PM -0000, TheGurke wrote:
> nothing changed.
>

Do you see that you are using XAA in your Xorg.0.log?

 - Alexander

[TheGurke (the-gurke)]

Yes, I can see it.

The Intel XAA problem was concerning performance issues, right? I never had those and I can't tell if my system runs better now, because everything was working perfectly before.
I have tried setting up a new firefox profile, but that did not solve it. I will now try to create a new ubuntu user profile.

Anyway thanks for you fast help.

[TheGurke (the-gurke)]

update:
I found out, that the problem does not occur until I start to load any pages, so opening firefox alone is not enough to trigger the bug.
Also, with my newly created system user profile the problem has not occured yet.
This seems to get really weird.

[TheGurke (the-gurke)]

Ok - I have finally managed to solve this issue.
It seems like it originated from creating a simlink in my firefox profile directory from Cache to /tmp. I have not been able to find out why this cannot be done, but I am just glad everything works again.
Thanks for your help, this bug report can be closed.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Sun, Jun 15, 2008 at 09:59:44PM -0000, TheGurke wrote:
> Ok - I have finally managed to solve this issue.
> It seems like it originated from creating a simlink in my firefox profile directory from Cache to /tmp. I have not been able to find out why this cannot be done, but I am just glad everything works again.

Did you do that to your profile?

 status invalid

 - Alexander

[TheGurke (the-gurke)]

Yes, that was entirely my fault, sorry. =<
I had the impression that firefox 2 did not clear its cache regularly and I have a tmpfs mounted on /tmp, so this way the cache would be emptied on each reboot.

And yes, it was a stupid idea in the first place.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 02:24:48PM -0000, TheGurke wrote:
> Yes, that was entirely my fault, sorry. =<
> I had the impression that firefox 2 did not clear its cache regularly and I have a tmpfs mounted on /tmp, so this way the cache would be emptied on each reboot.
>
> And yes, it was a stupid idea in the first place.
>

Thanks for learning! :-P

have fun!

 - Alexander