firefox shows "close other session" on first startup

[Milan Boers]

Binary package hint: firefox

When I went to the username menu -> Ubuntu one... -> Manage account for the first time, and Firefox was never opened before, it showed me the little popup that I had to close the other Firefox session first, although it did just open Firefox fine.

Ubuntu 10.04 LTS RC 64-bit in VMWare Workstation 7 on Windows 7 64-bit.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: firefox 3.6.3+nobinonly-0ubuntu3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-21.32-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-21-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Sun Apr 25 10:59:00 2010
FirefoxPackages:
 firefox 3.6.3+nobinonly-0ubuntu3
 firefox-gnome-support 3.6.3+nobinonly-0ubuntu3
 firefox-branding 3.6.3+nobinonly-0ubuntu3
 abroswer N/A
 abrowser-branding N/A
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Release Candidate amd64 (20100419.1)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.utf8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: firefox

[Draycen DeCator (ddecator)]

Thank you for reporting this to Ubuntu. Is there any way you can see if this happens consistently? I will try this with a live CD of the Lucid RC to see if I can reproduce it on my machine.

[Milan Boers (milan-boers)]

I'll make another VM today with 10.04 RC again to see if it always happens.

[Milan Boers (milan-boers)]

I tried it again with a clean install.. First thing I did after reboot was opening the "Manage account" link, and I got exactly the same again.

[Draycen DeCator (ddecator)]

I just confirmed this using a daily iso of Ubuntu 10.04 64-bit. After launching Ubuntu One from the MeMenu, then selecting Manage Accounts, I got the same dialogue, but oddly enough Firefox still started and loaded the Ubuntu One page.

[Draycen DeCator (ddecator)]

After testing this issue, this seems to be the cause:
The first time UbuntuOne is launched, it opens Firefox so a new account can be created. However, it takes a while for Firefox to actually be launched. During this delay, if Firefox is launched for any other reason (by clicking Manage Account for instance), then the two launches conflict with one another and only one starts up. It seems that UbuntuOne locks the Firefox profile early, so the UbuntuOne login page is displayed and the other launch produces the message.

If Firefox is already opened, then UbuntuOne just creates a new tab. If Firefox is not open at all, it launches it without trouble.

In order for this issue to be fixed, either Firefox needs to startup really fast (which upstream is working on, but won't be seen for a little while yet), or UbuntuOne needs to lock the Firefox profile later and launch Firefox right away instead of locking the profile and after a small delay launching (which is what seems to happen, but may be wrong).

Either way, there is nothing that we can do on the Firefox side at this point, so I'm moving this report to the ubuntuone-client package so the UbuntuOne developers can consider whether or not there is a way to avoid this conflict.

Thanks again for reporting this to Ubuntu, and please continue to let us know about any other issues you encounter!