Firefox doesn't start: bus error

[Johan van der Lingen]

Binary package hint: firefox-3.5

I made a fresh Kubuntu Karmic installation and used the firefox installer to install firefox.
When starting firefox from the menu, I see launch feedback and an entry in the panel, but no window. After a while the panel is empty again: firefox has not been started (no error message).

When run from the cli the only feedback I get is: "Bus error"

I found a post on the internet where someone started "strace firefox". I don't know if it is relevant, but these are the last lines of that command:

open("/usr/lib/xulrunner-1.9.1.4/libxul.so", O_RDONLY) = 4
read(4, "\177ELF\1\1\1\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\0\3\0\3\0\1\0\0\0\200:\31\0004\0\0\0"..., 512) = 512
fstat64(4, {st_mode=S_IFREG|0644, st_size=7507968, ...}) = 0
mmap2(NULL, 13228048, PROT_READ|PROT_EXEC, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_DENYWRITE, 4, 0) = 0xdc0000
mmap2(0x1962000, 962560, PROT_READ|PROT_WRITE, MAP_PRIVATE|MAP_FIXED|MAP_DENYWRITE, 4, 0xba2) = 0x1962000
--- SIGBUS (Bus error) @ 0 (0) ---
+++ killed by SIGBUS +++

purging the firefox packages and re-installing does not provide a solution (tried both with firefox-installer and directly with aptitude).

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Thu Nov 5 09:30:16 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: firefox 3.5.4+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.10.1
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: firefox-3.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686
XsessionErrors: (polkit-gnome-authentication-agent-1:1860): GLib-CRITICAL **: g_once_init_leave: assertion `initialization_value != 0' failed

[Johan van der Lingen (johanlingen-hotmail)]

Workaround:

1. aptitude remove --purge xulrunner-1.9.1
2. use the firefox installer (package "kubuntu-firefox-installer") again
3. the firefox icon may have turned into a question mark, after a reboot it will be back

However, I still wonder why kubuntu-firefox-installer is not removed automatically after installing firefox? Is this normal or should it have been removed?

[Johnsandman (info-tvnr)]

It is still not working for me :|

[andreii (andreionutz)]

it worked for me! thanks! it seems that the problem was with the xulrunner cause reinstalling the firefox or downgrading didn't work. thanks again!

andrei

[koanhead (googoleyes)]

It appears to have worked for me as well... Thanks much! I'm really dependent on firefox, it turns out.