firefox will not start.

[Ben Armston]

When starting firefox from the command line it returns imediately, but firefox does not start and no error mesages are produced. Epiphany starts and is perfectly usable but produces the following output:

(epiphany-browser:4788): libgnomevfs-WARNING **: Failed to create service browse r: Bad state

ALSA lib confmisc.c:672:(snd_func_card_driver) cannot find card '0'
ALSA lib conf.c:3493:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_card_driver return ed error: No such device
ALSA lib confmisc.c:392:(snd_func_concat) error evaluating strings
ALSA lib conf.c:3493:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_concat returned er ror: No such device
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1072:(snd_func_refer) error evaluating name
ALSA lib conf.c:3493:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer returned err or: No such device
ALSA lib conf.c:3962:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such device
ALSA lib pcm.c:2099:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM default

The machine does not have a sound card installed.

In case it may be useful:

$ dpkg -l *firefox*
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Installed/Config-files/Unpacked/Failed-config/Half-installed
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-=============================-=============================-==========================================================================
ii firefox 1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.1-1ubuntu10 lightweight web browser based on Mozilla
ii firefox-dev 1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.1-1ubuntu10 Development files for Mozilla Firefox
ii firefox-gnome-support 1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.1-1ubuntu10 Support for Gnome in Mozilla Firefox
in mozilla-firefox <none> (no description available)
un mozilla-firefox-dev <none> (no description available)
ii mozilla-firefox-locale-en-gb 1.5.0.1ubuntu1-2 Mozilla Firefox English language/region package
un totem-gstreamer-firefox-plugi <none>

[Ian Jackson (ijackson)]

Ben Armston writes ("[Bug 39351] firefox will not start."):
> When starting firefox from the command line it returns imediately, but
> firefox does not start and no error mesages are produced. Epiphany
> starts and is perfectly usable but produces the following output:

Could you send me the output of
  env
  sh -x /usr/bin/firefox

Thanks,
Ian.

[Ben Armston (ben-armston-googlemail)]

On 4/18/06, Ian Jackson <email address hidden> wrote:
> Could you send me the output of
> env
> sh -x /usr/bin/firefox

$ env
TERM=xterm
SHELL=/bin/bash
SSH_CLIENT=192.168.0.2 44849 22
CVSROOT=:pserver:<email address hidden>:/pack/cvsroots/wxwidgets
SSH_TTY=/dev/pts/1
USER=testuser
LS_COLORS=no=00:fi=00:di=01;34:ln=01;36:pi=40;33:so=01;35:do=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=40;31;01:su=37;41:sg=30;43:tw=30;42:ow=34;42:st=37;44:ex=01;32:*.tar=01;31:*.tgz=01;31:*.arj=01;31:*.taz=01;31:*.lzh=01;31:*.zip=01;31:*.z=01;31:*.Z=01;31:*.gz=01;31:*.bz2=01;31:*.deb=01;31:*.rpm=01;31:*.jar=01;31:*.jpg=01;35:*.jpeg=01;35:*.gif=01;35:*.bmp=01;35:*.pbm=01;35:*.pgm=01;35:*.ppm=01;35:*.tga=01;35:*.xbm=01;35:*.xpm=01;35:*.tif=01;35:*.tiff=01;35:*.png=01;35:*.mov=01;35:*.mpg=01;35:*.mpeg=01;35:*.avi=01;35:*.fli=01;35:*.gl=01;35:*.dl=01;35:*.xcf=01;35:*.xwd=01;35:*.flac=01;35:*.mp3=01;35:*.mpc=01;35:*.ogg=01;35:*.wav=01;35:
MAIL=/var/mail/testuser
PATH=/home/ben/src/py-dist/py/bin:/home/ben/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/bin/X11:/usr/games
PWD=/home/testuser
LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
HISTCONTROL=ignoredups
SHLVL=1
HOME=/home/testuser
LANGUAGE=en_GB:en_US:en_GB:en
PYTHONPATH=/home/ben/src/FileIndexer:/home/ben/src/pylucene/release-1.0/samples/LuceneInAction:/home/ben/src/py-dist:
LOGNAME=testuser
SSH_CONNECTION=192.168.0.2 44849 192.168.0.3 22
LESSOPEN=| /usr/bin/lesspipe %s
DISPLAY=localhost:10.0
LESSCLOSE=/usr/bin/lesspipe %s %s
_=/usr/bin/env

$ sh -x /usr/bin/firefox
+ '[' '' ']'
+ MOZ_DIST_BIN=/usr/lib/firefox
+ MOZ_PROGRAM=/usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin
+ RUNTIME_FIREFOX_DSP=
+ '[' -f /etc/firefox/firefoxrc ']'
+ . /etc/firefox/firefoxrc
++ FIREFOX_DSP=none
+ '[' -f /home/testuser/.mozilla/firefox/rc ']'
+ '[' -f /home/testuser/.mozilla-firefoxrc ']'
+ '[' '' ']'
+ '[' -z none ']'
+ '[' none = auto ']'
+ '[' none = none ']'
+ FIREFOX_DSP=
+ EXTENT_LD_LIB_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox:/usr/lib/firefox/plugins:/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins
+ '[' '' ']'
+ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox:/usr/lib/firefox/plugins:/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins
+ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
+ MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH=/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins
+ export MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH
+ APPLICATION_ID=firefox
+ VERBOSE=
+ DEBUG=0
+ DEBUGGER=
+ first=1
+ opt=
+ '[' 0 -ne 0 ']'
+ OPTIONS=
+ '[' 0 -eq 1 ']'
+ MOZ_PROGRAM='/usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin -a firefox'
+ echo_vars FIREFOX_DSP APPLICATION_ID CMDLINE_DISPLAY DISPLAY OPTIONS
DEBUG DEBUGGER
+ '[' '' ']'
+ type ''
+ exec_verbose /usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin -a firefox
+ verbose Running: /usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin -a firefox
+ '[' '' ']'
+ exec /usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin -a firefox

[Ben Armston (ben-armston-googlemail)]

Epiphany has now stopped working too. I have dist-upgraded today for
the first time in about a week. The output of running epiphany, sh -x
firefox and env are given below.

$ epiphany
ALSA lib confmisc.c:672:(snd_func_card_driver) cannot find card '0'
ALSA lib conf.c:3493:(_snd_config_evaluate) function
snd_func_card_driver returned error: No such device
ALSA lib confmisc.c:392:(snd_func_concat) error evaluating strings
ALSA lib conf.c:3493:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_concat
returned error: No such device
ALSA lib confmisc.c:1072:(snd_func_refer) error evaluating name
ALSA lib conf.c:3493:(_snd_config_evaluate) function snd_func_refer
returned error: No such device
ALSA lib conf.c:3962:(snd_config_expand) Evaluate error: No such device
ALSA lib pcm.c:2102:(snd_pcm_open_noupdate) Unknown PCM default

(epiphany:5161): libgnomevfs-WARNING **: Failed to create service
browser: Bad state

$ sh -x firefox
+ '[' '' ']'
+ MOZ_DIST_BIN=/usr/lib/firefox
+ MOZ_PROGRAM=/usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin
+ RUNTIME_FIREFOX_DSP=
+ '[' -f /etc/firefox/firefoxrc ']'
+ . /etc/firefox/firefoxrc
++ FIREFOX_DSP=none
+ '[' -f /home/testuser/.mozilla/firefox/rc ']'
+ '[' -f /home/testuser/.mozilla-firefoxrc ']'
+ '[' x = x ']'
+ egrep '^(bn|gu|hi|kn|ml|mr|ne|pa|ta|te)_'
/var/lib/locales/supported.d/en /var/lib/locales/supported.d/fi
/var/lib/locales/supported.d/local
+ MOZ_DISABLE_PANGO=1
+ export MOZ_DISABLE_PANGO
+ '[' x1 = x0 ']'
+ '[' '' ']'
+ '[' -z none ']'
+ '[' none = auto ']'
+ '[' none = none ']'
+ FIREFOX_DSP=
+ EXTENT_LD_LIB_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox:/usr/lib/firefox/plugins:/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins
+ '[' '' ']'
+ LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox:/usr/lib/firefox/plugins:/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins
+ export LD_LIBRARY_PATH
+ MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH=/usr/lib/mozilla-firefox/plugins
+ export MOZ_PLUGIN_PATH
+ APPLICATION_ID=firefox
+ VERBOSE=
+ DEBUG=0
+ DEBUGGER=
+ first=1
+ opt=
+ '[' 0 -ne 0 ']'
+ OPTIONS=
+ '[' 0 -eq 1 ']'
+ MOZ_PROGRAM='/usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin -a firefox'
+ echo_vars FIREFOX_DSP APPLICATION_ID CMDLINE_DISPLAY DISPLAY OPTIONS
DEBUG DEBUGGER
+ '[' '' ']'
+ type ''
+ exec_verbose /usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin -a firefox
+ verbose Running: /usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin -a firefox
+ '[' '' ']'
+ exec /usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin -a firefox

$ env
SSH_AGENT_PID=4646
TERM=xterm
DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID=
SHELL=/bin/bash
CVSROOT=:pserver:<email address hidden>:/pack/cvsroots/wxwidgets
GTK_RC_FILES=/etc/gtk/gtkrc:/home/testuser/.gtkrc-1.2-gnome2
WINDOWID=37748829
USER=testuser
LS_COLORS=no=00:fi=00:di=01;34:ln=01;36:pi=40;33:so=01;35:do=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=40;31;01:su=37;41:sg=30;43:tw=30;42:ow=34;42:st=37;44:ex=01;32:*.tar=01;31:*.tgz=01;31:*.arj=01;31:*.taz=01;31:*.lzh=01;31:*.zip=01;31:*.z=01;31:*.Z=01;31:*.gz=01;31:*.bz2=01;31:*.deb=01;31:*.rpm=01;31:*.jar=01;31:*.jpg=01;35:*.jpeg=01;35:*.gif=01;35:*.bmp=01;35:*.pbm=01;35:*.pgm=01;35:*.ppm=01;35:*.tga=01;35:*.xbm=01;35:*.xpm=01;35:*.tif=01;35:*.tiff=01;35:*.png=01;35:*.mov=01;35:*.mpg=01;35:*.mpeg=01;35:*.avi=01;35:*.fli=01;35:*.gl=01;35:*.dl=01;35:*.xcf=01;35:*.xwd=01;35:*.flac=01;35:*.mp3=01;35:*.mpc=01;35:*.ogg=01;35:*.wav=01;35:
GNOME_KEYRING_SOCKET=/tmp/keyri...

[Steinar Bang (sb-dod)]

I upgraded from Breezy to Dapper on Friday. I noticed this problem today, ie. that typing the command "firefox" from the command line immediately returned without any error message, and without starting the browser.

Running the browser directly produced the following error message:
~$ /usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin -a firefix
/usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin: error while loading shared libraries: libmozjs.so: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory

However, the libmozjs.so file is present and readable:
~$ locate libmozjs.so
/usr/lib/firefox/libmozjs.so
~$ ll /usr/lib/firefox/libmozjs.so
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 618564 Jun 8 20:06 /usr/lib/firefox/libmozjs.so

[yasibear (yasi-behpour)]

I get the same error messages. Firefox can run as the sudo local user. But, when a user authenticating with ldap and mounting a homedir on another machine, firefox and openoffice just hang. Other gnome programs do run.

What other info can I provide?

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Is this still and issue for you? We are trying to trying sort out the older Mozilla issues and would like to know if this still happens

[yasibear (yasi-behpour)]

Hello,

Sorry I did not keep up.

I had this problem in dapper and I had to rollback to breezy. I'm going
to do a dapper install in my environment this week, so then I can
confirm it and I'll post to the launchpad. The breezy install is now
too old as far as dependencies for various programs. I hope that I will
have better luck this time, this firefox problem caused quite a bit of
grief.

I think the issue was related to the nscd cache, but I also found this
in my notes:

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/releases/1.5.0.7.html#issues

Firefox 1.5.0.7 is installed on a multi-user system in a location
which is not writable by users, Firefox must be run once by a
privileged user. If this is not desirable, an empty file must be
created in the following directory:
<install-directory>/<email address hidden>/chrome.manifest

For the nscd cache it would be:

/etc/nscd.conf
enable cache hosts no

remove cache
/var/db/run

Regards,

Yasi

Yasi Behpour
Information Technology Consultant
Computer Science Program Area
California State University Channel Islands
Bell Tower 2362 [phone]
<email address hidden>

-----Original Message-----
From: <email address hidden> [mailto:<email address hidden>] On Behalf Of
John Vivirito
Sent: Thursday, January 25, 2007 6:22 AM
To: Behpour, Yasi
Subject: [Bug 39351] Re: firefox will not start.

Is this still and issue for you? We are trying to trying sort out the
older Mozilla issues and would like to know if this still happens

** Changed in: firefox (Ubuntu)
     Assignee: (unassigned) => Mozilla Team
       Status: Unconfirmed => Needs Info

--
firefox will not start.
https://launchpad.net/bugs/39351

[yasibear (yasi-behpour)]

Sorry I did not keep up.

I had this problem in dapper and I had to rollback to breezy. I'm going to do a dapper install in my environment this week, so then I can confirm it and I'll post to the launchpad.

I think the issue was related to the nscd cache, but I also found this in my notes:

http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/releases/1.5.0.7.html#issues

Firefox 1.5.0.7 is installed on a multi-user system in a location which is not writable by users, Firefox must be run once by a privileged user. If this is not desirable, an empty file must be created in the following directory:
<install-directory>/<email address hidden>/chrome.manifest

For the nscd cache it would be:

/etc/nscd.conf
enable cache hosts no

remove cache
/var/db/run

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

this should have been fixed in firefox 1.5.0.9 if not please let me know.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Is this still an issue for you? We are trying to trying sort out the older Mozilla issues and would like to know if this still happens.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Thank you for the bug report. However I haven't heard back from you in 30 days. We are now going to close this report - please reopen if necessary when you have more information at hand.