Erroneous "not responding" alert with .mozilla symlinked to ecryptfs

[Paul Natsuo Kishimoto]

Binary package hint: firefox

I recently set up an encrypted Private directory (https://help.ubuntu.com/community/EncryptedPrivateDirectory) on a computer. After doing so, I moved the .mozilla configuration directory and created a symlink, so that:

.mozilla -> Private/.mozilla

Now Firefox gives the familiar "Not responding" alert and refuses to start. "ps aux | grep firefox" confirms that firefox is not actually running.

Following advice elsewhere, I found and deleted a .parentlock file in .mozilla/firefox/abcd0efg.default. It seems this file is recreated each time I try to start Firefox. There was no file named "lock" in that directory.

I have an identical setup on another computer, and have checked that the permissions and file ownership match for all the directories involved.

$ lsb_release -rd && apt-cache policy firefox ecryptfs-utils
Description: Ubuntu 9.10
Release: 9.10
firefox:
  Installed: 3.5.7+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.10.1
  Candidate: 3.5.7+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.10.1
  Version table:
 *** 3.5.7+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.10.1 0
        500 http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca karmic-updates/main Packages
        500 http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca karmic-security/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.5.3+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu6 0
        500 http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca karmic/main Packages
ecryptfs-utils:
  Installed: 81-0ubuntu3
  Candidate: 81-0ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 81-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://mirror.csclub.uwaterloo.ca karmic/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.