I am using Redhat 9
I installed MozillaFirebird in usr/local/MozillaFirebird/.
And when i open MozillaFirebird, it works just fine. The problem comes when I try to open it again (thus opening a new window). It says that the default user profile is in use and that i can create a new one. I don't want to create a new one, I just want to use the default user profile. The same thing happens when I open up the browser and try to open an html file on the local hard drive. It won't let me open it unless I close all the browsers currently opened.

And yes, I know you can get more windows by going to File > New Window. But what happens if you have multiple windows open and want to access a local html file. You would have to close all the windows.

I also know that I can always drag the local hmtl file into the Mozilla window, but this is a hassle. Is this how it's supposed to be? I just want to be able to double click on an html file on my hard drive and open it.

Mozilla browsers are tabbed browsers. You don't open separate windows you open new tabs. Just hit CTRL+T to open a new tab and load a page or local file there. At least I think that is the easiest way.

Ted.

CTRL + N to open the new Window.

Also from here.
File -> New window.

I'm having the same problem here. I just installed Mozilla 1.4 on a new machine and can't open multiple instances of Mozilla. If I click on a link in an email with Mozilla already open, I get the Mozilla Profile Manager saying that I need to create a new profile. On an older box, this works fine and I can't figure out what is different.

Anyone have any ideas?

well you just need to tell whatever is trying to load mozilla to use existing processes rather than starting new ones.

On my older linux box, I can click on the Mozilla icon multiple times and new windows come up on the same process. I can also click on a url in my email program (evolution), already having a Mozilla window open, and it will open the link in a new window. I can't do either of these things on my new linux box.

Both boxes are running RH8.0, but the older one is running the Mozilla that came with RH8.0 and the new one is running Mozilla 1.4 as a clean install (I didn't install the one with RH8.0).

Everthing was working fine with my old laptop (RH8.0 and Mozilla 1.3.1), but when I got a new one, I started seeing this problem.

This is not correct, MozillaFirebird when installed and configured properly will in fact run multiple windows. I too use tabbed browsing myself, but there are times when I open multiple mozilla windows as well to do other tasks. While I also believe tabbed browsing is the most efficient, you can only use so many tabs before it gets too cluttered and is hard to read the tab titles.

Are you using a shortcut (quicklauch, app menu, etc.) to open mozilla? Or are you running it manually from a run command box or console? I get the small profile window popping up every so often, but it's usually whenever I click the mozilla button while mozilla is already in the process of loading.

Yes, I was using a shortcut to open MozillaFirebird. How would one open it through the command line?

If the mozillafirebird executable is in your path, you should be able to simply run the command "MozillaFirebird" from the command line. It should be in /usr/bin. However, that is quite a long name to type, if it is your only mozilla browser installed and you don't have a regular mozilla installed, then you could create a symbolic link to give it another name.

# ln -sf /usr/bin/MozillaFirebird /usr/bin/mozilla(give it another name if you have a version of regular mozilla installed)

then just run the link you created:

$ mozilla

Or you could use the run command dialog in gnome or KDE, and just type "mozilla" there. This is what I did on my system. But as long as your not opening two mozilla windows at too close of an interval, ex. clicking on the button 2 times in a row. You shouldn't get the profile window.

I use the following script to start firebird

#!/bin/bash

/usr/local/MozillaFirebird/MozillaFirebird -remote "openURL($@, new-tab)" || exec /usr/local/MozillaFirebird/MozillaFirebird "$@";

save this script in your path and make it executable

this looks for an instance that is already open, if it is, then it opens a new tab for it. If you want, I believe you can change new-tab to new-window, but I am not sure. Check the mozilla command line docs for more info.

If there is not an open instance, then it just opens it normally.

Then, the trick is to make whatever desktop environment you are using to use that script as the command to run for any html file you try to open.

In KDE:

Control panel -> KDE components -> File associations

expand text and click html

hit the add button in application preference order area and type in the name of your script created above followed by %u. Mine is:

startfb %u

click ok. If you want you can click on the new selection you just made and change its properties. Now, move it to the top of that application preference section and you are ready to go.

Works like a charm!
It finally works and just the way I wanted too. Changing 'new-tab' to 'new-window' also works, as you said.
I was just wondering what purpose the %u serves in 'startfb %u'.

I believe that it passes the url to the browser on the command line. That is how firebird knows what page to load in the new tab.

startfb %u = startfb www.yourclickedlinkurl.com

then in the script, the argument passed to that script are referenced with $@

so then we have

/usr/local/MozillaFirebird/MozillaFirebird -remote "openURL( www.yourclickedlinkurl.com, new-tab)" || exec /usr/local/MozillaFirebird/MozillaFirebird "www.yourclickedlinkurl.com";

the %u is handled and filled in by KDE

"MozillaFirebird %u" doesn't work for me, it opens a new tab but not with the site requested.
But, "MozillaFirebird %s" works like a dream.