Got firefox installed still need help

orion446 · 01-17-2005, 10:48 AM

Got firefox installed but it keeps asking me to create a user profile every time I start it. How can I stop it from doing that?

acid_kewpie · 01-17-2005, 10:51 AM

the profile manager will normally appear when there is no free profile available. if you have created one then normally this would imply you are still running that profile already, and stareting another seperate instance of firefox. is this the case? how are you closing firefox before opening it again? also there is a tick box on that box to not ask each time, i take ti that that is ticked?

orion446 · 01-17-2005, 11:41 AM

really don't know what to do. I am new to linux and in the learning phase right now. Tick box is cleared and I shut it down by going to file and then quit.

jonr · 01-17-2005, 11:52 AM

This can happen when your X session shuts down unexpectedly or there's a power loss, etc.

In your ~/.mozilla directory there is a firefox subdirectory and in that subdirectory there's another one
called default.skn.

In that default.skn directory, there is a file called lock that normally gets replaced every time
you open a normal Firefox session. If Firefox doesn't shut down correctly (for whatever reason),
this file will just stay there and next time Firefox tries to run, it thinks it's already running.

You can go into that directory (/home/your_name/.mozilla/firefox/default.skn) and delete the
lock file while Firefox is not running, then Firefox ought to run normally next time.

There are other circumstances that will cause Firefox to think it's already running, including those
times when it really IS already running.

But the above is something that often happens when there's
a system shutdown that isn't "clean."

orion446 · 01-17-2005, 01:25 PM

The firefox folder has a red lock over it and will not grant me access, I logged in as root and firefox started with no problem. Linux is very interesting and has really got me hooked , so any help will be appreciated!!!!!!!! In any event I will figure this out if it's the last thing I do.

jonr · 01-17-2005, 01:45 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by orion446
The firefox folder has a red lock over it and will not grant me access, I logged in as root and firefox started with no problem. Linux is very interesting and has really got me hooked , so any help will be appreciated!!!!!!!! In any event I will figure this out if it's the last thing I do.

The problem is almost certainly that you installed Firefox as root, and when you do that, root can use Firefox but nobody else can unless root creates a profile for the ordinary user.

Since it's a bad idea to log in as root (too easy to do damage to your system, because root has life-and-death powers ordinary users don't!), what you can do is to use a file manager like Midnight Commander (my choice, but you may have Nautilus or some other one) and, as root, change ownership and permissions of the directory where Firefox is installed. Or you can do it in a console as root:

Code:

#  cd /[name of directory where Firefox is installed]          (<<the # is the prompt indicator for root; an ordinary user would show a dollar sign)
#   chown -R [your ordinary user name] .                              (<<the dot means "the present working directory" and the -R makes the operation apply to any subdirectories as well as the present one)
#   chmod -R o+rxw .                                                                (<<this gives permission to the new owner to read, execute/search, and write to the files)

After that, you should be able to start Firefox as your normal self.

If you use a file manager program it's easier to see what you're doing, but once you get used to it it's faster and easier to use a terminal and commands such as the above.

See if that doesn't solve the problem.