My computer unexpectically shut itself off last night while I had a bunch of programs open. I think the computer got a bit hot and need a rest so I left it alone. I just went and turned on my laptop and found that Mozilla, Firefox, and Thunderbird all will not let me log into my default identity because it's currently in use. I think that something happened when the laptop crashed casing the programs I was using to be running still. I was wondering how to switch back to my default profile. I'm using a profile that I just made right now but haven't found the option to switch back. Any help would be greatly appreciated. I have some many saved features on my Mozilla and Firefox browsers along with tons of email in Thunderbird. I cannot lose this information. Thanks in advance for any help I'll get.

Tools -> Switch Profile
Does that not work? If so, do this:
And kill any valid processes, then retry
Do the same for Thunderbird.

That's the error message that I get when I do the command "ps -aux | grep mozilla" Also, under "Tools" I do not have the option to switch profiles. I only looked for Firefox though. For Firefox I'm running version 1.0 Preview. I have not checked the other programs to see if this code works for them.

This is strange. It seems that Mozilla is able to log into the default profile and I didn't need to switch it. I still didn't have much luck in trying to get Firefox and Thunderbird to switch to the default identity.

I'm sorry, the command is actually
note the lack of the -
but it doesn't cause any problems that I've experienced.
That's where the switch profile is on Mozilla-1.7
Try looking under the other Menus at the top... it should be in there somwehere.

This is not good! I've tried this code and I've managed to find the path to my profile. The path is as follows:

The problem is that this is the "profiles" directory but I don't see the profiles that I have made? Please help! I don't know what to do.

EDIT:
Before deleting files as I mentioned below, be absolutely CERTAIN that the file in question is only for 'locking' Mozilla, and not used by something else!

That might not be where your profile information is stored, so an empty directory might not be bad news. If you see a directory with a name like "alk4j8adfjk" or "7ahejdf89" then look inside there.

Search for a file with "lock" in the name, most likely "parent.lock." Mozilla uses this to denote an in use status and removes it when you completely close all windows, download manager, mail, et cetera. I'm not 100% certain Firefox uses the same technique, but if it does, deleting this file should fix your issue.

If that doesn't give you any output, try As for the "ps" command, some distros use different versions/flavors. For Slackware, ps -ef or ps -aux work well. Open BSD had a version that freaked out on the "f" option. The basic command is there, but when in doubt RTFM.

In any case, if you're being told that Mozilla is in use, you might keep looking for an orphan or zombie process. However, if it's the profile, I'd try some timestamp, permissions change, or some other change in file/directory structure/access. If your machine actually *crashed* I doubt you still have some rogue process hindering you.

When I did a search, this is what the information I got back
These are both directories. The one labelled "grrgl" is the temp one that I'm currently using. The "default" is the one that I want to get back into. Since they are both directories, should I still delete them?

During the search, I also found the one for Thunderbird:
This worries me a bit because this is the only one that I found. I know that I had to make a temporary profile to see what's going on but for the search I only found the ".default" Is it wise to delete this directory? I'm hesitant to do so because I have emails I need to keep in there.

EDIT:
Is there a command of some kind for me to unlock the directories so that it won't think the profiles are being used? Can a "killall" process do the trick? I've reboot and shut down my laptop a bunch of times which is supposed to "killall" but I'm still having this problem...

NOTE: be sure to note the part about renaming a file before deleting it permanently. The cool think about UNIX is that it gives you the power to do anything. The bad thing is, in giving you that power, it has to assume you know what you're doing. I've been on the bad end of learning that lesson too many times. Rename a file, and if it wasn't needed, no programs will complain that it's gone. THEN delete it.

NO NO! please not the directories! Just the file itself. The "grrgl" is locked because the system crashed while the file was there. The other one is locked because you're using it to browse LinuxQuestions.org.

I'm guessing that you aren't using Thunderbird right now, so the default (which was running at Crash Time) is the only directory containing a "lock" file.
Fire up T-bird and search again. Did you find two this time?

Again, DON'T delete the entire directory; just delete the file itself. And renaming the file instead of deleting it is always a good idea. try this:If the file was needed, rename it back. If it wasn't, your mail should still be fine, just where you left it.

Hopefully the above will work for you; I don't think it's a process problem as much as Mozilla checking for the existence of this file when it starts, and when it *finds* the file, it assumes you've already got another instance of Mozilla running.

Good luck.
-zed

PS: *bonk* Oh yeah, I should've told you to check your home directory :\ That's where you'll find LOTS of user-specific config files. Nearly all of them.

YES!! I finally got it to work! What I did was go into the directory and find the filed labeled "lock." I went ahead and deleted this file within the profile directory and everything is working again! Thanks so much for all of your help. I really appreciate it. I'm so happy that I saved all of my mail. Thanks again!