Firefox is already running, but not responding

paulpeer · 04-13-2008, 11:01 AM

"Firefox is already running, but not responding". I was looking for another way instead of rebooting the system and found something about killing the lock file. But I don't find any lock file. In which directory should it be?

Thanks!

ranger_nemo · 04-13-2008, 11:07 AM

Open a console.

Use "pidof firefox" to get the process ID.

Use "kill pid#" to kill the running Firefox.

You could get tricky if you wanted and combine the two commands... "kill $(pidof firefox)".

If you just delete the lock file, you will be able to start a new Firefox process, but the old one will still be running, and borked, and using up resources.

paulpeer · 04-13-2008, 11:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ranger_nemo

Open a console.

Use "pidof firefox" to get the process ID.

Use "kill pid#" to kill the running Firefox.

Thanks, but ... pidof firefox gives no answer ... and yet it is still running...

Dennis99 · 04-13-2008, 11:40 AM

try pidof firefox-bin

DragonSlayer48DX · 04-13-2008, 12:01 PM

Can't you just click the close button and select Force Quit in the message window?

Linux is not Windows- you shouldn't need to reboot on a software crash...

Cheers

Dennis99 · 04-13-2008, 12:05 PM

I'm guessing he can't do that because ff sometimes just disappears and if you try to start it you get the message Firefox is already running, but not responding
The only way to stop it is kill it.

DragonSlayer48DX · 04-13-2008, 12:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dennis99

I'm guessing he can't do that because ff sometimes just disappears and if you try to start it you get the message Firefox is already running, but not responding
The only way to stop it is kill it.

Ah, I see. I've never had that problem. The few times it "disappeared" I was able to restart it. When it "stopped responding", my suggestion worked.

Cheers

paulpeer · 04-13-2008, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dennis99

try pidof firefox-bin

Nope. No number appears ...

paulpeer · 04-13-2008, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dennis99

I'm guessing he can't do that because ff sometimes just disappears and if you try to start it you get the message Firefox is already running, but not responding
The only way to stop it is kill it.

Precisely. FF has dissapeared. When I try to start it again, I get only this message box with "Firefox is already running, but not responding."

paulpeer · 04-13-2008, 12:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulpeer

Nope. No number appears ...

And by the way, the command

ps ax

doesn't show Firefox either ... So I suppose I'll just have to do it the windows way: reboot ... ?

DragonSlayer48DX · 04-13-2008, 12:52 PM

I'm not familiar with Mandriva, but in this situation with (K)Ubuntu, one only needs to open System Monitor, select the Running Processes tab, and kill the application from there.

Cheers

elliott678 · 04-13-2008, 01:05 PM

The lock file should be in the user's home directory, mine is "/home/elliott/.mozilla/firefox/8bbnsdkz.default/lock"

If it doesn't show up in the process list, it isn't running, it is just a stale lock file.

dasy2k1 · 04-13-2008, 01:36 PM

ps -A | grep firefox

then
kill -9 <pid>

paulpeer · 04-13-2008, 01:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dasy2k1

ps -A | grep firefox

Thanks, but the result is nothing. Firefox does not appear in the process list, nor is there any lock file in my home directory. And yet if I try to start Firefox, I get this "already running" box.

As I had this problem more than once, would ik make sence to reinstall/update Firefox? But I've never done such a thing. Could someone show me how?

Thanks!

paulpeer · 04-13-2008, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by elliott678

The lock file should be in the user's home directory

No, nothing there :-(