[SOLVED] Slackware 13.1: Firefox 3.6.6 not opening, no terminal info output.

rfernandez · 06-28-2010, 07:55 AM

Hi again, people.

Here's the issue: Firefox does not open under any circumstances, it's allocated in the memory and has it's process ids, but the browser is not opened at all. There's not terminal output when ran in terminal, no dmesg, debug..., nothing. The only info I could give:

Terminal try:

Code:

rodrigo@darkstar:~$ firefox

ps aux output:

Code:

rodrigo   5223  0.0  0.0   3060  1440 pts/1    S+   09:48   0:00 /bin/sh /usr/bin/firefox
rodrigo   5236  0.0  0.0   3104  1500 pts/1    S+   09:48   0:00 /bin/sh /usr/lib/firefox-3.6.6/run-mozilla.sh /usr/lib/firefox-3.6.6/firefox-bin
rodrigo   5240  0.0  0.3  33308  6288 pts/1    S+   09:48   0:00 /usr/lib/firefox-3.6.6/firefox-bin

So, I really don't know what's happening, if someone have some light to shed, I'd be glad.

EDIT: Forgot some info: Slackware 13.1 32-bit x86, package is mozilla-firefox-3.6.6-i686-1. Also, I found this post with the same issue: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...-start-816486/

Martinezio · 06-28-2010, 08:18 AM

Backup and remove ~/.mozilla directory, and re-run firefox. Maybe You profile is broken, and thus it cannot be initialized properly.
See, what will happened after the removal of this directory.

rfernandez · 06-28-2010, 08:23 AM

Hi, Martinezio, and thanks for your reply.

So i did what you asked

Code:

rodrigo@darkstar:~$ ls -a | grep .mozilla
.mozilla/
rodrigo@darkstar:~$ mv .mozilla mozilla-backup
rodrigo@darkstar:~$ firefox

And still no love from Firefox.

EDIT: There were no new .mozilla/ directory created.

Ilgar · 06-28-2010, 11:10 AM

Did you try this under another window manager?

rfernandez · 06-28-2010, 11:25 AM

No, Ilgar, I haven't. I've only got KDE to use.

disturbed1 · 06-28-2010, 11:26 AM

Since this is Firefox 3.6.6, means you did the upgrade, and I assume everything was working previously to this upgrade?
How did you upgrade Firefox? slackpkg, upgradepkg, installpkg?

Check that you only have one Firefox installed.
ls /var/log/packages | grep firefox

You can try safe mode
firefox -safe-mode

double check you don't have a non compatible plugin. By default Slackware only ships with libnpjp2.so (java) and skypebuttons.so (something from KDE. Still not sure why KDE would assume I have/will install skype)

Double check the /usr/lib/firefox directory is linked to /usr/lib/firefox-$VERSION, and there is not another /usr/lib/firefox-$SOMETHING.

Could even be a missing library.
ldd /usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin | grep "not found"

rfernandez · 06-28-2010, 11:35 AM

I upgrade via slackpkg. I'm synced to the -current tree, so: slackpkg update -> slackpkg install-new -> slacpkg upgrade-all.
Firefox was, indeed, working fine. I really don't know when things got messed up.

As requested:

Code:

rodrigo@darkstar:~$ ls /var/log/packages | grep firefox
mozilla-firefox-3.6.6-i686-1

rodrigo@darkstar:~$ firefox -safe-mode


rodrigo@darkstar:~$ ls /usr/lib/firefox-3.6.6/plugins/
libnullplugin.so*
rodrigo@darkstar:~$ ls /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/            
libnpjp2.so@
rodrigo@darkstar:~$ ls -l /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/
total 0
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 34 2010-05-30 19:05 libnpjp2.so -> /usr/lib/java/lib/i386/libnpjp2.so*


rodrigo@darkstar:~$ ldd /usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin | grep "not found"
        libxul.so => not found
        libxpcom.so => not found

The "firefox -Safe-mode" line means that everything is as usual: no reponse. The ldd returing those "not found" libs it's because libxul.so and libxpcom.so are under the /usr/lib/firefox-3.6.6 directory, and are included in $PATH once the firefox script starts.

Anything else, just ask.

Thank you, guys.

disturbed1 · 06-28-2010, 11:49 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rfernandez

The ldd returing those "not found" libs it's because

Is because things are not installed properly

libxul.so and libxpcom.so are part of seamonkey. Granted the 32bit firefox may ship with that library in that path, but it (firefox) looks to /usr/lib/seamonkey-$VERSION/ for the libraries.

On my clean full Slackware 32bit install, I can remove libxul from /usr/lib/firefox , and firefox runs. I put that libxul back, and remove the one from seamonkey, firefox does not run.

You might get by with linking those two missing libs from /usr/lib/firefox to /usr/lib. Or install seamonkey.

rfernandez · 06-28-2010, 01:37 PM

But, that's weird, since:

Code:

rodrigo@darkstar:~$ ls /var/log/packages/ | grep seamonkey
seamonkey-solibs-2.0.5-i486-1
rodrigo@darkstar:~$ ls /usr/lib/seamonkey
seamonkey/       seamonkey-2.0.5/ 
rodrigo@darkstar:~$ ls /usr/lib/seamonkey-2.0.5/
libfreebl3.chk  libmozjs.so*  libnss3.so*     libnssutil3.so*  libplds4.so*   libsoftokn3.chk  libssl3.so*
libfreebl3.so*  libnspr4.so*  libnssckbi.so*  libplc4.so*      libsmime3.so*  libsoftokn3.so*

It isn't there, but I don't know why. Well, nevertheless I've made the symlinks, but still, nothing happens.

EDIT: Just installed seamonkey, and still, no love from Firefox.

EDIT2: Seamonkey works fine, though.

disturbed1 · 06-28-2010, 02:26 PM

If you notice your ls /usr/lib/seamonkey-2.0.5/ does not contain the missing libraries, that's only the seamonkey-solibs. Strange things still did not work after installing Seamonkey, yet Seamonkey itself works. On my test system, I removed seamonkey, and did an ln -s of those two Firefox libs to /usr/lib/ - I hate it when other people say this but, works for me. Sounds like a side effect from not doing a complete install .... but things worked before, and all you did was upgrade Firefox. Wonder what's missing?

Might want to try Firefox in it's own directory. Just uncompress the file from the Slackware source. It's the same thing Mozilla ships upstream. Should run from it's own directory. The SlackBuilds between 13.1 and the security release of Firefox have not changed, so this is something upstream.

rfernandez · 06-28-2010, 02:35 PM

I think the main problem is that I have no output about anything, it just hangs at the terminal without any further info - I can only guess, but I don't know for sure. On my install I only select packages in the A, AP, N, X and XAP series. The D, F, L, K, T and TCL are fully installed, so I don't know if it is a full install issue. It used to work, but got lost somewhere.

I'll try later the static firefox download and see if anything changes, but thank you, disturbed1.

EDIT: I've just tried the static firefox download and things are just the same - firefox won't show a browser window, although the process is allotacted in memory. I have no idea what's going on or if I'm missing some dependecies, but 'till firefox updates, I'll just stay with Google Chrome.

Thanks, everyone.

volkerdi · 06-28-2010, 04:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by disturbed1

Is because things are not installed properly

libxul.so and libxpcom.so are part of seamonkey. Granted the 32bit firefox may ship with that library in that path, but it (firefox) looks to /usr/lib/seamonkey-$VERSION/ for the libraries.

On my clean full Slackware 32bit install, I can remove libxul from /usr/lib/firefox , and firefox runs. I put that libxul back, and remove the one from seamonkey, firefox does not run.

You might get by with linking those two missing libs from /usr/lib/firefox to /usr/lib. Or install seamonkey.

The seamonkey libs should not be required to use Firefox, although it will probably fall back on them if some of Firefox's libraries are removed.

While Firefox is running, you can try this to see that it does in fact use its own copy of libxul.so:

lsof | grep libxul

As far as why the 32-bit Firefox 3.6.6 would not be running, I'll admit I was a bit concerned since we do not compile the 32-bit Firefox and perhaps a change in the upstream compile could break it on Slackware, but I've tested on a 32-bit Slackware 13.1 updated with slackpkg to include Firefox 3.6.6 and the other updates and can report that it's working here.

rfernandez · 06-28-2010, 04:30 PM

Well, indeed a lsof | grep libxul show that firefox use it's own copy, the same for libxpcom. But, is there someway I can trace or debug the application in order to see what it's trying to accomplish? Without any output it's hard just guessing... AFAIK, all dependencies are solved.

shadowsnipes · 06-28-2010, 05:29 PM

Try downgrading back to FF 3.6.4 and let us know if that still comes up.

Also, /usr/lib/firefox*/firefox is just a shell script to launch the binaries. You can try editing it to see more precisely where it hangs. Be sure to read the comments (at least one refers to debugging)

disturbed1 · 06-28-2010, 05:38 PM

Quote:

The seamonkey libs should not be required to use Firefox, although it will probably fall back on them if some of Firefox's libraries are removed.

I see where my mistake was. Did not pay enough attention to the /usr/bin/firefox script, and only looked at the ldd output