Web Browser Troubles

jerf · 03-23-2008, 06:07 PM

Hi all.

Just having a weird little problem with slackware. When I try to open a web browser from my normal user nothing happens. If I try to open the browser a second time I get a message that tells me the process is already running and that I need to close it or reboot. This is odd becuase I have no other browsers open, havent logged in to root, yet if I log in to root from another tty and startx the browser works fine...

Any ideas?

Thanks guys.

jailbait · 03-23-2008, 06:25 PM

What browser are you using?

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Steve Stites

T3slider · 03-23-2008, 08:35 PM

jerf, try launching the browser from a terminal. Then post any errors that may appear. As a side note, I would never even think about starting X as root (let alone a web browser in X) even if it was to troubleshoot something. It's just not a wise idea.

tommcd · 03-24-2008, 01:25 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jerf

Hi all.

Just having a weird little problem with slackware. When I try to open a web browser from my normal user nothing happens. If I try to open the browser a second time I get a message that tells me the process is already running and that I need to close it or reboot.

If you are using firefox, when you get the message that it is already running, open a terminal and type "killall firefox-bin". Then try to launch firefox from the terminal. If it doesn't start the error messages will give you an idea of what is wrong.
You could also try creating a new profile for firefox. Try temporarily moving ~/.mozilla to ~/.mozilla.old, and launch firefox again to see if that fixes it.

jerf · 03-24-2008, 03:32 PM

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll get back to you with the results when I get home.

jerf · 03-25-2008, 04:21 AM

Strange. Started X and did 'ps uxa', no firefox. I tried to start firefox from my Desktop, same thing happened, nothing. Did 'ps uxa' and saw that /usr/lib/firefox was running. Ok did killall firefox-bin, and 'ps uxa' showed no more firefox. Tried to open firefox from a terminal and it worked fine. Closed firefox and tried to launch it from the desktop and now its working without a hitch. I mean I'm glad works but what the heck was happening?

I'm going to reboot now and see what happens. Still, strange.

jerf · 03-25-2008, 04:25 AM

Well after the reboot everything seems to be fine. Wish I knew what was happening but oh well, at least it works.

shadowsnipes · 03-25-2008, 12:33 PM

Sometimes if Firefox is not closed cleanly or if you have a filesystem problem Firefox will still have a lock file. If you are sure all the firefox processes are killed check for a file called .parentlock under your profile folder. Remove this file and firefox should start anew.