Firefox not starting in scientific linux

Hi,
I have been using firefox on my SL7.4 laptop for years now, and suddenly it has stopped working! I don't remember specifically updating any packages before it happened but something may have updated.
Now, when I type 'firefox' into the terminal it responds with:

$ firefox
(firefox:647): Glib-GObject-Critical **: g_object_ref: assertion 'object->ref_count > 0' failed
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

the '647' number seems to change every time I try it. I have tried upgrading, downgrading, removing, reinstalling with yum. I searched all over the internet and as far as I can find nobody seems to have had this issue before.
I'm currently using firefox.x86_64 0:68.6.0-1.el7_7 but have also tried it with 5.0-2.

whenever the error occurs, a dialogue box appears at the bottom of the screen a few seconds later and when clicked this says 'firefox killed by SIGSEGV - abrt'

EDIT- I have also tried renaming /.mozilla to something else but that did not help.

Any help or pointers would really help!
Thanks.

Did you do a glib update?

Gobject is gtk. Does other gtk2/3 software work? See if it's everything gtk or just firefox. If it's everything then fix it, or downgrage gobject or glib. If it's just firefox then,... use another version or use something else.

Firefox is on version 75 now.

You might post what version of glib, gobject, and what kernel that you are using. Maybe someone else is having that.

Hi Thanks for the reply.
everything else seems to be working okay but i'm not really sure what other software is using GTK?
As i said, i have tried upgrading and downgrading to different versions of firefox and it still never works and gives the same error message every time.

My kernel is 3.10.0-514.21.2.el7.x86_64
I have tried updating glibc to 0:2.17-292.el7 - still no joy.
Thanks for the help so far

Shouldn't you update your whole machine together instead of just one package? So everything matches.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_Linux

Latest SL is 7.7 it looks like.

In April 2019, it was announced that Scientific Linux would be discontinued

https://www.scientificlinux.org/down...-versions/sl7/

Do you mean running sudo yum update in terminal? i have tried doing that and there is no difference.
however, at the end of running yum update there are a few errors in the packages:
gparted-0.33.0
libgpod-0.8.3
spirv-tools-libs-2019.1

how would i update everything together including OS without risking breaking any of my compiled codes or losing any data? and would this definitely bring back firefox?
obviously in my ideal world i'd just be able to get firefox running as it was without having to do some major OS overhaul or make drastic changes...

Originally Posted by tprpratt how would i update everything together including OS without risking breaking any of my compiled codes or losing any data? and would this definitely bring back firefox? obviously in my ideal world i'd just be able to get firefox running as it was without having to do some major OS overhaul or make drastic changes...

Make separate filesystems for /home and /usr/local (or even /opt). If those filesystems aren't mounted when you upgrade, their contents are safe when you upgrade or re-install. You merely update /etc/fstab to have them mounted following the upgrade/re-install.

HTH...