Firefox alreay running [OSX]

gstewart · Post by **gstewart** » January 9th, 2007, 4:32 am

I work in with 2 suites of Macs ... one set is running OS 10.3.9 and the other is running OS 10.4.6. I have Firefox 2 on all machines, but when students log in to one set, use Firefox, log out and then log in to the other set, Firefox reports that there is another copy of Firefox already running and will not open at all.

It's not a profile issue, it's Firefox itself that seems to be the problem, and I'm guessing that it's an OS issue? Anyone know of anything I can try - at the moment I just wipe the Firefox folder in Application Support, but that means I have to reinstall proxy settings every time ... and that's just time consuming when you have to do it 15 to 20 times a day.

dickvl · Post by **dickvl** » January 9th, 2007, 8:29 pm

You need to make sure that you close Firefox after logging out.
I don't know if that happens on a Mac.
It is also possible that Fx can't find the profile folder: that gives the same error message: Profile folder not found (KB)

Firefox uses profiles.ini to find the profile folder. You have to put that file so that both OSs can find it and use the same path for the profile folder.
See:
profiles.ini file.
Files outside the Profile folder (KB)

gstewart · Post by **gstewart** » January 11th, 2007, 1:36 am

As I stated in my original post, it is nothing to do with profiles. It is a problem with the application itself; the error message that appears reads like this:

"<b>CLOSE FIREFOX: A copy of Firefox is already open. Only one copy of Firefox can be open at a time</b>"

I am 100% certain that Firefox has been terminated correctly and without errors before users log out, but when they log on to one of the computers in the other suite this message appears EVERY time.

Is there even anywhere I can check to find out exactly what this error message means?

skwij · Post by **skwij** » January 11th, 2007, 6:00 am

Dickvl was talking about Firefox Profiles, not user profiles that have been set on the machines.

gstewart · Post by **gstewart** » January 11th, 2007, 6:25 am

Okay ... I understand now (sorry Dickvl!). However, after checking, it appears that the information in the profiles.ini file is accurate, but I'm still getting the error message I mentioned. Any help will be EXTREMELY gratefully received.

dickvl · Post by **dickvl** » January 11th, 2007, 2:32 pm

Check the other suggestions in Profile In Use (KB)
Look for a (hidden) ".parentlock" (Mac OS X) file in the profile folder.

gstewart · Post by **gstewart** » January 12th, 2007, 1:18 am

Already checked that ... there is no .parentlock file (I used the finder application with the criteria that it find all hidden and unhidden files). Do you know of anywhere I can check the error message?

dickvl · Post by **dickvl** » January 12th, 2007, 1:43 am

You can try the profile manager and see where it wants to create a new profile for both OSs and see if the locations match appart from the random xxxxxxxx.default part.
You do not need to create those profiles, you can just check the location in that window.
See: Profile Manager (KB)

gstewart · Post by **gstewart** » January 12th, 2007, 1:55 am

The way they are set up is this ... the student logs on to the computer using AdmitMac, which retrieves their network user profile (containing the same information as a local profile) from a server. Firefox on all computers in both suites is using the FF profile information stored in the <b>Library / Application Support / Firefox</b> folder in their server user profiles.

Would the fact that it's using a server-based user profile be causing difficulties?

dickvl · Post by **dickvl** » January 12th, 2007, 2:22 am

I'm not on a Mac and I'm not using a profile on a server so I don't know about that.
You can try this procedure: http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_Folder#Other_profiles
In Fx 2.0 it is called Tools > Error Console.
I do not know if that works with a network profile.

Do that immeadiately after starting Fx otherwise you have to clear the Error window or scroll down to the bottom.

gstewart · Post by **gstewart** » January 12th, 2007, 4:19 am

On the machines that throw the error up the message appears, you have to click OK, then FF quits immediately. There's no option to open menu options before that happens.

gstewart · Post by **gstewart** » January 17th, 2007, 1:36 am

*bump*

I think I have made the first step towards sorting this out ... the prefs.js file held in the user profile has a shed load of options, including proxy settings. Does anyone know if there is a setting in that file that may be causing FF to think that there is another copy running? I'm thinking it might be something to do with the restore_last_session setting ... if FF crashes it uses one of these settings to indicate that it quit unexpectedly, and will ask the user if they want to restore or open the last session.

Any ideas?

dickvl · Post by **dickvl** » January 17th, 2007, 1:55 am

If Fx complains that it is already running then I don't think that Fx comes so far as reading files in the profile folder.
You need to make sure that Fx actually finds the profile folder and that there is no .parentlock file in it.

gstewart · Post by **gstewart** » January 17th, 2007, 4:07 am

Hmmm ... done both those things. It's finding the folder okay, and there's no .parentlock file in it. I don't know what it could be ... removing profile.ini works in getting it going, but obviously it creates a new user profile then. Do you know what the boot sequence for Firefox is (i.e. what order it opens files to get started)?

gstewart · Post by **gstewart** » January 17th, 2007, 7:55 am

Okay ... seem to have isolated the problem. After removing the pluginreg.dat file from User > Library > Application Support > Firefox, instead of the usual "another copy of Firefox is already running" message you get "Firefox quit unexpectedly. Do you want to restore a session or start a new session". Either option starts FF again.

I'm not sure what the significance of the pluginreg.dat is, but Firefox seems to work perfectly well without it. Still, it would be nice to know what info in the file is causing the problem ... it all looks like double dutch to me!