[Solved]Firefox Stops working after updating

[indaymadel]

I keep on updating LMDE (on newly installed PC), but Firefox doesn't seem to update to the latest version. So I did "sudo firefox" and update from there. Update was successful.

The problem is, firefox won't run as normal user anymore. I can't just double click the Firefox icon, it doesn't work anymore, firefox doesn't load anymore. Typing "firefox" in terminal doesn't work as well. No error. Just nothing.

It only works with "sudo firefox", all others, firefox won't load.

How can I fix this? I wanted to use firefox as normal user, not as root or sudo.

[gjringo]

Firefox 3.6.8 is the current version in LMDE and will be updated when Squeeze goes stable (December?).Simplest solution may be to uninstall/reinstall Firefox and /or Add to your Third Party Software Sources------
# Iceweasel 4.0 beta packages for Debian http://glandium.org/blog/?p=1032
# deb http://mozilla.debian.net/packages/ ./
or
# Swiftfox http://www.getswiftfox.com/deb.htm
#deb http://getswiftfox.com/builds/debian unstable non-free

Iceweasel 4.0~b5-1
Swiftfox 3.6.10

[vincent]

Firefox works when run with sudo privileges, you say? You shouldn't need to reinstall Firefox, like the person above suggested.

Try this first:

Code: Select all

sudo chown -R $USER: /home/$USER/.mozilla

(And replace $USER with your actual username.)

Now try opening Firefox again. Should that fail, try the next steps.

Open up your file browser (Nautilus), browse to your Home folder, press CTRL + H to reveal all hidden folders, and then rename the hidden ".mozilla" folder to ".mozilla_old". Now try opening Firefox. (Another way would be to run Firefox in a terminal with "firefox -safe-mode", which doesn't use your Firefox profile either.)

Using this alternate step, you'll notice that you now have a bare browser, with all your addons, passwords, history, personas, gone. They're in your ".mozilla_old" folder, if you want to retrieve them...but don't just copy your entire profile, since obviously something is wrong with it.

The reason you can not open Firefox without root privileges is because you ran Firefox with sudo; thus, there may have been some files in your profile that were overwritten with root privileges, which your normal user cannot do. Next time, please use "gksudo firefox" instead of just sudo.

[Dogge]

Why don't you use ubuntuzilla [1] instead? Works fine for me, also with LMDE.

[1] http://sourceforge.net/apps/mediawiki/u ... =Main_Page

[craigevil]

Dump Firefox and install Iceweasel.

$ apt-cache policy iceweasel
iceweasel:
Installed: 3.6.10-1
Candidate: 4.0~b5-1 ( Same as the current Firefox Beta)
Version table:
4.0~b5-1 0
500 http://mozilla.debian.net/packages/ ./ Packages
*** 3.6.10-1 0 ( Same as the current Firefox version)
101 http://ftp.debian.org/debian/ experimental/main i386 Packages
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
3.5.13-1 0
500 http://mirrors.kernel.org/debian/ sid/main i386 Packages

Or just download Mozilla Firefox, create a new profile, extract, and create a shortcut, then it auto-updates when there is a new version. No sudo crap needed.

REAL Firefox on Debian - LinuxQuestions.org
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions ... bian-2962/
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.2.10) Gecko/20100914 Firefox/3.6.10

# Iceweasel 4.0 beta packages for Debian http://glandium.org/blog/?p=1032
# deb http://mozilla.debian.net/packages/ ./

Iceweasel and User Agents
http://www.geticeweasel.org/useragent/

Mozilla Corporation software rebranded by the Debian project - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iceweasel

Debian and Mozilla - a study in trademarks [LWN.net]
http://lwn.net/Articles/118268/

[indaymadel]

Firefox works when run with sudo privileges, you say? You shouldn't need to reinstall Firefox, like the person above suggested.

Try this first:

Code: Select all

sudo chown -R $USER: /home/$USER/.mozilla

(And replace $USER with your actual username.)

Now try opening Firefox again. Should that fail, try the next steps.

Open up your file browser (Nautilus), browse to your Home folder, press CTRL + H to reveal all hidden folders, and then rename the hidden ".mozilla" folder to ".mozilla_old". Now try opening Firefox. (Another way would be to run Firefox in a terminal with "firefox -safe-mode", which doesn't use your Firefox profile either.)

Using this alternate step, you'll notice that you now have a bare browser, with all your addons, passwords, history, personas, gone. They're in your ".mozilla_old" folder, if you want to retrieve them...but don't just copy your entire profile, since obviously something is wrong with it.

The reason you can not open Firefox without root privileges is because you ran Firefox with sudo; thus, there may have been some files in your profile that were overwritten with root privileges, which your normal user cannot do. Next time, please use "gksudo firefox" instead of just sudo.

Thanks a lot. It works.
I mean, first step works.

[vincent]

Glad I could help. Just be sure not to run "sudo firefox" again though (use "gksudo" if you have to).

[leopoldbirkholm]

@ vincent,

Thank you very much! Your solution worked fine for me. Now I can log on to my bank again! You rock!