Firefox 94: "Firefox is already running, but is not responding"

[ablebaker]

When I click on a web link to go to a Google maps location, Firefox freezes and the following message appears: "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To use Firefox, you must first close the existing Firefox process, restart your device, or use a different profile."

If I enter

Code: Select all

killall firefox

in the Terminal to close the Firefox process, I get:

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firefox: no process found

Not having a different profile, the only option is to reboot the computer.

Is this a Firefox bug or something unique to my computer? In any case, how to fix?

inxi -Fxxxrz output:

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System:
  Kernel: 5.11.0-40-generic x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: N/A 
  Desktop: Cinnamon 5.0.7 wm: muffin 5.0.2 dm: LightDM 1.30.0 
  Distro: Linux Mint 20.2 Uma base: Ubuntu 20.04 focal 
Machine:
  Type: Desktop Mobo: Intel model: NUC7i3BNB v: J22859-303 serial: <filter> 
  UEFI: Intel v: BNKBL357.86A.0067.2018.0814.1500 date: 08/14/2018 
CPU:
  Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-7100U bits: 64 type: MT MCP 
  arch: Amber Lake rev: 9 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
  flags: avx avx2 lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx 
  bogomips: 19200 
  Speed: 900 MHz min/max: 400/2400 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 900 2: 900 
  3: 947 4: 2202 
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 620 driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 
  chip ID: 8086:5916 
  Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.11 driver: modesetting 
  unloaded: fbdev,vesa resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz 
  OpenGL: renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2) v: 4.6 Mesa 21.0.3 
  direct render: Yes 
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-LP HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel 
  bus ID: 00:1f.3 chip ID: 8086:9d71 
  Sound Server: ALSA v: k5.11.0-40-generic 
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Ethernet I219-V driver: e1000e v: kernel port: f040 
  bus ID: 00:1f.6 chip ID: 8086:15d8 
  IF: eno1 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
  Device-2: Intel Wireless 8265 / 8275 driver: iwlwifi v: kernel port: f040 
  bus ID: 3a:00.0 chip ID: 8086:24fd 
  IF: wlp58s0 state: up mac: <filter> 
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 405.22 GiB used: 137.24 GiB (33.9%) 
  ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Fujitsu model: MHZ2160BH FFS G1 size: 149.05 GiB 
  speed: 1.5 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: 008C scheme: MBR 
  ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Crucial model: CT275MX300SSD4 size: 256.17 GiB 
  speed: 6.0 Gb/s serial: <filter> rev: R040 scheme: GPT 
Partition:
  ID-1: / size: 250.66 GiB used: 49.91 GiB (19.9%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb2 
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 48.0 C mobo: N/A 
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A 
Repos:
  No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list 
  Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/official-package-repositories.list 
  1: deb http://mintmirror.math.washington.edu/linuxmint-repo uma main upstream import backport
  2: deb http://mirror.math.ucdavis.edu/ubuntu focal main restricted universe multiverse
  3: deb http://mirror.math.ucdavis.edu/ubuntu focal-updates main restricted universe multiverse
  4: deb http://mirror.math.ucdavis.edu/ubuntu focal-backports main restricted universe multiverse
  5: deb http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ focal-security main restricted universe multiverse
  6: deb http://archive.canonical.com/ubuntu/ focal partner
Info:
  Processes: 216 Uptime: 6m Memory: 7.65 GiB used: 2.59 GiB (33.8%) 
  Init: systemd v: 245 runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 9.3.0 alt: 9 Shell: bash 
  v: 5.0.17 running in: gnome-terminal inxi: 3.0.38 

[t42]

starting firefox opens at least Web Content processes, WebExtensions and GeckoMain one.
kill PID works fine where PID is a GeckoMain firefox process PID found in pidof firefox command.
If you still prefer killall then run killall GeckoMain

[Flemur]

When I click on a web link to go to a Google maps location, Firefox freezes and the following message appears: "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To use Firefox, you must first close the existing Firefox process, restart your device, or use a different profile."

See here:
viewtopic.php?p=1796821#p1796821

If I enter

Code: Select all

killall firefox

in the Terminal to close the Firefox process, I get:

Code: Select all

firefox: no process found

Not having a different profile, the only option is to reboot the computer.

They managed to make the normal "killall" commands not work, for your own protection no doubt. (killall firefox, killall firefox-bin, killall MainThread)

You could try xkill, then click the FF window. I usually have a terminal open and my kfire script is this silly command string (which I rarely use):

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kill -9 `ps -ef | grep firefox | awk {'print $2'}`

It works with newer FF's, at least for now.

[t42]

it is not complicated: the terminal command
killall GeckoMain
terminates all Firefox 94.x processes

[ablebaker]

Thank you t42 and Flemur for your helpful replies. I found it interesting that, while this problem with Firefox is new to me, the topic link provided by Flemur shows that others have experienced it for some time.

[Pennyroyal]

Good to know there is a solution for this without a reboot!