Linux Since the last 'automatic' update, Firefox hangs when started, but doesn't show any GUI.
Many experiments later, I can report the following progress:
- I started … (funda kabanzi)
Linux Since the last 'automatic' update, Firefox hangs when started, but doesn't show any GUI.
Many experiments later, I can report the following progress:
- I started firefox from the command-line, hoping to see some output (no luck there),
and eliminating problems with the window manager launcher (XFCE)
- Firefox launches, but in triplicate: 3 instances are running (of firefox, _not_ firefox-bin)
- There is no console output.
- Running inside gdb shows threads entering and exiting, no errors. On ^C, there's just
a message about exiting the current thread.
- If I kill two of the instances, the GUI appears, so it seems they are blocking each other
- I wanted to trace the startup sequence, so I did `strace ./firefox 2> log` and behold,
firefox started! This is why I am reporting this on the actual started firefox.
- Which makes me suspect a 'race condition' - surely the strace is slowing things down,
allowing one instance to create the GUI. Some code which is not lock-protected?
I'm afraid this could happen again in next session, which is why I report this first,
before trying to restart FF.