try
“right-click” firefox icon - “action” - “new window”.
firefox comes up.
This worked for me.
I would rescue some file from .mozilla:
cert9.db=certificates
key4.db= has to do with passwords, I don’t remember exactly, but worth backing up
logins.json = saved passwords
places.sqlite=bookmarks
prefs.js- self explanatory
search.json.mozlz4= Search engines, including custom
Then stop Firefox processes.
Now move .mozilla to .mozillabackup.
Start Firefox - this creates a new settings folder .mozilla.
Stop Firefox.
Copy the files mentioned above to .mozilla.
Start Firefox.
Try this to open a Firefox widow showing Troubleshooting Information page
firefox --new-window about:support
and click on Clear startup cache…
[answer to nikgnomic]
Done . After “Restart” both FF windows reopened properly.
Close both windows, click on FF icon : both windows reopen again.
It seems to be corrected. I will see tomorrow after Reboot.
Thanks for your help and regards
Denis.
[Edit : next morning, Reboot, and FF started without problem 
]
Hi Fafnir,
I will try this next time I have the problem (I saw your post after ikgnomic’s one). In that case, I will loose the tabs, but it’s usually not important.
Based on experience till today… Firefox processes lock each other out.
So first Task Manager icon is shown and mouse icon changes - indicating Firefox being run (loading), but then no GUI window is spawn and Firefox processes silently lock each other out without any error reported in console.
I kill the last processing identity spawned and like dominoes everything “unlocks” and finishes initialization - thus spawning GUI window frames. At least that is now consistent behaviour even after multiple reboots.
But with this we are still in the same situation that we have to sometimes repeat this “kill-the-last-Firefox-process” for Firefox to run. And relation to [2022-11-02] updates still unknown. I am reluctant to call this a solution, but at least we can use Firefox.
Try this to check Firefox running processes
firefox --new-window about:processes
I’m having this exact same issue. It started a few weeks ago after the last big patch bundle release. To get Firefox working I have to click the icon, wait for it a few seconds and see if the browser window comes up. If it doesn’t then I have to kill all the Firefox processes through terminal and try again. Usually it works on the second try but sometimes it won’t work until Firefox asks me if I want to start in safe mode. If I do that then it will work again until I reboot.
since safe-mode starts the browser with all add-ons disabled
it is essentially the same as temporarily creating a new profile
so:
removing your old profile and starting with a fresh one
is probably something you have tried?
mv ~/.mozilla ~/.mozilla.old
while there is no browser process running
If that (safe mode) helps, it is indicative of a problem with your add-ons or extensions.
I don’t think it’s the extensions because I completely uninstalled Firefox and deleted the profiles folder and I still had the problem when I installed it again but before I installed any extensions.
Run pacman -Rsn Firefox to remove both Firefox along with all of it’s dependencies and configuration files. The files are not removed in the standard removal process.
These files are the cause of your problems because they remain behind after a removal, reinstall, or update.
The configuration files that you added after installation will have to be deleted manually.
While this seems a bit inconsistent - safe-mode and fresh profile works, but only sometimes - and I can’t make heads or tails of it
this:
makes no sense and is not correct either
It’s a bit like trying magic - hoping that doing something will achieve something, when it objectively can’t.
When I proceed to remove firefox with:
sudo pacman -Rsn firefox
all that gets removed is … firefox
nothing else
There are no configuration files to be left behind - except for the profile in ~/.mozilla
and perhaps the cache ~/.cache/mozilla
which will of course not be touched by removal of the program - nothing in the $HOME directory will be.
When I uninstalled Firefox I purposely made sure to delete the firefox folder under ~/.mozilla so everything would be removed, but the problem remains. The strange thing is that this is an intermittent problem. Sometimes it works on the first try (although that’s rare), usually it works on the second try (after killing the first process), but sometimes it won’t work until Firefox prompts me about safe mode. It’s weird!
Then the problem is in your installed system.
You may need to reinstall.
Can you post inxi -Fza ?
in my desperation, I have installed firefox-esr 102.5.0esr from mozilla in /opt (outside the box). Start from terminal and firefox runs.
The same im all my other user accounts.
Then I try it with firefox 107 … the same issues before.
it seems to be a firefox problem.
As I added:
I also have reason to believe, that it is a Firefox issue.
It behaves exactly the same way for me, even though I explained it differently in my thread:
/ Hans Gatu
I’m pretty sure it is Firefox because if I install Chrome (Chromium) it doesn’t have this issue.
System:
Kernel: 5.15.78-1-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.2.0
parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.15-x86_64
root=UUID=38bf1d9c-d4fd-4d72-b6cb-8407756db8fd ro quiet
udev.log_priority=3
Desktop: GNOME v: 43.1 tk: GTK v: 3.24.34 wm: gnome-shell dm: GDM v: 43.0
Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
Type: Desktop Mobo: EVGA model: 141-BL-E757 v: Tylersburg
serial: BIOS: Phoenix v: 6.00 PG date: 08/25/2011
Battery:
Device-1: hidpp_battery_0 model: Logitech M510 serial:
charge: 55% (should be ignored) rechargeable: yes status: discharging
CPU:
Info: model: Intel Core i7 920 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Nehalem
gen: core 1 level: v2 built: 2008-10 process: Intel 45nm family: 6
model-id: 0x1A (26) stepping: 5 microcode: 0x1D
Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache:
L1: 256 KiB desc: d-4x32 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 1024 KiB desc: 4x256 KiB
L3: 8 MiB desc: 1x8 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 1605 high: 1686 min/max: 1596/2661 boost: enabled
scaling: driver: acpi-cpufreq governor: schedutil cores: 1: 1592 2: 1592
3: 1592 4: 1606 5: 1592 6: 1592 7: 1686 8: 1592 bogomips: 42469
Flags: ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3
Vulnerabilities:
Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX unsupported
Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion
Type: mds status: Vulnerable: Clear CPU buffers attempted, no microcode;
SMT vulnerable
Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI
Type: mmio_stale_data status: Unknown: No mitigations
Type: retbleed status: Not affected
Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
prctl and seccomp
Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
sanitization
Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Retpolines, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW,
STIBP: conditional, RSB filling, PBRSB-eIBRS: Not affected
Type: srbds status: Not affected
Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
Device-1: AMD Cape Verde XT [Radeon HD 7770/8760 / R7 250X] vendor: Hightech
Information System driver: radeon v: kernel alternate: amdgpu arch: GCN-1
code: Southern Islands process: TSMC 28nm built: 2011-20 pcie: gen: 2
speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 3 speed: 8 GT/s ports:
active: DVI-I-1 empty: DP-1,DP-2,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 02:00.0
chip-ID: 1002:683d class-ID: 0300 temp: 37.0 C
Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.4 with: Xwayland v: 22.1.5
compositor: gnome-shell driver: X: loaded: radeon unloaded: modesetting
alternate: fbdev,vesa dri: radeonsi gpu: radeon display-ID: :0 screens: 1
Screen-1: 0 s-res: 1920x1080 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 508x285mm (20.00x11.22")
s-diag: 582mm (22.93")
Monitor-1: DVI-I-1 mapped: DVI-0 model: Asus VH242H serial:
built: 2012 res: 1920x1080 hz: 60 dpi: 94 gamma: 1.2
size: 521x293mm (20.51x11.54") diag: 598mm (23.5") ratio: 16:9 modes:
max: 1920x1080 min: 720x400
API: OpenGL Message: Unable to show GL data. Required tool glxinfo
missing.
Audio:
Device-1: Intel 82801JI HD Audio driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel
bus-ID: 00:1b.0 chip-ID: 8086:3a3e class-ID: 0403
Device-2: AMD Oland/Hainan/Cape Verde/Pitcairn HDMI Audio [Radeon HD 7000
Series] vendor: Hightech Information System driver: snd_hda_intel
v: kernel pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 16 link-max: gen: 3
speed: 8 GT/s bus-ID: 02:00.1 chip-ID: 1002:aab0 class-ID: 0403
Sound API: ALSA v: k5.15.78-1-MANJARO running: yes
Sound Server-1: JACK v: 1.9.21 running: no
Sound Server-2: PulseAudio v: 16.1 running: yes
Sound Server-3: PipeWire v: 0.3.59 running: yes
Network:
Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet
driver: r8169 v: kernel pcie: gen: 1 speed: 2.5 GT/s lanes: 1 port: de00
bus-ID: 06:00.0 chip-ID: 10ec:8168 class-ID: 0200
IF: enp6s0 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac:
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 1.25 TiB used: 357.36 GiB (28.0%)
SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
ID-1: /dev/sda maj-min: 8:0 vendor: Western Digital
model: WD5001AALS-00L3B2 size: 465.76 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
logical: 512 B speed: 1.5 Gb/s type: N/A serial: rev: 3B01
scheme: MBR
ID-2: /dev/sdb maj-min: 8:16 vendor: Kingston model: SA400S37120G
size: 111.79 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s
type: SSD serial: rev: 71E0 scheme: MBR
ID-3: /dev/sdc maj-min: 8:32 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 850 EVO 250GB
size: 232.89 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s
type: SSD serial: rev: 2B6Q scheme: MBR
ID-4: /dev/sdd maj-min: 8:48 vendor: Samsung model: SSD 860 EVO 500GB
size: 465.76 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B logical: 512 B speed: 3.0 Gb/s
type: SSD serial: rev: 4B6Q
Partition:
ID-1: / raw-size: 111.79 GiB size: 109.47 GiB (97.93%)
used: 71.96 GiB (65.7%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sdb1 maj-min: 8:17
Swap:
Alert: No swap data was found.
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 44.0 C mobo: N/A gpu: radeon temp: 37.0 C
Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
Processes: 270 Uptime: 1h 2m wakeups: 20 Memory: 11.68 GiB
used: 1.94 GiB (16.6%) Init: systemd v: 251 default: graphical
tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.2.0 clang: 14.0.6 Packages: 1510
pm: pacman pkgs: 1499 libs: 449 tools: gnome-software,pamac pm: flatpak
pkgs: 0 pm: snap pkgs: 11 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16 running-in: gnome-terminal
inxi: 3.3.23
I just thought that I’d share this little tidbit I found that seems to describe this bug:
https://www.reddit.com/r/firefox/comments/z1pnw6/libx11_1822_causes_firefox_107_to_freeze_under/
So it sounds like it’s an error with libx11 1.8.2. Hopefully it will get fixed soon.