When attempting to start Firefox, no new Window or tab will appear, as if the program failed to launch. However, Firefox can clearly be seen running in the System Monitor Overview. Even if i kill that process, and try to launch it again normally, it will still fail to open. Firefox can still be opened through the terminal though, using firefox -p.
“If you already know the solution, then why are you making this post?”
Well, I’m making this post because this really isn’t much of a solution, just a work-around. And besides, i shouldn’t need to open the terminal just to do something i should be able to do with a single click. This issue started occurring about 2 weeks ago, after a system update. I didn’t make a post about it until now, because 1; i wanted to see if i could solve it myself first and 2; This issue only happened sometimes , and wasn’t too big of a deal to me.
Now, after yet another system update, this issue seems to happen any time i initially open Firefox.
Things I’ve already tried:
Re-installing Firefox
Clearing Firefox cache
Deleting all profiles and absolutely resetting everything
Note: Once Firefox has been opened from the terminal properly, it can then be opened from the taskbar/task manager Normally.
I ran firefox in the terminal, and no output was given, but firefox was indeed running, but without any GUI elements appearing at all. Same with firefox -p.
It is to the point which i need to launch Firefox manually from the system installed binary, and sometimes even that won’t work. What i hate most is the inconsistency of this issue.
~ journalctl --boot=-1 --grep 'firefox' --no-pager ✔
Dec 28 15:11:32 user-manjaro systemd[1253]: Started Firefox - Web Browser.
Dec 28 15:11:33 user-manjaro dbus-daemon[1280]: [session uid=1000 pid=1280] Activating via systemd: service name='org.a11y.Bus' unit='at-spi-dbus-bus.service' requested by ':1.59' (uid=1000 pid=2109 comm="/usr/lib/firefox/firefox")
Dec 28 16:41:36 user-manjaro systemd[1253]: app-firefox-1fc0ae6c6c544fca9d62090b817f892d.scope: Consumed 43min 28.303s CPU time.
Dec 28 17:51:49 user-manjaro systemd[1253]: Started Firefox - Web Browser.
Dec 28 18:44:31 user-manjaro systemd[1253]: app-firefox-c2bfe293f9fe400f807deded1563be75.scope: Consumed 22min 11.649s CPU time.
Dec 28 20:33:20 user-manjaro systemd[1253]: Started Firefox - Web Browser.
Dec 28 20:37:01 user-manjaro systemd[1253]: app-firefox-2f6665fc22da4e418bd01d6d1c063ae3.scope: Consumed 1min 14.667s CPU time.
Dec 28 20:46:28 user-manjaro systemd[1253]: Started Firefox - Web Browser.
Dec 28 22:18:06 user-manjaro systemd[1253]: app-firefox-efb30665c6cd41f4a709960dd4ab64eb.scope: Consumed 40min 52.094s CPU time.
~
The dates are all from the 28th because i did a system cleanup and deleted old logs. I didn’t think they would be relevant to this issue. Right now the issue seems to come and go. Firefox is working fine right now, but for all i know it might not work properly tomorrow.
Here’s the output from the command. This time though, i ran the command right after i witnessed the issue occur.
~ journalctl --boot=-1 --grep 'firefox' --no-pager ✔
Dec 29 03:19:16 user-manjaro systemd[1297]: Started Firefox - Web Browser.
Dec 29 03:19:17 user-manjaro dbus-daemon[1324]: [session uid=1000 pid=1324] Activating via systemd: service name='org.a11y.Bus' unit='at-spi-dbus-bus.service' requested by ':1.61' (uid=1000 pid=2238 comm="/usr/lib/firefox/firefox")
Dec 29 04:39:11 user-manjaro systemd[1297]: app-firefox-99346b6c077c4c2dbaa24c6501d0e975.scope: Consumed 34min 29.406s CPU time.
Dec 29 05:28:50 user-manjaro systemd[1297]: Started Firefox - Web Browser.
Dec 29 09:52:21 user-manjaro systemd[1297]: app-firefox-78cc5c62ce384a9db0230b1516e4d36d.scope: Consumed 53min 37.050s CPU time.
Dec 29 09:57:48 user-manjaro systemd[1297]: Started Firefox - Web Browser.
Dec 29 10:32:19 user-manjaro systemd[1297]: app-firefox-48180b7df2194a70b136c427a1569fe2.scope: Consumed 29min 20.506s CPU time.
Dec 29 13:29:39 user-manjaro systemd[1297]: Started Firefox - Web Browser.
Dec 29 15:53:08 user-manjaro systemd[1297]: app-firefox-6a58adcbe33041e4b892a9354248be04.scope: Consumed 40min 35.386s CPU time.
Hmmm…OK, I don’t see anything. But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing there. Other people might see something I don’t, so thanks. But since it’s kind of obscured, let’s see what we catch if we broaden the net a little. Please provide the output of:
journalctl --boot=-1 --priority=4 --no-pager
Where:
The --boot= arguments limits the scope of the logs to the previous boot, -1. Feel free to adjust it to -2 for the boot before that, -3 for the one before that, and so on, and so forth. Adjust it to the last boot this occurred.
The --priority=4 argument limits the output to be only warnings and errors.
The --no-pager argument you remember from previously. Probably.
If this doesn’t reveal anything extra, there’s possibly something else we can try to figure it out, but I’m completely unsure if it’ll reveal anything.
Alright, here’s the output log. It’s quite the long one.
I just want to say; thank you for taking the time to explain what the command arguments do, it really helps make things more clear and I’m learning things along the way
I didn’t see anything Firefox related in the output, but like you said, somebody else might see something we don’t.