256750 - at startup, firefox dies, restarts, dies, restarts, dies, restarts, dies, restarts, ad infinitum

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 246789

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect)

Description

[xolaware.llc]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040206 Firefox/0.8
Build Identifier: 0.9.3 release or any 0.9 nightly build or release

i have 3 different macs, have installed firefox 0.9.3 successfully on all of them.

but on this powerbook, i am unable to start firefox.

the icon in the dock bounces, then stops, bounces, then stops.

in Terminal.app, doing a 'ps x', i see that firefox-bin is constantly restarting
with a new PID.  the only way to cause this die/restart cycle to end is to
predict the next PID it will get and then issue 'kill -9 483' before it dies &
restarts to the next one.

i have tried throwing away my entire Library/Firefox folder in case it was a
profile loading issue, but that did not help.  i was even able to put this 0.8
version of firefox back in my Applications folder, restore my Library/Firefox
folder and start 0.8 back up without any problem.

as this issue is specific to this configuration, i can try to set this up in
some fashion for someone to VNC to my machine to see what's going on.  or if
there is a set of files i can stuff/zip/gzip, let me know and i will do that.


Reproducible: Always
Steps to Reproduce:
1. install a 0.9 version of firefox
2. try to start it

Actual Results:  
firefox icon bounces in dock, then stops, then bounces, then stops.  firefox-bin
starts and then starts another process ad infinitum.

Expected Results:  
firefox should start

no other messages.  i will work with anyone that wants to try to work with me on
this machine.

Comment 1

[xolaware.llc]

still dying, even after full restart (just forgot to report this part before) and after throwing away my 
Library/Mozilla & Library/Phoenix folders.  (still have a Library/Thunderbird folder, but hopefully, 
there's zero conflict there).

when i tried one more time, it re-created the Library/Mozilla folder and there now exists a new 
pluginreg.dat therein.  again, the only way to kill the cycle was the same:  'ps x' in Terminal.app and kill 
the PID before it gets to the next one.

Comment 2

[Alastair Mackinlay]

I have been seeing this exact behaviour in all 0.9(.x) releases of Firefox. 0.8 works just fine. I too have 
tried pretty much everything thats been tried here (though using killall is much easier than guessing a 
PID).

Comment 3

[Peter 'vt100' Schwindt]

Reporter, please try using a fresher build - say 0.10PR

I have this behaviour at my mac also - but it seems to work now.

marking as blocking-aviary1.0mac with "?" - maybe someone has a look into this bug

Comment 4

[Hiro]

confirm .
This problem is reproduced from 0.9 releases.

Mac OS X 10.3.5

Comment 5

[Asaf Romano (gone)]

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 246789 ***

Comment 6

[xolaware.llc]

are you certain this is a duplicate?  it would appear that the one it is marked
a duplicate of has to do with the opening of a file from a disc image, whereas
this occurs even after clearing out everything on the system and trying to
install from scratch, then running the app from there.