416348 - FF refuses to open more browser windows "Firefox is already running.." until closed completely (not parentlock problem) - FF3b2/b3

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 401301

(Toolkit :: Startup and Profile System, defect)

Description

[IlkkaP]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9b2) Gecko/2007121120 Firefox/3.0b2
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.0; en-US; rv:1.9b2) Gecko/2007121120 Firefox/3.0b2

Today I had problems launching new FF windows.
I had 3 FF windows already open so one more should not be a problem.
Instead I got "Firefox is already running...". 
The other instances of FF worked ok. Just could not launch another window.

After closing all the FF windows (firefox.exe terminated), everything came back to normal.. but I got curious and found a simple repro for that behavior.
I agree, mine is not a common case at all, but could help to ping down the firefox.exe termination problem.


Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
0. Close all FF windows
1. Launch FF from icon or whatever
2. Now, launch another FF from the icon (see step 3 first)
3. While the new window is still opening (not yet visible), press ALT+F4 while looking the FF window already open (step 1).
4. Now there should be two FF open
5. Try to launch another -> "Firefox is still running"

Actual Results:  
"Firefox is already running..."

Expected Results:  
A nice fresh new window

I have a memory dump if that can help.

Comment 1

[IlkkaP]

Attachment: Print screen when this problem happens

Comment 2

[IlkkaP]

Also the FF3 beta 3 has the same problem.

Comment 3

[IlkkaP]

What it is worth, also FF3B4 has the same problem.

Comment 4

[IlkkaP]

Happens also with FF3RC2.

Comment 5

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

IlkkaP, do you still encounter this problem?  Did you determine the cause?

Comment 6

[Mikael Willberg]

Just noticed the same thing after upgrading the browser, Firefox 3.6.15. But I use multiple profiles at the same time which might have some impact on the issue.

When the browser window is open, I can open new window from the file menu. Trying to launch new window from shortcut icon just shows "Firefox is already running.." dialog.

I CAN launch ONE windowfrom shortcuts for every profile "-no-remote -P test", but after that "Firefox is already running.." dialog appears.


If I forcefully close the file handle and delete the parent.lock I can open another window. It seems that the program just checks the lock and doesn't open new windows as it did with earlier versions.


This is really annoying as I this renders firefox icon useless.

Comment 7

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Mikael, -no-remote will cause what you describe.  -no-remote is intended as a tool for testing and as such issues like this are design restrictions/don't work. see also http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_in_use#Common_causes

Comment 8

[Mikael Willberg]

I have other installations and there it works, launching the link without "-no-remote" just opens another window.

On one computer, launching default shortcut complains "...already running...". I suspect that the upgrading process has done something weird, as there were multiple profiles active at that time.

Comment 9

[Mikael Willberg]

More about issue. I have "Restore tabs on startup" option enabled, but still there was something weird going on with saved session or something. 

- Close tabs and exit
- Restarting opened old tabs to A,B,C,D
- Close tabs and exit
- Restarting opened old tabs to E,F,G,H
- Close tabs and exit
- Restarting opened old tabs to I,J,K,L
- Close tabs and exit
- Restaring started with empty browser (I have no home page)

After that I no longer get that "Firefox is already..." message when launching from icon.