489981 - Launching Firefox twice quickly reproducibly gives "Firefox is already running" error

Status: UNCONFIRMED

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

[Reported in Launchpad as <http://launchpad.net/bugs/366103>]

Firefox 3.0.9, Ubuntu 9.04

Canonical has begun user testing of Ubuntu and its applications. During our first test, one test subject double-clicked on the Firefox launcher in the panel. She managed to do this at exactly the right/wrong speed to produce a "Close Firefox" error alert: "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system."

I have been unable to reproduce this error using the panel launcher, but it is reproducible from the terminal. Steps to reproduce:
1. In a terminal window, enter "firefox & firefox".

What happens:
* A Firefox window appears.
* A "Close Firefox" error alert appears.

What should happen:
* Two Firefox windows should appear.
* No error alert should appear.

Comment 1

[Black_Ps`]

Sometimes when you start firefox fast to many times on windows it will tell you the same,that it's already  running and you let it like couple of seconds it will work.

Comment 2

[jess]

Sometimes firefox says it is running when it is not.  It comes up randomly. I don't have to click on it repeatedly or fast, I just click on it normally and it says I must close firefox, but there is nothing open and nothing to close.  When I use another browser to go to my home page and then close it, I can open firefox.
Very annoying when it tells me it is busy and I need to close it, and there is nothing to close.  When I try firefox again, I get same message, but when i use another browser and then come back to firefox after closing the other browser, firefox takes me to my home page.

Comment 3

[Bryan Von Dohlen]

I was able to reproduce this error manually on Firefox 9.0.1 using Ubuntu 10.04. I simply double-clicked the Firefox icon twice quicker than I ever normally would, and the Close Firefox error appears: "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system."

Comment 5

[Matthew T (active 1999-2002)]

Bug 401301 is a meta bug report, about Firefox continuing to run after all windows are closed.

This report is about a specific error, that occurs when -no- windows have been closed. It is not a duplicate.

Seven years later, I still see this error frequently, usually after clicking multiple links in an e-mail message or on IRC.

Comment 6

[Axel]

Attachment: Message Box Proposal

Same here.

I'd like to suggest to alter the message box to ...

1. Give a different message.
2. Have the message box check whether the condition still exists once every 500 ms for approx. 5 seconds and auto-close when the condition doesn't apply anymore.
   A progress bar should keep the user informed about the retry count.
   When progress bar reaches 100 % and old Firefox process is still running, progress bar and message part "Waiting for old Firefox process ..." should be hidden.