Mozilla Firefox crashing out on opening

Hello Cara Whealan,

Perhaps it is not your flash plugins, but your java-plugins.
Would you mind to tell us, what are the web sites that make your firefox crash?
I will try it on my firefox.

And also, I need the output of this command from your terminal program (Applications > Accessories > Terminal):
firefox --version

Looking forward for your information...

Hi Luky,

Re: Websites travisperkins.co.uk won't work
neither will insubordinknit.com

however amazon.co.uk works fine.
Does that help?

Re: Command line. The response was: Mozilla Firefox 3.6.16, Copyright (c) 1998 - 2011 mozilla.org

Thanks,
Cara

I have been trying travisperkins.co.uk on my Firefox and it's fine.

My firefox version is
Mozilla Firefox 3.6.17, Copyright (c) 1998 - 2011 mozilla.org

Perhaps you should update your firefox to the newer one.

Update:
Scratch that remark about Amazon being OK. Just threw me out as I tried to login, specifically as I hit submit for my username and password, previously I was browsing and that was fine.
C

H Luky,
Thanks for your message. Can I update Firefox via synaptic? I had a search in Synaptic for "firefox" and there are lots of bits and bobs in there. I wasn't sure how to select the right files to upgrade. Any tips?

Thanks,
Cara

Hi Cara,

Sure you can update firefox via synaptic. But , I would like to update via terminal program. Run this command:
sudo apt-get install firefox-3.6

Please.. give it a try...

After your firefox has been update, try to visit some sites that make your firefox crash before.
Have a nice try...

I tried as you suggested:

cara@cara-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get install firefox-3.6
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
E: Couldn't find package firefox-3.6
cara@cara-laptop:~$

Why would this be? Any thoughts?
Thanks for your help.
Cara

Hmm... I'm really forget that you're running Ubuntu 8.04

Let's see.... how about like this one
cara@cara-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get install firefox

Cool,

cara@cara-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get install firefox
[sudo] password for cara:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
firefox is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
cara@cara-laptop:~$

Hi Cara,

It looks like you have installed the latest version of firefox. So, did your problem has been solved yet?

Hiya,
No still the same.
Any thoughts?
Cara

Hmm... I think, the best way is to rename your mozilla firefox profile then create the new one.
Is it okay? Because, if you do this, you will loosing your bookmarks, history, and addons.
Your mozilla firefox profile is on your home directory.

Open your nautilus, then press CTRL+H, you will see the hidden file. Then, search for directory named with .mozilla (with dot)
You can rename it into .mozilla-backup or something. Then run your firefox.

Hiya,
I did as you suggested and renamed the .mozilla folder, then ran the instruction to install firefox from the command line. This time firefox did reinstall. The version is now 3.6.17. I restarted the laptop and tried but still having the same problem accessing websites.

Thanks for being so helpful so far. I am learning a lot as we go which is all good for the future.

Any thoughts about what to try next?

Thanks,
Cara

Hi Cara,

I'm really sorry, I've been busy lately.
Would you mind give the output of this command from your terminal:
ls .mozilla*

The output will tell us the list of content of .mozilla directory
Thank you...

Yay! You're still there, great.

cara@cara-laptop:~$ ls .mozilla*
.mozilla:
extensions firefox

.mozilla_backup:
appreg extensions firefox

.mozilla-thunderbird:
profiles.ini qc9p39r4.default
cara@cara-laptop:~$

Hows that?

Cara

It seems normal to me.
Okay.. let's add ppa mozilla security in your repository.

Open your terminal program, then let's play some commands:
Add this signing key from mozilla security team:
sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 7EBC211F

Open your sources.list:
sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list

Then, add repository of mozilla security team:
deb http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa/ubuntu hardy main
deb-src http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mozilla-security/ppa/ubuntu hardy main

Save it by pressing CTRL+X then 'y' for yes

Still on your terminal program, run this command:
sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade

If I'm not wrong, your mozilla firefox will be upgrade to the new one.
Try that.. and let's see the result.. looking forward for the result...

Hi,
I think I've done that right, but I'm not sure that the new version of Firefox installed. It doesn't seem to have changed and this is how the command line read at the end.

cara@cara-laptop:~$ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 7EBC211F
[sudo] password for cara:
Executing: gpg --ignore-time-conflict --no-options --no-default-keyring --secret-keyring /etc/apt/secring.gpg --trustdb-name /etc/apt/trustdb.gpg --keyring /etc/apt/trusted.gpg --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 7EBC211F
gpg: requesting key 7EBC211F from hkp server keyserver.ubuntu.com
gpg: key 7EBC211F: "Launchpad PPA for Ubuntu Mozilla Security Team" not changed
gpg: Total number processed: 1
gpg: unchanged: 1
cara@cara-laptop:~$ sudo nano /etc/apt/sources.list
cara@cara-laptop:~$

I am enjoying learning so, if I have done this wrong, I'll be happy to try again if you can explain.
Thanks,
Cara

I'm not sure that the new version of firefox installed.

Hi,

I think I missed something here. Try to open your firefox from your terminal. Then visit some sites that make your firefox crash. If your firefox suddenly crash and exit, you will get some messages on terminal. Copy all the output then paste here.

To open your firefox from terminal just type "firefox" without quotes.
Looking forward for your information...

Hi,
Here we go:

cara@cara-laptop:~$ firefox
Segmentation fault
cara@cara-laptop:~$ firefox
Segmentation fault
cara@cara-laptop:~$ firefox
Segmentation fault
cara@cara-laptop:~$ firefox

Cara

Hello,
Was just experimenting. Tried reinstalling Java 6 plugin - no change with firefox. Then tried to see if the new firefox would install.

cara@cara-laptop:~$ firefox --version
Mozilla Firefox 3.6.17, Copyright (c) 1998 - 2011 mozilla.org
cara@cara-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get install firefox
[sudo] password for cara:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
firefox is already the newest version.
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  java-common unixodbc odbcinst1debian1
Use 'apt-get autoremove' to remove them.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 28 not upgraded.
cara@cara-laptop:~$ apt-get autoremove
E: Could not open lock file /var/lib/dpkg/lock - open (13 Permission denied)
E: Unable to lock the administration directory (/var/lib/dpkg/), are you root?
cara@cara-laptop:~$

Not sure why I don't have user permissions to remove java-thing.
Thought according to Firefox website there is a new version but command line says there's not.
Also tried creating a new user. Same problem with Firefox with a new user.

Is this helpful?

Cara

Just realised I have to use sudo,

OK so I've used this to remove the unwanted Java package. Back where I started again now.

For the record this is what I did:
cara@cara-laptop:~$ sudo apt-get autoremove
[sudo] password for cara:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
The following packages were automatically installed and are no longer required:
  java-common unixodbc odbcinst1debian1
The following packages will be REMOVED
  java-common odbcinst1debian1 unixodbc
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 3 to remove and 28 not upgraded.
After this operation, 1462kB disk space will be freed.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
(Reading database ... 203839 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing java-common ...
Removing unixodbc ...
Removing odbcinst1debian1 ...
Processing triggers for libc6 ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place
cara@cara-laptop:~$

Learning....
Cara

Hi I just noticed that actually utube doesn't work and so I should check the version of Flash.
I tried

flash --version

and I get

The program 'flash' is currently not installed. You can install it by typing:
sudo apt-get install kmd

I tried

sudo apt-get install flash

and I get

E: Couldn't find package flash

Am I used the wrong name? or command? or something else?

C

Hi,

Those information are very helpful.
If you wan to install flash player, try to install like this one:

First, remove flashplugin-nonfree:
sudo apt-get remove --purge flashplugin-nonfree

Then install again with:
sudo apt-get install flashplugin-nonfree

Then try to open your firefox from terminal again...

Hi,
Thanks for that. I un, and reinstalled flash in the way you suggested.
This has had no impact on the segmentation fault or crashing and closing after reaching websites.
Interestingly utube still says I can't view films without upgrading my flash player, does this suggest that the flash player hasn't upgraded?
I have saved the text of the complete process in the command line, but as its long, I won't post it here unless you specifically request it.

Not sure where to go from here.
Cara

YaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaY!

It works!
Amazing.
Thanks for all your help, I've learned loads and am much happier.

You're most welcome...

Let's learn more from the problem.

-Luky-