Ubuntu
firefox package

How to kill "Non-responding" programe?(e.g.Firefox)

Asked by Navin Talati

The OS is Ubuntu 12.10 (Quantal Quetzal) in my machine. The internet browser is Firefox. Recently I am facing its problem of non-responding for last some 15 days or so. While initiating for launching, it gives warning/message as under:
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'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"
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Shutting down and Restarting the system is not solving the problem. Sometimes it may solves the problem but most of the times it fails to give results. I am also regularly updating and upgrading the system. My questions are:
(1). What may be the cause for this happening?
(2). How to kill this process?
(3). Which commands are to be run to solve this issue this time and for future? Could the same commands be applicable for any such processes?
(4). "Remove" and then "Install" again the Firefox through USC will solve the issue? OR Is this the proper way to resolve this problem?
Kindly guide and oblige.
Thanking you all in anticipation.
Navin Talati / 20-11-2012
Navin Talati

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Navin Talati
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N1ck 7h0m4d4k15 (nicktux) said : 		#1

Hi

you can open a terminal (CTRL+ALT+T) and give this command

~$ killall <program name>

eg:

~$ killall firefox

Thanks

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Navin Talati (n-m-talati) said : 		#2

sir,
Thanks for the prompt reply and the command. It will be very much useful to me in future also. Somehow, since today again the firefox started working as usual by itself. This is for your information. If the same thing will happen in future, I shell apply the stuff sent by you.
Once again many many thanks.
Navin Talati /21-11-2012

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VanillaMozilla (vanillamozilla) said : 		#3

This can happen for at least two reasons, and in neither case is it necessary to kill the process.

1. If you click rapidly on the Firefox icon two or more times when you are trying to start it, you are attempting to open multiple processes, which is not allowed. This is a Linux problem, not a Firefox problem. Just click once, or click twice if you have your system set to require double clicking. This most often happens with older, slower computers.

2. If you were just running Firefox, it may be cleaning up some data in the background. In some cases it may take a few minutes to finish what it is doing. In this case it would appear to "fix itself".