What do you do if Firefox refuses to start? The error dialog says "Firefox is already running but not responding." I've run into this problem a few times recently. There is no Firefox process running, but it won't start.
Solution: Delete the .parentlock file in one of the subdirectories of the .mozilla directory.
Apparently this fix is described in the Mozilla 1.5 troubleshooting guide, but a search with the text of the error message didn't produce any useful results.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
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Good news, Netscape 4 already had the same problem :-P
Hi. I googled for info on the .parentlock file in firefox and came across this page.
If firefox.exe isn't listed in taskmanager then the command 'taskkill firefox.exe' at the command prompt should kill firefox.
The command pmon after installing the resourse kit should list all running processes.
Deleting .parentlock should allow you to restart firefox.
For Unix/Linux/Mac users ps -e will list running processes. The number in the very left column of firefox-bin is the PID the command kill and the PID for firefox-bin will kill firefox.
Hi. I googled for info on the .parentlock file in firefox and came across this page.
If firefox.exe isn't listed in taskmanager then the command 'taskkill firefox.exe' at the command prompt should kill firefox.
The command pmon after installing the resourse kit should list all running processes.
Deleting .parentlock should allow you to restart firefox.
For Unix/Linux/Mac users ps -e will list running processes. The number in the very left column of firefox-bin is the PID. The command kill and the PID for firefox-bin will kill firefox.
This seems to happen quite frequently with my Fedora Linux install. Anytime the computer needs a restart or is shut down unexpectedly this problem occurs. This same fix works for Thunderbird, Mozilla's email client. However, Thunderbird doesn't even offer you an error message, it just starts loading and then stops.
I set up a script that will go out and delete .parentlock at startup. The problem is that this doesn't seem to help. Firefox (and Thunderbird) will still give me the is already running but not responding message even though it is the first time I've started the program after booting up. If I navigate to the directory where the profile is, I don't see either lock or .parentlock and then I can start the programs.
There has got to be a way to be able to start these programs without going through all these shenanigans.
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