9

Since I installed ubuntu 22.04 I have the following error message after clicking on a link in thunderbird if firefox is already running (instead of opening the link in a new tab):

Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To use Firefox, you must first close the existing Firefox process, restart your device, or use a different profile.

If firefox isn't running, clicking on the link opens a new firefox instance and displays the corresponding web page.

The helper app for opening links in thunderbird points to /snap/bin/firefox.

The same problem occurs if I try to open a website (in a new tab) from command line for example firefox www.google.com.

I guess it has something to do with the fact that firefox is installed as snap now, but I am not sure.

What can I do, to solve the problem?

user56438
  • 91
  • 2
  • 2
    There seems to be a similar issue with the snap version of thunderbird, see [here](https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/thunderbird/+bug/1980839). – student Sep 03 '22 at 07:56
  • Were you able to find a solution to this? – MadPhysicist Sep 20 '22 at 05:26
  • 1
    This occurs most commonly when there is a delay loading the profile, delay drawing firefox on the screen, or after firefox has crashed. It is not snap-specific. Run `ps -aux | grep firefox`. Note the PID of the firefox process. If firefox still has not started after a few seconds, kill the process and then restart firefox. – user535733 Oct 03 '22 at 14:29
  • 1
    I think we're on to something here: https://discourse.ubuntu.com/t/call-for-testing-native-messaging-support-in-the-firefox-snap/29759/95. cc @MadPhysicist – Sebastian Oct 05 '22 at 11:29
  • Check what `DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS` is set to in your terminal app. That was the problem for me. Which terminal app are you using? – Sebastian Oct 10 '22 at 07:57

2 Answers2

0

I don't believe there is a workaround for this, assuming you'll keep using the snap version from inside Thunderbird.

One idea would be to set up an instance of Firefox non-snap somewhere.

Try this:

cd ~/bin ( or wherever you keep your binaries )

wget https://download-installer.cdn.mozilla.net/pub/firefox/releases/105.0.1/linux-x86_64/en-US/firefox-105.0.1.tar.bz2

tar -xf firefox-105.0.1.tar.bz2

This will download the latest ( at this time ) version and extract it, you will have a ready executable ./firefox in the extraction directory.

Now you can change the helper app pointer to ~/yourdir/firefox-105.0.1/firefox

This instance will self-update as well.

Good luck :)

Giorgos Saridakis
  • 736
  • 1
  • 5
  • 13
  • 1
    I have the same problem as the one asked the question. I tried to install a clean Ubuntu 22.04 in a VM, and there everything worked fine. So something is clearly off somewhere in my (and the OPs) current installation, that has been upgraded from 16.04 -> 18.04, 18.04 -> 20.04 and now 20.04 -> 22.04. – Sebastian Oct 04 '22 at 05:39
  • for me, using the mozilla binary and removing the snap does not resolve the problem. I am using the wayland session of the mozilla binary. Ubuntu 22.10 – Tim Richardson Mar 12 '23 at 00:16
0

I can reproduce your issue in a virtual machine when I unset the DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS environmental variable. This prevents the "firefox" command from correctly connecting to the running window of Firefox. In a default Ubuntu install, the variable is set. In my main machine, which is an upgrade, the variable is not set. Also see this bug report.

As a quick fix, add

export DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS="unix:path=$XDG_RUNTIME_DIR/bus"

to your ~/.profile file, and log out then back in for the variable to take effect.

If after this, the issue still exists, then uninstall and reinstall the snap package.

vanadium
  • 82,909
  • 6
  • 116
  • 186
  • Just as a hint where to look: for me, the problem was that I had overridden `DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS` to empty for my terminal application, to solve https://askubuntu.com/questions/1189243/why-is-terminator-sending-double-characters-to-terminals-that-arent-selected-in some years ago. – Sebastian Oct 10 '22 at 08:00
  • I have this problem with the snap version of Firefox 113 on Ubuntu 22.04, despite my DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS envar being set correctly. I cannot open new tabs or windows to a Firefox profile if it is already running in an open session. I did not have this problem when working with Firefox installed from repositories. – markling May 30 '23 at 08:03