Firefox fails to open

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bearclaw@cruller.invalid - 03 May 2007 11:36 GMT

Since the last system update, Firefox silently fails to launch. It fails
when launched from from the dock and when double-clicked in the
applications folder.

Any suggestions? TIA.

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Gregory Weston - 03 May 2007 12:27 GMT

> Since the last system update, Firefox silently fails to launch. It fails
> when launched from from the dock and when double-clicked in the
> applications folder.
>
> Any suggestions? TIA.

Check the console.log file via /Applications/Utilities/Console.app to
see what messages are being logged. If it references a crash log, look
at that as well.

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bearclaw@cruller.invalid - 06 May 2007 09:36 GMT

> > Since the last system update, Firefox silently fails to launch. It fails
> > when launched from from the dock and when double-clicked in the
[quoted text clipped - 5 lines]
> see what messages are being logged. If it references a crash log, look
> at that as well.

This was an interesting suggestion. I don't know much about the console,
but it did indeed respond when I tried to launch Firefox. I have no idea
what the following means, but I copied it and will paste it here in
hopes that someone can clue me in:

firefox-bin(817,0xa000cfc0) malloc: *** vm_allocate(size=4143611904)
failed (error code=3)
firefox-bin(817,0xa000cfc0) malloc: *** error: can't allocate region
firefox-bin(817,0xa000cfc0) malloc: *** set a breakpoint in szone_error
to debug
terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::bad_alloc'
what(): St9bad_alloc

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bearclaw@cruller.invalid - 06 May 2007 09:46 GMT

> > > Since the last system update, Firefox silently fails to launch. It fails
> > > when launched from from the dock and when double-clicked in the
[quoted text clipped - 18 lines]
> terminate called after throwing an instance of 'std::bad_alloc'
> what(): St9bad_alloc

I also explored Console a little further and found a crash log for
firefox. I saved it to the desktop "firefox-bin.crash.log" but it is
much too large (132 kb) to post here.

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Jolly Roger - 06 May 2007 17:13 GMT

> I also explored Console a little further and found a crash log for
> firefox. I saved it to the desktop "firefox-bin.crash.log" but it is
> much too large (132 kb) to post here.

Send it to jollyroger at pobox dot org and I'll have a look.

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Andy - 03 May 2007 12:46 GMT

> Since the last system update, Firefox silently fails to launch. It fails
> when launched from from the dock and when double-clicked in the
> applications folder.
>
> Any suggestions? TIA.

That's a curly one. The only suggestion from this end is to try
reinstalling Firefox. Sorry.

Which version are (were) you using?

Cheers,

Andy.

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bearclaw@cruller.invalid - 06 May 2007 09:33 GMT

In article
<4639cba8$0$17205$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au>,

> > Since the last system update, Firefox silently fails to launch. It fails
> > when launched from from the dock and when double-clicked in the
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
>
> Which version are (were) you using?

2.0.0.3

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Mike Rosenberg - 03 May 2007 13:39 GMT

> Since the last system update, Firefox silently fails to launch. It fails
> when launched from from the dock and when double-clicked in the
> applications folder.
>
> Any suggestions? TIA.

Does it work from a different user account? That's always a good thing
to try when an app stops working.

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Nigel - 04 May 2007 01:37 GMT

>> Since the last system update, Firefox silently fails to launch. It fails
>> when launched from from the dock and when double-clicked in the
[quoted text clipped - 4 lines]
> Does it work from a different user account? That's always a good thing
> to try when an app stops working.

My experience with Firefox was it would only work in some accounts and not
others and I just had to reinstall it on those accounts to fix it. It gave
a "you do not have permission.." dialog.

Nigel

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bearclaw@cruller.invalid - 06 May 2007 09:32 GMT

> Does it work from a different user account? That's always a good thing
> to try when an app stops working.

I created another user account specifically to try this. Firefox DID
work on new account. Any suggestions on how to transfer the settings
from the old account? Thx in advance.

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Gregory Weston - 06 May 2007 11:26 GMT

> > Does it work from a different user account? That's always a good thing
> > to try when an app stops working.
>
> I created another user account specifically to try this. Firefox DID
> work on new account. Any suggestions on how to transfer the settings
> from the old account? Thx in advance.

In your home directory is a folder named Library and in there one named
Preferences. Inside that should be a file named
org.mozilla.firefox.plist. You can try moving that to the desktop and
then launching FireFox.

The error messages you posted from the console log are fairly bizarre.
It suggests that on launch FireFox is making an attempt to allocate a
single block of memory that is (relatively speaking) almost as large as
the total amount of memory the program is allowed to consume by any
means on your machine. I'm having trouble thinking of a reason a web
browser would need to grab almost 4GB on launch.

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Jamie Kahn Genet - 06 May 2007 14:11 GMT

> Since the last system update, Firefox silently fails to launch. It fails
> when launched from from the dock and when double-clicked in the
> applications folder.
>
> Any suggestions? TIA.

Try deleting the Firefox folder in Library->Application Support,
org.mozilla.firefox.plist from in Library->Preferences, and the Firefox
folder in Library->Caches. You might also want to try reinstalling the
latest version of Firefox in your Applications folder.

Regards,
Jamie Kahn Genet

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bearclaw@cruller.invalid - 07 May 2007 04:36 GMT

> > Since the last system update, Firefox silently fails to launch. It fails
> > when launched from from the dock and when double-clicked in the
[quoted text clipped - 9 lines]
> Regards,
> Jamie Kahn Genet

This worked (the problem was apparently in the cache folder), but I will
have to rebuild all my extensions, add-ons, bookmarks and folders.
Luckily, I kept all my passwords and usernames backed up and I was able
to find a late copy of all my Firefox bookmarks. So I'm back in business
again.

Thx to everyone for their help.

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Jamie Kahn Genet - 07 May 2007 05:55 GMT

> > > Since the last system update, Firefox silently fails to launch. It fails
> > > when launched from from the dock and when double-clicked in the
[quoted text clipped - 17 lines]
>
> Thx to everyone for their help.

Great to hear that :-) Though I guess I ought to have made a point of
mentioning which files to backup. Sorry about that, heh.

Regards,
Jamie Kahn Genet

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Mac Forum / Applications / Mac Applications / May 2007

Firefox fails to open