# Firefox on a Crash Course!!!

## mdshort

Guys, you gotta help me.

Firefox DIES whenever I visit certain websites or view certain parts of pages.  I have NO time to see exactly what it was that crashed firefox.  It's driving me absolutely insane, TODAY I FELT AT HOME ON M$ IE!! *faints*

Seriously, it just dies, brings the whole firefox executable down.  There are no browser windows open after it crashes.  I tried clearing out my /.mozilla/ (anything to get it to work).

I'm desperate,

-Mike

----------

## Mit

Try running it from a console and looking at what it says there. I've come across a few horrible IE only type sites that just killed my Firefox, some flash / media was something else (i'm trying to use mplayerplug-in)

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## mdshort

Ran it from console:

/usr/bin/firefox: line 88: 11027 Segmentation fault      $mozbin "$@"

----------

## Mit

Any sites in particular doing this?

Over agressive compiling?

Tried the firefox-bin ebuild (or firefox itself if you already use the bin)

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## mdshort

I'll try firefox-bin tonite.

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## mdshort

Argh!

/usr/bin/firefox: line 88: 11659 Segmentation fault      $mozbin "$@"

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## Mit

What site u using to try that on (PM if u don't want to post in public)

Is it a module you've got installed... or an extension or something causing problems?

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## servo888

Please post your system specs. If your in a 64bit envoirment firefox will segfault if you use 32bit plugins. I'm taking my bets one of your plugins is shot and that's what causing the segfaults. 

PS: If you emerge firefox-bin, execute it with firefox-bin not just firefox, because running just firefox will simply run the compiled firefox. Also get rid of all your plugins, and install each one - one by one to rule out plugin failure. 

cheers

----------

## mdshort

Alright I'll try that.

EDIT, now that I think of it, I only really have one plugin, flash (netscape-flash) 7.

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## rOss^64

 *mdshort wrote:*   

> Alright I'll try that.
> 
> EDIT, now that I think of it, I only really have one plugin, flash (netscape-flash) 7.

 

do you have composite enabled in your xorg.conf that killed my firefox. removed it works fine now.

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## matlj

Exactly the same problem here. It affects all the gecko apps (mozilla 1.7.5, firefox and epiphany). 

I re-emerged mozilla-firefox with no CFLAGS & CXXFLAGS, same thing. 

I emptied the mozilla plugin directory, same thing.

I removed all extensions, same thing.

I am on gentoo 2004.3, with gcc 3.4 on an athlon-xp.

As an exemple site, go to ndiswrapper.sf.net and click the wiki link on the top-right. It crashes everytime with the same mozbin error..

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## Mit

 *matlj wrote:*   

> Exactly the same problem here. It affects all the gecko apps (mozilla 1.7.5, firefox and epiphany). 
> 
> I re-emerged mozilla-firefox with no CFLAGS & CXXFLAGS, same thing. 
> 
> I emptied the mozilla plugin directory, same thing.
> ...

 

Works for me, with Firefox (Gnome 2. :Cool: , Gentoo 2004.3, gcc 3.4.3.

Check plugins (disable any and try again) - i don't have many and also as someone else suggested, checking composite might be an idea, used to crash OO.o on another machine of mine.

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## kgilmer

I'm having the same "$" mozbin issue with Mozilla, Firefox, Firefox-bin, and Epiphany.  Almost all sites crash.  I've seen several postings around the net with similiar problems.  Some fixes involved Freetype, font permission issues, , mozilla plugin issues, and USE/make.conf configuration settings.  I've tried them all with no help.  I am only able to run firefox as root.  I've just upgraded gnome to a non masked version to ensure that wasn't it, but it's not.  For reference, I run firefox (or others), the window loads, my user-cpu load goes to 100%...it tries to load my homepage (www.angelshare.org), and then crashes:

kgilmer@T40 kgilmer $ firefox

No running windows found

/usr/bin/firefox: line 392:  8925 Segmentation fault      $mozbin "$@"

kgilmer@T40 kgilmer $

Any additional advice or suggestions greatly appriciated!   :Smile: 

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## sarumont

Try downgrading your freetype to 2.1.5-r1.

https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?p=1936780

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## kgilmer

Hi Sarumont,

  Thanks for your suggestion.  Yes, I've seen that post as well and verified I've the "correct" version of freetype:

```
root@T40 kgilmer # emerge --search "^freetype"

Searching...

[ Results for search key : ^freetype ]

[ Applications found : 1 ]

*  media-libs/freetype

      Latest version available: 2.1.5-r1

      Latest version installed: 2.1.5-r1

      Size of downloaded files: 830 kB

      Homepage:    http://www.freetype.org/

      Description: A high-quality and portable font engine

      License:     || ( FTL GPL-2 )

[1]+  Done                    firefox

root@T40 kgilmer #
```

Thanks for your time and please let me know if you have other ideas.

-Ken

----------

## wirwzd

In your shell enter:

```
ulimit -c unlimited
```

This will allow coreing for that shell session.

Launch firefox from that shell  and make it crash. Is there a core?

Run the following to verify where it came from:

```
file core
```

My guess is it'll be from firefox-bin.  If so run:

```
gdb /usr/lib/MozillaFirefox/firefox-bin core
```

At the gdb prompt type "bt" and post the results.

Note this may not produce useful info unless firefox is recompiled with the -g cflag and -fomit-frame-pointer is removed from your cflags if it is present.

----------

## mdshort

If this isn't fixed soon I'm going to start using Netscape.

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## wirwzd

 *mdshort wrote:*   

> If this isn't fixed soon I'm going to start using Netscape.

 

Were you able to generate a backtrace?

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## kgilmer

I'm only able run 

```
ulimit
```

 as root:

```
kgilmer@T40 kgilmer $ ulimit -u unlimited

-bash: ulimit: max user processes: cannot modify limit: Operation not permitted
```

And, firefox (binary or source distrib...they both behave the same) works as root.  How else can I force a core file as a regular user?

On a positive note, since I updated gnome, my screen backlight turns off rather than the screen just displaying a black color.

Thanks again guys/girls for your help with this problem!  I could run firefox as root forever I guess but that just doesn't sit well w/ me...

----------

## vivpr

I see this happening whenever I access www.gentoo.org, all the time. It happens *even* when I run as root.

Here are my system specs:

Freetype 2.1.5r1

Glibc 2.3.4 (nptl enabled)

Gentoo 2003.4

I have no custom fonts etc. - did a stage 1 install yesterday, and mozilla, firefox and epiphany all crash while accessing certain sites. Now www.gentoo.org uses png, so I suspect that could be the cause - reemerging libpng did not help

----------

## kgilmer

Same regarding versions.  I did a fair amount of gnome tweaking (is that legal?) after installation and was partly assuming that was the issue, but from your experience it seems to be something related to the default system...  My glibc for reference:

```
root@T40 kgilmer # emerge --search "^glibc"

Searching...

[ Results for search key : ^glibc ]

[ Applications found : 1 ]

*  sys-libs/glibc

      Latest version available: 2.3.4.20040808-r1

      Latest version installed: 2.3.4.20040808-r1

      Size of downloaded files: 15,381 kB

      Homepage:    http://sources.redhat.com/glibc/

      Description: GNU libc6 (also called glibc2) C library

      License:     LGPL-2

```

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## wirwzd

 *kgilmer wrote:*   

> I'm only able run 
> 
> ```
> ulimit
> ```
> ...

 

Does ulimit -c unlimited give the same error?  That is what enables coreing.

----------

## Naughtyus

I'm having the same problems.  Any mozilla-based program (inc. Thunderbird) is crashing with almost any use.

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## Dizzutch

do all you guys have Composite Enabled in xorg.conf? i had that and then firefox started crashing, it might be a different problem, but worth a try

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## Naughtyus

I don't think I have it enabled (I can't find any options in the xorg.conf that refer to composite) - what line should I be looking for?

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## Naughtyus

Fixed here by downgrading freetype 2.1.9 to freetype-2.1.5-r1

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## drjimmy42

I definitely don't have it enabled and freetype-2.1.5-r1 stopped the crashes

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## Dizzutch

alright, then you guys have a different problem that I have, good thing you resolved it, i suggest we edit the title

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## DottorFalken

I've the same problem.

```
firefox

No running windows found

/usr/bin/firefox: line 392: 14436 Segmentation fault      $mozbin "$@"

```

But everythings is started when i change read/write permission on my system.

----------

## DottorFalken

I've recompiled libpng and now works fine.

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## antekbob

I was having the exact same problem. google.com wouldn't crash it, gentoo.org would, and the Gentoo forums would throttle the cpu to 100% for a minute and then die. I tried the downgrading freetype idea, and that worked perfectly. Thanks for the tip!

```

emerge "=freetype-2.1.5-r1"

```

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## twstd3bc

 *antekbob wrote:*   

> I was having the exact same problem. google.com wouldn't crash it, gentoo.org would, and the Gentoo forums would throttle the cpu to 100% for a minute and then die. I tried the downgrading freetype idea, and that worked perfectly. Thanks for the tip!
> 
> ```
> 
> emerge "=freetype-2.1.5-r1"
> ...

 

I just removed a bad line from .fonts.conf, and that did it for me.

----------

## kgilmer

I do not have composite enabled.  Well, at least there is no composite assignment in my xorg.conf file.  Also, I am still able to only run firefox as root.  I tried the ol' emerge -Duvat in despiration with no results.  In any case this along with a bunch of small issues (not so small when summed) have pushed me into a rather pricey powerbook purchase.  So, I'm gonna format this machine as XP, give it to my girlfriend, and give OS X a whirl.  I haven't given up on linux on the desktop, but I just have too much else going on at the moment to be messing with this level of problem.  (For me) thanks for everyone's time that tried to help me out.  

-Ken

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## boroshan

Naughtyus: Look for the folloing in xorg.conf

```
Section "Extensions"

    Option "Composite" "Enable"

    Option "RENDER"    "Enable"

EndSection
```

If it's there, composite is enabled. By default it is not, so it's unlikely to be on without you knowing about it.

----------

## mbutomax

Same error:

```

 # mozilla

/usr/bin/mozilla: line 88: 11993 Killed                  $mozbin "$@"

```

This strange behavior is due to an issue related to my mplayerplug-in.

I've recompiled it many times, in many different ways.

The history is:

1st - the browser (both firefox and mozilla) didn't open the video files

2nd - installatin of the mplayerplug-in, but it downloaded the movie till a certain position and never played anything

3rd - deep search in the gentoo forums.

4th - installed the realplayer... same results.

5th - recompile everything (don't remember the right order... browser, plugin, realaudio... probably) same result.

6th - tweak something i really don't remember... (the mplayerplug-in conf... but i found it in the gentoo forum so you can find the infos). OK it got it!!!! .... but it crashed the browser after played the movie.

7th - I read this thread... downgraded the freetype package. Exactly the same.

Does anyone has other things to try??? I'm really getting stucked!!!

A little info... if i use mplayer from the command line and play the URL... TADA!!!! It plays without errors!!! Amazing uh???

----------

## manny15

Mine got better when I downgraded freetype. It doesn't seem to crash on those special sites. But, sometimes mplayerplug-in still crashes it.

net-www/mozilla-firefox-1.0-r3

net-www/mplayerplug-in-2.66

I haven't upgraded to mplayerplug-in-2.70 because it requires gecko-sdk and since I already have mozilla AND firefox, I don't want to add a third set of mozilla libraries  :Sad: 

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## mbutomax

Ops.. sorry I forgot to report the version installed.

net-www/mplayerplug-in-2.70

net-www/mozilla-1.7.5

net-www/mozilla-firefox-1.0-r3

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## nairolf

I had the same problem and checked all suggestions of this topic.

But now I changed my Firefox Theme (previously it was Plastikfox Crystal SVG 1.5.1). Fortunately, the change solved the problem. So it seems that this caused the error on my pc.

----------

## mbutomax

Mine is plastikzilla... ;.) the one for mozilla.

Ok I try to switch the Theme...

----------

## mbutomax

Nop.... nothing... still the same behavior.

The video plays, but at the end it crashes Mozilla with this:

```

/usr/bin/mozilla: line 88:  4798 Killed                  $mozbin "$@"

```

----------

## DottorFalken

the problem is back. without reason!!!

every gecko based apps!!!

----------

## manny15

Yep, mine still crashes when trying to play a video  :Evil or Very Mad: 

mozilla-firefox-1.0-r3

xorg-x11-6.8.1.902

mplayerplug-in-2.70

freetype-2.1.5-r1

I though an upgrade to mplayerplug-in 2.70 would fix it. Arg, that gecko-sdk I didn't want to install took forever, for nothing. Ok, clam down... I wonder it a utility like strace or gdb would provide a hint?

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## manny15

I ran firefox-bin withing gdb. Here's what I got. I ran it like this...

```
gdb /usr/lib/MozillaFirefox/firefox-bin
```

Then I typed in run

```

Starting program: /usr/lib/MozillaFirefox/firefox-bin 

(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...(no debugging symbols found)...[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]

[New Thread -1217173824 (LWP 26272)]

[New Thread -1220047952 (LWP 26276)]

[New Thread -1240667216 (LWP 26277)]

[New Thread -1249092688 (LWP 26278)]

[New Thread -1262126160 (LWP 26279)]

[Thread -1262126160 (LWP 26279) exited]

[New Thread -1262126160 (LWP 26280)]

[New Thread -1276150864 (LWP 26281)]

Detaching after fork from child process 26282.

[Thread -1262126160 (LWP 26280) exited]

[Thread -1240667216 (LWP 26277) exited]

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.

[Switching to Thread -1276150864 (LWP 26281)]

0xb7c70c52 in gtk_check_menu_item_get_active ()

   from /usr/lib/libgtk-x11-2.0.so.0

```

The fork process (26282) was mplayer. After the movie clip finished playing, firefox froze, it didn't actually crash. I think mplayer was the process that received the seg fault, since firefox was still showing, though it was not responding.

----------

## boroshan

looks like you have enough info to raise a bug report

----------

## mbutomax

But the strange think is that:

if i run mplayer with the link that crashes in the browser, it plays it well and without errors.

----------

## boroshan

A bug in net-www/mplayerplug-in perhaps then?

I could be tempted to submit it to the gentoo bugzilla and let the devs figure it out.

----------

## manny15

I posted a bug report here

----------

## DottorFalken

My last experience...

```
neo@nebuchadnezzar neo $ firefox

No running windows found

Error launching firefox-bin:

There are files in your profile that are owned by a user other than

neo.  firefox-bin can't execute in this condition.  Here are some of

the files that I found:

    /home/neo/.mozilla/firefox/m2c5a1vz.default/.links

You can fix this problem by running the following:

    su -c 'chown -R neo:users /home/neo/.mozilla'

neo@nebuchadnezzar neo $ su -c 'chown -R neo:users /home/neo/.mozilla'

Password:

neo@nebuchadnezzar neo $ firefox

No running windows found

/usr/bin/firefox: line 415:  7931 Segmentation fault      $mozbin "$@"

```

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## DottorFalken

 :Sad: 

```
gdb /usr/bin/firefox

GNU gdb 6.0

Copyright 2003 Free Software Foundation, Inc.

GDB is free software, covered by the GNU General Public License, and you are

welcome to change it and/or distribute copies of it under certain conditions.

Type "show copying" to see the conditions.

There is absolutely no warranty for GDB.  Type "show warranty" for details.

This GDB was configured as "i686-pc-linux-gnu"..."/usr/bin/firefox": not in executable format: File format not recognized

(gdb) run

Starting program:

No executable file specified.

Use the "file" or "exec-file" command.

(gdb) file /opt/firefox/firefox-bin

Reading symbols from /opt/firefox/firefox-bin...(no debugging symbols found)...done.

Using host libthread_db library "/lib/libthread_db.so.1".

(gdb) run

Starting program: /opt/firefox/firefox-bin

warning: Unable to find dynamic linker breakpoint function.

GDB will be unable to debug shared library initializers

and track explicitly loaded dynamic code.

warning: shared library handler failed to enable breakpoint

Program received signal SIG32, Real-time event 32.

0x44da1af3 in ?? ()

(gdb)

```

----------

## manny15

DottorFalken, I have no clue what's causing your problem. But you could try clearing your $HOME/.mozilla/firefox. Make a backup first though.

For those who suspect a problem occurs while playing a video, try upgrading to mplayerplug-in-0.75. I don't know if it's in portage yet, but you can create an ebuild for it quite easily. See this post. So far, it has worked for me.

----------

