Comment 0 for bug 1226952

You need a secret extra option if you want to run the Firefox profile manager.

Steps to repro:

bash$ firefox -ProfileManager &

Expected outcome:

Profile manager dialog box

Actual outcome:

New Firefox browser window in your current default profile

Workaround:

bash$ firefox -u bugger -ProfileManager &

The -u option is not visible e.g. in firefox --help output, but somehow it actually exists, and allows you to work around this problem (can't remember where I discovered it, Google no doubt?).

I'm sorry if this is a duplicate, this problem has existed since basically forever but I was unable to find a report in Launchpad.

bash$ lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 12.04.3 LTS
Release: 12.04

bash$ apt-cache policy firefox
firefox:
  Installed: 24.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
  Candidate: 24.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
  Version table:
 *** 24.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.04.1 0
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-security/main amd64 Packages
        500 http://mirrors.nic.funet.fi/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     23.0+build2-0ubuntu0.12.04.1 0
        500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise-updates/main amd64 Packages
     11.0+build1-0ubuntu4 0
        500 http://fi.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ precise/main amd64 Packages