Firefox crashes on start with segmentation fault

Have you first checked for a corrupt Firefox profile?

If you could close all instances of Firefox and the in Terminal and type:

firefox -ProfileManager

You should now see the Profile Manager window

Then click on the 'Create Profile...' button to start the 'Create Profile Wizard'. Click 'Next' and enter a descriptive name for the new profile. Click Finish to have Firefox create the new profile. You should now be taken back to the Profile Manager and the newly created profile should be listed. Select it and click 'Start Firefox'.

Could you please tell me if you still have the same crash?

Note: you can go back to your own profile by starting Firefox using the command firefox -ProfileManager again, selecting your own profile, and clicking on 'Start Firefox'.

Thank you for reporting this to Ubuntu. Could you please generate an apport crash report for this?
You can enable apport for one instance like this:
sudo service apport start force_start=1

I am marking this invalid as apport will open a new bug when the crash is generated. If it does not, you can reset the status of this one to New and we will try something else.

For me this issue could be fixed by removing compreg.dat. Starting it with the profile manager didn't help, it again crashed after selecting the very same profile.
(note: in my case a hard freeze was the probable cause for the corruption.)

Creating a new profile partly solves the issue. The error:

(firefox:3803): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times

is still reported in the terminal but Firefox no longer segfaults.

Apport didn't display its crash reporting window when Firefox crashed, but I have attached the /var/crash file generated by it.

This bug appears to be caused by a corrupt profile, but that profile would appear to have been corrupted by the update to Firefox yesterday. Surely Firefox shouldn't just quit like that but should do something useful?

After using the new profile for a few minutes, it appears the problem was not due to my previous profile. The crash is caused when visiting certain websites (GMail among them, for example). As I had GMail open in a tab when I started Firefox, this caused the crash on start-up. Creating a completely new profile, starting Firefox with that profile, and visiting GMail causes the same crash and same errors as before. An Apport report for this crash (ie. with a totally blank profile) can be provided if that helps.

Please set firefox to prompt for a profile, generate the crash in your main profile, then when apport asks you to submit, select the clean profile to submit it in.

BTW, firefox -ProfileManager will give you the option to always prompt for a profile.

Apport never asks me to submit a report. It never appears or prompts
me in any way when Firefox crashes. Please tell me if I'm doing
something wrong here:

rob@rob-desktop:~$ sudo service apport start force_start=1
[sudo] password for rob:
apport start/running
rob@rob-desktop:~$ firefox -ProfileManager

(firefox:3416): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times

(firefox:3416): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times

(firefox:3416): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times
Segmentation fault (core dumped)
rob@rob-desktop:~$

A crash file is created in /var/crash but I am not prompted to submit a report.

On 10/01/2010, Micah Gersten <email address hidden> wrote:
> BTW, firefox -ProfileManager will give you the option to always prompt
> for a profile.
>
> --
> Firefox crashes on start with segmentation fault
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/505186
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “firefox-3.5” package in Ubuntu: New
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: firefox-3.5
>
> When starting Firefox, the following error is received:
>
> (firefox:4395): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times
> Segmentation fault (core dumped)
>
> The core dump is attached.
>
> Starting Firefox in safe mode provides no help - it still crashes.
> Occasionally it gets as far as part of the GUI appearing (although there are
> plenty of bits missing) before crashing. Other times it doesn't appear at
> all.
>
> This problem only appeared after the update to Firefox this morning.
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.5/+bug/505186/+subscribe
>

--
<email address hidden>
<email address hidden> (PGP Key: 0xF6820E97)

Now you can use ubuntu-bug /path/to/crash to submit the report. You
might have to copy the crash file out of /var/crash into a dir that you
have read permissions on so that you can submit it. Please remember to
select the profile that won't crash when submitting.
Thanks.

On 01/10/2010 02:39 PM, Rob Valkass wrote:
> Apport never asks me to submit a report. It never appears or prompts
> me in any way when Firefox crashes. Please tell me if I'm doing
> something wrong here:
>
> rob@rob-desktop:~$ sudo service apport start force_start=1
> [sudo] password for rob:
> apport start/running
> rob@rob-desktop:~$ firefox -ProfileManager
>
> (firefox:3416): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times
>
> (firefox:3416): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times
>
> (firefox:3416): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times
> Segmentation fault (core dumped)
> rob@rob-desktop:~$
>
> A crash file is created in /var/crash but I am not prompted to submit a
> report.
>
>

The Apport-submitted bug is located here:

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.5/+bug/505857

Hi, I've got the same problem and wanted to read out the bug with your solution however it looks like it is marked as private - is there a way to get an insight into #505857 ?

Or even better a solution ?

I attempted to make the bug public but was shot down for it. The bug was
then made private again. Maybe someone will come along and make it public at
some point in the future.

<email address hidden>
<email address hidden> (PGP Key: 0xF6820E97)

On 24 April 2010 12:39, benste
<<email address hidden><Benedict.Stein%<email address hidden>>
> wrote:

> *** This bug is a duplicate of bug 505857 ***
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/505857
>
> Hi, I've got the same problem and wanted to read out the bug with your
> solution however it looks like it is marked as private - is there a way
> to get an insight into #505857 ?
>
> Or even better a solution ?
>
> --
> Firefox crashes on start with segmentation fault
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/505186
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “firefox-3.5” package in Ubuntu: New
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: firefox-3.5
>
> When starting Firefox, the following error is received:
>
> (firefox:4395): GLib-WARNING **: g_set_prgname() called multiple times
> Segmentation fault (core dumped)
>
> The core dump is attached.
>
> Starting Firefox in safe mode provides no help - it still crashes.
> Occasionally it gets as far as part of the GUI appearing (although there are
> plenty of bits missing) before crashing. Other times it doesn't appear at
> all.
>
> This problem only appeared after the update to Firefox this morning.
>
> To unsubscribe from this bug, go to:
>
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/firefox-3.5/+bug/505186/+subscribe
>

I've got this same problem. Apport doesn't report anything even when creating new firefox profiles. I have followed the same steps as in post #9 above.

I don't know correct fix for firefox, but logging out of my Gmail acct, did get rid of the problem. I left my home page set to www.google.com, I just have to remember to logout b4 closing firefox.

Symptom: starting firefox, from a fresh boot, with apport enabled, gives no error report generated, and firefox closes without any info.

Resolution for now: log out of gmail prior to restarting computer.