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Firefox 30.0 will not open profiles on my server, only local ones. (Ubuntu 14.04 LTS)

  • 3 replies
  • 2 have this problem
  • 8 views
  • Last reply by ExFido

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I get the dreaded "Profile in use" error any time I try to open a profile that's stored on my network attached file server (it works fine for locally stored profiles).

I get this only under Ubuntu 14.04. I'm also running FF 30.0 under Windows (including in a VMWare virtual Windows machine under Ubuntu) and it works fine.

It's creating a .parentlock file each time, then claiming the profile is in use, then leaving the .parentlock file upon closing the message box. Deleting the .parentlock file by hand doesn't fix it: it creates it again the next time I try to run and again claims the profile is open. This happens for every user and every NAS profile on my system. But again, only under Ubuntu 14.04, not under Windows, and only for profiles on my server, not locally.

I get the dreaded "Profile in use" error any time I try to open a profile that's stored on my network attached file server (it works fine for locally stored profiles). I get this only under Ubuntu 14.04. I'm also running FF 30.0 under Windows (including in a VMWare virtual Windows machine under Ubuntu) and it works fine. It's creating a .parentlock file each time, then claiming the profile is in use, then leaving the .parentlock file upon closing the message box. Deleting the .parentlock file by hand doesn't fix it: it creates it again the next time I try to run and again claims the profile is open. This happens for every user and every NAS profile on my system. But again, only under Ubuntu 14.04, not under Windows, and only for profiles on my server, not locally.

All Replies (3)

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This is mote likely a problem with (write) permissions of files in the Firefox profile folder.

In Firefox 13+ the parent.lock (Windows) or .parentlock (Linux, Mac) file is no longer removed in order to detect startup failures (crashes) and offer to start in Safe mode.

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I didn't realize they weren't removed any longer. Thank God! That issue drove me nuts. Any thoughts on what the permissions issue might be and how I could fix it? The .parentlock is created with me as owner and -rw-rw-r-- permissions.

Modified by ExFido

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Oh well, I'll just keep using Chrome. I don't support Mozilla's war on free speech, anyway.