This site will have limited functionality while we undergo maintenance to improve your experience. If an article doesn't solve your issue and you want to ask a question, we have our support community waiting to help you at @FirefoxSupport on Twitter and/r/firefox on Reddit.

Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Lolu chungechunge lwabekwa kunqolobane. Uyacelwa ubuze umbuzo omusha uma udinga usizo.

Problem launching Firefox 57 by clicking on links on Wire Messenger

  • 6 uphendule
  • 1 inale nkinga
  • 19 views
  • Igcine ukuphendulwa ngu vesper

more options

I don't know if this is a Firefox issue or a Wire issue. Just thought I should start here first.

When I click on links on Wire, for example, youtube links, Wire should normally open a new tab in Firefox redirecting to the link I've clicked on. The problem is that this expected behaviour only happens when Firefox is already launched and running on a window. If Firefox is not already launched then clicking on the link "apparently" does nothing, no matter how long I'm waiting for Firefox to launch. "Apparently", because when I try to launch Firefox myself after that, I get the message that Firefox is already running and that I have to close it or restart my system. Needless to say I can't launch Firefox and I have to reboot. I have a screenshot attached for more details.

Is it a Firefox issue or could it be a Wire issue? Nevertheless I'll be posting a similar post on Wire forums. Do you have any idea what the problem could be?

I'm running Ubuntu 14.4 Trusty Tahr on 32-bit System.

I don't know if this is a Firefox issue or a Wire issue. Just thought I should start here first. When I click on links on Wire, for example, youtube links, Wire should normally open a new tab in Firefox redirecting to the link I've clicked on. The problem is that this expected behaviour only happens when Firefox is already launched and running on a window. If Firefox is not already launched then clicking on the link "apparently" does nothing, no matter how long I'm waiting for Firefox to launch. "Apparently", because when I try to launch Firefox myself after that, I get the message that Firefox is already running and that I have to close it or restart my system. Needless to say I can't launch Firefox and I have to reboot. I have a screenshot attached for more details. Is it a Firefox issue or could it be a Wire issue? Nevertheless I'll be posting a similar post on Wire forums. Do you have any idea what the problem could be? I'm running Ubuntu 14.4 Trusty Tahr on 32-bit System.
Ama-screenshot ananyekiwe

All Replies (6)

more options

Thank you for posting here (and on the Wire forums, too).

While I have no immediate answer, I have a question that could help narrow down the reason: have you tried opening links in Wire using a different browser as a default?

Does your Firefox show any special way to handle Wire links in the Applications section of the settings?

Also, I wonder if killing the (clearly unresponsive, from your description) Firefox process after clicking the Wire link could help.

Thank you for using Firefox!

more options

Here we go:

1. I downloaded and installed Chromium and set it as default browser. I closed Chromium and opened Wire. I clicked on the YouTube link and Chromium was launched, unlike Firefox. While Chromium was launched, I clicked on the link again and it was redirected properly, just like Firefox.

2. Below are two screenshots about my Applications settings. I didn't notice anything special about opening links in Wire. Haven't checked that DRM thing, yet. Not sure about it. Wonder if it could help somehow. (?)

3. Checked Firefox again while it was still launched and it opened links properly. Closed it and tried to open link from Wire. Silence. Ran command: pidof firefox showed that firefox was running. Clicked on the firefox shortcut; same error window from my above post came out. Killed firefox and tried again several times; same story.

What do you think?

I'm also posting this thread on my Wire-Issue thread, although not so sure that it is a Wire problem anymore, since Chromium didn't have similar problem. Anyway, you never know, so I'm posting it.

Okulungisiwe ngu LiakosR

more options

Thank you for sharing all this information!

At this moment, I know about the solution as much as you do, unfortunately - and you're way ahead of me in the investigation.

We will most likely escalate this to the developers as a potential issue with opening external links from apps on Linux.

more options

OK! Thank you for your help. I guess I will just have to open Firefox first before I try to click on Wire links, for the time being.... Looking forward to the solution!

Cheers!

P.S.: Checked with that DRM Content thingy enabled. No luck.

Okulungisiwe ngu LiakosR

more options

I found something interesting....

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_in_use

"You can also get this message if you try to open a link from an external program (e.g., double-click a link in an email or HTML file) and there is another instance running that uses the default profile and that was started with the -no-remote argument (or you have the environment variable MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1 set). [7] [8] You should never use -no-remote to start the "default" profile. See Opening a new instance of your Mozilla application with another profile for more information."


and also

http://kb.mozillazine.org/Opening_a_new_instance_of_your_Mozilla_application_with_another_profile


What do you make of it??

more options

Hey!

I am not an expert in multiple profile use, but this could be a good lead.

Are you using any profiles?

If not, could you try and experiment with creating a new profile and using it as the default?