Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Firefox is screwing up my Powerbook

K

KevRC4130

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jul 1, 2004
278
0
Massachusetts
Hey guys,
I tried to download Mozilla Firefox, and it downloaded. I tried to open it, and now it just opens and closes in the dock. The icon appears, and disappears, and has been doing it for about 5 minutes now. I tried to click around, and I ended up opening another one. Now I've got two Mozilla icons opening and closing in the dock. I tried to force quit, and it doesnt work. I tried shutting down and restarting with the power button, but it says that Mozilla cancels the shut down process, so I can't shut it down. I guess I'm just going to have to wait till the battery dies, and hope for the best. Does anyone know what is wrong and how to fix it?

Thanks

P.S. Sorry, this might be something very obvious and stupid, but please forgive me, I'm still pretty new to OSX.
 
I had a similar problem with Firefox 0.9 and OSX 10.2.8. However the more recent version (I think 0.9.1 or 2) of Firefox worked okay for me. I have not tried 0.9.3 which is the current release. What version of OSX and Firefox are you running?
 
freiheit said:
I had a similar problem with Firefox 0.9 and OSX 10.2.8. However the more recent version (I think 0.9.1 or 2) of Firefox worked okay for me. I have not tried 0.9.3 which is the current release. What version of OSX and Firefox are you running?
Click to expand...

I'm running OSX 10.3.5 , and Firefox 0.9.3 , both the latest and greatest.
 
First, try a force-quit. Press command (Apple key), option, and esc. If you see Firefox in the list of running apps, then force-quit it. If you don't see it in the list, then reboot your mac. Press control, command, and the power button.

No need to wait for your battery to run out.
 
KevRC4130 said:
I'm running OSX 10.3.5 , and Firefox 0.9.3 , both the latest and greatest.
Click to expand...

Did you repair permissions after the installation? When I have something quit without displaying anything, it's usually corrected this way. Also, if you have any customisations/hacks, they could be interfering but plenty of people do, so I'm guessing that it's not the cause of the problem.

Also, you may want to check the Console log, which is in /Applications/Utilities for additional information.
 
plasticparadox said:
First, try a force-quit. Press command (Apple key), option, and esc. If you see Firefox in the list of running apps, then force-quit it. If you don't see it in the list, then reboot your mac. Press control, command, and the power button.

No need to wait for your battery to run out.
Click to expand...

As stated in the origional post, I have tried both, but neither worked. Thanks for trying though.
 
KevRC4130 said:
As stated in the origional post, I have tried both, but neither worked. Thanks for trying though.
Click to expand...

Well if you're going to wait until the battery runs out anyway and cause a forceful shutdown, just hold the power button down until it shuts off. It usually takes about 5-10 seconds of holding it down before it goes off.
 
Firefox and previous incanations moved the preferences around a few times between versions. This can make a new version hang up exactly as you describe, because there were some versions that did auto prefs migrations and others that didn't. It's a mess.

From the terminal, killall firefox-bin; you may have to repeat this a few times if you are in a launching loop. The force-quit from Finder may not be able to keep up.

Next, look in your Library/Application Support folder for Firefox or Firebird folders. Trash them.

In Library/Preferences, look for org.mozilla.firefox.plist or org.mozilla.firebird.plist and trash any such that you find.

Wait a while (this is because Firefox does the "optimize" thing [update_prebinding] ]on first launch instead of when the installer runs), and try running it again.
 
I tried downloading it the other day and it did the same thing for me. I just did a force shutdown and then restarted and deleted all firefox files.
 
pre-release status

Keep in mind of course that Firefox 0.9.x is pre-release software. The developers know it's not complete and they're not pretending that it is. If the 1.0 release acts this way, then there's a serious problem. Software is never "finished" but pre-release software will always cause problems for somebody (in my humble experience, anyway :)).

Right now since I have OSX 10.3.5 up and running beautifully, I'm not willing to risk it by installing another pre-release of Firefox. But you can be damn sure I'll give the 1.0 release a fair try when it's available.
 
KevRC4130 said:
Hey guys,
I tried to download Mozilla Firefox, and it downloaded. I tried to open it, and now it just opens and closes in the dock. The icon appears, and disappears, and has been doing it for about 5 minutes now. I tried to click around, and I ended up opening another one. Now I've got two Mozilla icons opening and closing in the dock. I tried to force quit, and it doesnt work. I tried shutting down and restarting with the power button, but it says that Mozilla cancels the shut down process, so I can't shut it down. I guess I'm just going to have to wait till the battery dies, and hope for the best. Does anyone know what is wrong and how to fix it?

Thanks

P.S. Sorry, this might be something very obvious and stupid, but please forgive me, I'm still pretty new to OSX.
Click to expand...
I understand that you are having trouble mounting the FireFox disk image. I had a similar problem. In my case, there was an error in the file. I was able to mount the image in spite of the error. Open Disk Utilities and import the image file into it. You should be able to mount the image from within Disk Utilities. You will then be able to drag the Firefox browser to your favorite location.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back