[gulmatan]

Hi there. I've tried rebooting, Force Quitting and Restarting but every time I try to run Firefox 3.0.3, I get this message. How can I fix this? Please advise.

[MacNNUK]

Are you on a Network, LAN Modem etc, with another computer running Firefox.

You can get this message with MS Office apps too if so connected.

Similar to if I try to run a new and older version of Firefox together, ie just after updating currently running version of Firefox.

[Spheric Harlot]

Originally Posted by MacNNUK 

Are you on a Network, LAN Modem etc, with another computer running Firefox.

You can get this message with MS Office apps too if so connected.

That doesn't make sense:

The reason you get a SIMILAR warning with MS Office is because they're single-seat licenses authorized with individual serial numbers. MS Office will quit if there's another copy WITH THE SAME SERIAL NUMBER active on the local network (and it tells you this, exactly, in its dialog box message).

FireFox isn't serialized; there is absolutely no reason why multiple copies of Firefox shouldn't be active on the same network.
If there is, however (God knows why), the message should be fairly explicit.

gulmatan, what *exactly* does the message say?

[gulmatan]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

That doesn't make sense:

The reason you get a SIMILAR warning with MS Office is because they're single-seat licenses authorized with individual serial numbers. MS Office will quit if there's another copy WITH THE SAME SERIAL NUMBER active on the local network (and it tells you this, exactly, in its dialog box message).

FireFox isn't serialized; there is absolutely no reason why multiple copies of Firefox shouldn't be active on the same network.
If there is, however (God knows why), the message should be fairly explicit.

gulmatan, what *exactly* does the message say?

Okay, here's the message:

[[ALERT ICON]] Close Firefox

A copy of Firefox is already open. Only one copy of Firefox can be open at a time.

An OK button appears at the lower right cornet

[Cold Warrior]

Make sure firefox is closed/quit.

Open your firefox profile folder located in your home folder/library/application support/firefox/profiles/**.default (whatever folder is there).

You want to delete the .parentlock file that is there. Search for it using Spotlight and set it to find invisible files or just use a utility (like Onyx) to enable viewing of invisible files.

[MacNNUK]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

FireFox isn't serialized; there is absolutely no reason why multiple copies of Firefox shouldn't be active on the same network.
If there is, however (God knows why), the message should be fairly explicit.

Originally Posted by gulmatan 

Okay, here's the message:

[[ALERT ICON]] Close Firefox

A copy of Firefox is already open. Only one copy of Firefox can be open at a time.

An OK button appears at the lower right cornet

Now isn't that basically what I said ?

Originally Posted by MacNNUK 

Are you on a Network, LAN Modem etc, with another computer running Firefox.

Similar to if I try to run a new and older version of Firefox together, ie just after updating currently running version of Firefox.

Having said that, I actually prefer Camino. 2.0a1 currently

[wataru]

Originally Posted by MacNNUK 

Now isn't that basically what I said ?

No, you were going on about some BS that absolutely does not apply here. There is not, never has been, and never will be a restriction on running more than one Firefox instance on the same local network.

Only one Firefox instance can be run per machine (actually per user, I believe). Clearly there is either an instance of Firefox still running, or Firefox simply thinks there is an instance running due to an improperly-deleted lockfile on his machine.

[Chuckit]

Originally Posted by MacNNUK 

Now isn't that basically what I said ?

Not really. You said it was related to the Office license check, which it isn't. Office is designed to self-destruct if it can find another copy running with the same serial number because Microsoft wants you to have to buy multiple copies in order to run it on multiple machines. Firefox is free and doesn't have a serial number, so it is obviously not running anti-piracy checks.

Firefox won't let you run multiple copies on the same computer simultaneously because all copies of Firefox share the same support files on your disk, so it could get hairy if several Firefox copies were changing the files at once.

[MacNNUK]

Originally Posted by Chuckit 

Not really. You said it was related to the Office license check, which it isn't.

No I didn't, but we are going round in circles here, needlessly .

It was purely a pointer that it may be because two copies of Firefox appeared to be running, in which I was later proved correct by a further post by the OP.

I think a difference of emphasis has been introduced unneccesarily into this thread, does it help the OP, not really.

A little "Off Track" methinks





So, it appears that there is a "Ghost" copy of Fire fox running.

That is the problem to be addressed.

This is the direction this thread should be headed in:

Originally Posted by Cold Warrior 

Make sure firefox is closed/quit.

Open your firefox profile folder located in your home folder/library/application support/firefox/profiles/**.default (whatever folder is there).

You want to delete the .parentlock file that is there. Search for it using Spotlight and set it to find invisible files or just use a utility (like Onyx) to enable viewing of invisible files.

[Sarc]

Run 'top -d' in the Terminal.
There, get the "running" FireFox PID number (leftmost column).
Then apply 'kill PID'.

That did it for me.

[gulmatan]

Well, problem solved. Between setting Firefox in the Exceptions/Exclusions list for ShapesShifter AND re-installing 10.4, one of them cured the disease.

[Spheric Harlot]

Oh. You had ShapeShifter running and were wondering why something was behaving oddly?

Turning off illegal system hacks is generally "trouble"shooting tip #1.

[Curiosity]

Interesting. Shapeshifter caused my Firefox (version 3 branch) to crash.