Bug#617361: Iceweasel refuses to multitask

Zefram zefram at fysh.org
Tue Mar 8 12:58:30 UTC 2011


Package: iceweasel
Version: 3.5.16-4
Severity: normal

If I have an iceweasel session open, and then close it by means of an X
"delete window" request, sometimes (not always) a process is left running:

USER       PID %CPU %MEM    VSZ   RSS TTY      STAT START   TIME COMMAND
zefram    9190  2.6  2.6 129436 55584 pts/8    Sl   12:41   0:02 /usr/lib/iceweasel/firefox-bin

This shouldn't be there, but I don't hugely mind it.  What I *do* mind
is that while this process exists it prevents opening any new iceweasel
session.  If I run /usr/bin/firefox, it pops up a small window titled
"Close Iceweasel", containing a road-sign-like icon and the text

	Iceweasel is already running, but is not responding. To open a
	new window, you must first close the existing Iceweasel process,
	or restart your system.

and an "OK" button.  Clicking on that button terminates the new process
without ever bringing up a real browser window.  The background iceweasel
process continues running.

I hold the quaint opinion that Unix is a multitasking OS, and that the
existence of one instance of a program is not a bar to starting up a
second instance.  If I tell iceweasel to start up a new session, the
background iceweasel process is no excuse for failure.

-zefram





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