Arch Linux

1ptb3b

Member

Registered: 2017-01-17

Posts: 82

Can't get firefox to open links from other apps

Whenever I click on a link in Discord or GNOME Terminal, Firefox fails to open the webpage and shows me an error. I have Firefox set as my default browser. I'm using GNOME desktop.

Steps to reproduce
* Open Firefox
* Click on a link in GNOME Terminal or any app

Expected behavior
Webpage opens in Firefox

Actual behavior
I get this error message.

Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To use Firefox, you must first close the existing Firefox process, restart your device, or use a different profile.

Notes
If Firefox is not running, then you click on a link, it will correctly open the webpage.

Last edited by 1ptb3b (2020-07-21 22:38:58)

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 13,810

Re: Can't get firefox to open links from other apps

I have seen this message sometimes when a system is under heavy load, especially on low memory systems.

Does this also happen if you have only one tab open in firefox without any addons active (tabs and addons increase needed/used memory by a lot ) ?

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

1ptb3b

Member

Registered: 2017-01-17

Posts: 82

Re: Can't get firefox to open links from other apps

Okay, just tried restarting Firefox in Safe Mode, which disables all addons (according to the little popup that came up). I had one tab open, a blank start tab.

Then I clicked on a link in my terminal.

Same error happened.

I'm running Firefox 78.0.2 (64-bit), in case that matters.

Also, I'm running on a Dell XPS 13, Core i7, and 16GB of memory.

Lone_Wolf

Administrator

From: Netherlands, Europe

Registered: 2005-10-04

Posts: 13,810

Re: Can't get firefox to open links from other apps

How long does it take before the message appears ?

If it comes fast, (say less then 1 or 2 seconds) it's unlikely to be caused by heavy load.

---

Disliking systemd intensely, but not satisfied with alternatives so focusing on taming systemd.

clean chroot building not flexible enough ?
Try clean chroot manager by graysky

zpg443

Member

Registered: 2016-12-03

Posts: 300

Re: Can't get firefox to open links from other apps

MIME behavior is limited unless you use a more specialized version. If you were using KDE, the firefox-kde-opensuse version might work for that.

1ptb3b

Member

Registered: 2017-01-17

Posts: 82

Re: Can't get firefox to open links from other apps

How long does it take before the message appears?

It takes about 5 seconds before the message appears.

However, the only apps I have running right now are Firefox (with 1 tab that has the Arch Forums loaded and 5 addons enabled) and GNOME Terminal. I tried running htop to see if I could catch a CPU spike, but everything stayed pretty low. Not sure if there is a better way to check the current load.

One maybe interesting thing that I noticed was that journald logs this messages after I click OK on the error popup.

$ journalctl -f
mar 03 18:12:24 discord.desktop[5734]: ###!!! [Parent][RunMessage] Error: Channel closing: too late to send/recv, messages will be lost
mar 03 18:12:24 systemd[512]: Received SIGCHLD from PID 5734 (firefox).
mar 03 18:12:24 systemd[512]: Child 5734 (firefox) died (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
mar 03 18:12:24 systemd[512]: app-gnome-discord-1183.scope: Child 5734 belongs to app-gnome-discord-1183.scope.

Weird thing is everything works perfectly if Firefox isn't already running.

Last edited by 1ptb3b (2021-03-04 02:13:04)

nopeva7771

Member

Registered: 2021-10-31

Posts: 1

Re: Can't get firefox to open links from other apps

The problem is some incompatibility between display servers. Firefox may be using one display server and the application you are clicking the link in, may be using a different one. The solution to this is to have both applications use the same display server or compatible display servers.

In my case, I couldn't open links in Discord with Firefox. I found that if I set

export MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=0

or

export GDK_BACKEND=x11

and ran Firefox, I could then open links in Discord.

If you close out of Firefox and open a link in the application you want to be able to open links, Firefox should start up with the correct display server and open your link. If you go to the "about:support" page and find the "Environment Variables" section, you should be able to compare which environment variables were set by your application in order to get Firefox to open links. Take those and set them so that every time you open Firefox, it uses the display server compatible with the application you wish to open links.

Last edited by nopeva7771 (2021-10-31 20:08:36)