This morning Firefox stopped working on on my Windows 10 laptop.

I can enter a URL, but it doesn't find it.

Has anyone else experienced such a problem? Could it have been caused
by a Windows update. or a Firefox update?


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On 11/22/24 11:01 PM, Steve Hayes wrote:

This morning Firefox stopped working on on my Windows 10 laptop.

I can enter a URL, but it doesn't find it.

Has anyone else experienced such a problem? Could it have been caused
by a Windows update. or a Firefox update?

Create a new profile with firefox -P and does it work with that new profile?

--
Linux Mint 22, Cinnamon 6.2.9, Kernel 6.8.0-49-generic
Thunderbird 128.4.2esr, Mozilla Firefox 132.0.1
Alan K.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Fri, 11/22/2024 11:01 PM, Steve Hayes wrote:

This morning Firefox stopped working on on my Windows 10 laptop.

I can enter a URL, but it doesn't find it.

Has anyone else experienced such a problem? Could it have been caused
by a Windows update. or a Firefox update?

Does

nslookup www.desiredsite.com

work to produce an IP address ?

If you ping

nslookup www.desiredsite.com

is the site reachable ? Not all sites have to respond to a ping,
but it helps if they leave that enabled.

Presumably, your Firefox window just remains "motionless" and unresponsive. Normally, Firefox issues a diagnostic to the screen, indicating
either the site responded with a NACK, or the site could not
be resolved through DNS (like nslookup does). Firefox is not usually
completely quiet when fed bad food.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

Paul <[email protected]d> writes:

On Fri, 11/22/2024 11:01 PM, Steve Hayes wrote:

This morning Firefox stopped working on on my Windows 10 laptop.

I can enter a URL, but it doesn't find it.

Has anyone else experienced such a problem? Could it have been caused
by a Windows update. or a Firefox update?

Does

nslookup www.desiredsite.com

work to produce an IP address ?

If you ping

nslookup www.desiredsite.com

is the site reachable ? Not all sites have to respond to a ping,
but it helps if they leave that enabled.

Presumably, your Firefox window just remains "motionless" and unresponsive. Normally, Firefox issues a diagnostic to the screen, indicating
either the site responded with a NACK, or the site could not
be resolved through DNS (like nslookup does). Firefox is not usually completely quiet when fed bad food.

I wonder if the OP's problem has been one I've seen here a few times.
It has occured with some three times or so. Firefox simply stops
reacting to any address I type. Nothing happens, as if I'll get a
time-out page soon, though nothing happens at all. The title bar
displays the address typed and the hourglass, but it doesn't time out
even hours later. Restarting Firefox doesn't make any difference. I
don't know if I tried other profiles, but I think I did one other and it behaved the same.

No error message to show.

Days later, it came back to normal.

I might have even taken screenshots of the problem---might. If you're interested in any of this, let me know and I'll dig further.

Keep in mind that I'm installing automatic updates of Firefox, so I'm
always on the latest version.

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Sat, 11/23/2024 7:01 AM, Wolfgang Agnes wrote:

Paul <[email protected]d> writes:

On Fri, 11/22/2024 11:01 PM, Steve Hayes wrote:

This morning Firefox stopped working on on my Windows 10 laptop.

I can enter a URL, but it doesn't find it.

Has anyone else experienced such a problem? Could it have been caused
by a Windows update. or a Firefox update?

Does

nslookup www.desiredsite.com

work to produce an IP address ?

If you ping

nslookup www.desiredsite.com

is the site reachable ? Not all sites have to respond to a ping,
but it helps if they leave that enabled.

Presumably, your Firefox window just remains "motionless" and unresponsive. >> Normally, Firefox issues a diagnostic to the screen, indicating
either the site responded with a NACK, or the site could not
be resolved through DNS (like nslookup does). Firefox is not usually
completely quiet when fed bad food.

I wonder if the OP's problem has been one I've seen here a few times.
It has occured with some three times or so. Firefox simply stops
reacting to any address I type. Nothing happens, as if I'll get a
time-out page soon, though nothing happens at all. The title bar
displays the address typed and the hourglass, but it doesn't time out
even hours later. Restarting Firefox doesn't make any difference. I
don't know if I tried other profiles, but I think I did one other and it behaved the same.

No error message to show.

Days later, it came back to normal.

I might have even taken screenshots of the problem---might. If you're interested in any of this, let me know and I'll dig further.

Keep in mind that I'm installing automatic updates of Firefox, so I'm
always on the latest version.

Next time it happens, check Task Manager and see if one of the
multiple entries for Firefox in Task Manager is 100% busy.

The processes can have names. Check using Process Explorer, for
more information. In the example here, 11424 is the PPID or Parent Process ID. Killing the parent, kills all the subtending children. You can see
the gecko-crash argument on each child, has it reporting to the parent
via the PPID. That shows how named pipes are used for comms between processes.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/downloads/process-explorer

at one time, these were better named, as one was used for movie playback
and has to be more resistant than others. "Things that crash" are kept
in sandboxes, if necessary for the job. Firefox even has AV code inside it
(a page of code that checks for Stack Smashing).

FF 132.0.2 on W10
PID
firefox.exe 0.52 232,168 K 311,092 K 11424 "firefox.exe"
firefox.exe 261,620 K 93,108 K 7308 "firefox.exe" -contentproc --channel=1988 -parentBuildID 20241110231641 -prefsHandle 1916 -prefMapHandle 1908 -prefsLen 38542 -prefMapSize 274804 -appDir "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\browser" - {
a5a84e3c-4b23-4e4a-aafb-d607967f7aa0} 11424 "\\.\pipe\gecko-crash-server-pipe.11424" 1 gpu
firefox.exe 21,172 K 15,516 K 11332 "firefox.exe" -contentproc --channel=2356 -parentBuildID 20241110231641 -prefsHandle 2348 -prefMapHandle 2344 -prefsLen 38542 -prefMapSize 274804 -win32kLockedDown -appDir "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\
browser" - {83efd578-c989-40f3-af82-7d9e2b80c1f1} 11424 "\\.\pipe\gecko-crash-server-pipe.11424" 2 socket
firefox.exe 45,600 K 52,968 K 5152 "firefox.exe" -contentproc --channel=3596 -isForBrowser -prefsHandle 1468 -prefMapHandle 2812 -prefsLen 38819 -prefMapSize 274804 -jsInitHandle 1584 -jsInitLen 234660 -parentBuildID 20241110231641 -
win32kLockedDown -appDir "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\browser" - {324bcdd7-efb4-49e3-84e6-3dbd79550ae5} 11424 "\\.\pipe\gecko-crash-server-pipe.11424" 4 tab
firefox.exe 55,600 K 80,052 K 7788 "firefox.exe" -contentproc --channel=3860 -isForBrowser -prefsHandle 3728 -prefMapHandle 3732 -prefsLen 30844 -prefMapSize 274804 -jsInitHandle 1584 -jsInitLen 234660 -parentBuildID 20241110231641 -
win32kLockedDown -appDir "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\browser" - {16e4d3cb-3d72-494d-82ee-df9db766fe28} 11424 "\\.\pipe\gecko-crash-server-pipe.11424" 5 tab
firefox.exe < 0.01 37,908 K 51,696 K 12332 "firefox.exe" -contentproc --channel=4464 -isForBrowser -prefsHandle 4444 -prefMapHandle 4452 -prefsLen 30843 -prefMapSize 274804 -jsInitHandle 1584 -jsInitLen 234660 -parentBuildID 20241110231641 -
win32kLockedDown -appDir "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\browser" - {aa357627-19fc-4402-aece-d1e14398cc55} 11424 "\\.\pipe\gecko-crash-server-pipe.11424" 6 tab
firefox.exe 37,712 K 15,392 K 3764 "firefox.exe" -contentproc --channel=5516 -parentBuildID 20241110231641 -sandboxingKind 0 -prefsHandle 5736 -prefMapHandle 5712 -prefsLen 45462 -prefMapSize 274804 -win32kLockedDown -appDir "C:\Program Files\
Mozilla Firefox\browser" - {747aba86-9dde-44d5-a342-c504616ca203} 11424 "\\.\pipe\gecko-crash-server-pipe.11424" 8 utility
firefox.exe 28,592 K 28,424 K 14064 "firefox.exe" -contentproc --channel=6972 -isForBrowser -prefsHandle 5464 -prefMapHandle 7120 -prefsLen 37587 -prefMapSize 274804 -jsInitHandle 1584 -jsInitLen 234660 -parentBuildID 20241110231641 -
win32kLockedDown -appDir "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\browser" - {976026b6-d4da-4f8f-8db1-7f635c2d453f} 11424 "\\.\pipe\gecko-crash-server-pipe.11424" 12 tab
firefox.exe 28,676 K 28,520 K 692 "firefox.exe" -contentproc --channel=5544 -isForBrowser -prefsHandle 5656 -prefMapHandle 6976 -prefsLen 37855 -prefMapSize 274804 -jsInitHandle 1584 -jsInitLen 234660 -parentBuildID 20241110231641 -
win32kLockedDown -appDir "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\browser" - {9d534967-7cdd-4f05-a24e-9bde7557d1c6} 11424 "\\.\pipe\gecko-crash-server-pipe.11424" 13 tab
firefox.exe 28,592 K 28,504 K 13804 "firefox.exe" -contentproc --channel=1392 -isForBrowser -prefsHandle 3100 -prefMapHandle 3096 -prefsLen 37855 -prefMapSize 274804 -jsInitHandle 1584 -jsInitLen 234660 -parentBuildID 20241110231641 -
win32kLockedDown -appDir "C:\Program Files\Mozilla Firefox\browser" - {5aca7012-1d07-4ff3-a7fb-b51ed4f6c4a8} 11424 "\\.\pipe\gecko-crash-server-pipe.11424" 14 tab

You will have to slide the screen back and forth to read the whole line.
I didn't fold those. There might be four different process types.

for OSes older than Windows 10, you will need one of the previous
versions of Process Explorer. At one time, that advice was only
for WinXP people, but now, Win7 people need to search under sofa
cushions for an older one.

*******

On Linux, just using "ps" with no arguments, gives the process description.
We don't seem to get that in Windows. The purpose of showing that, is to
show that it would matter, as to which one was railed. If the parent 663 was railed, it could be deadlock while talking to the children.

663 pts/0 00:00:21 firefox FF 132.0 in Linux
751 pts/0 00:00:00 Socket Process
779 pts/0 00:00:02 Privileged Cont
838 pts/0 00:00:00 WebExtensions
900 pts/0 00:00:00 Utility Process
909 pts/0 00:00:00 Web Content
912 pts/0 00:00:00 Web Content
917 pts/0 00:00:00 Web Content

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Sat, 23 Nov 2024 09:01:55 -0300, Wolfgang Agnes
<[email protected]> wrote:

Paul <[email protected]d> writes:

On Fri, 11/22/2024 11:01 PM, Steve Hayes wrote:

This morning Firefox stopped working on on my Windows 10 laptop.

I can enter a URL, but it doesn't find it.

Has anyone else experienced such a problem? Could it have been caused
by a Windows update. or a Firefox update?

Does

nslookup www.desiredsite.com

work to produce an IP address ?

If you ping

nslookup www.desiredsite.com

is the site reachable ? Not all sites have to respond to a ping,
but it helps if they leave that enabled.

Presumably, your Firefox window just remains "motionless" and unresponsive. >> Normally, Firefox issues a diagnostic to the screen, indicating
either the site responded with a NACK, or the site could not
be resolved through DNS (like nslookup does). Firefox is not usually
completely quiet when fed bad food.

I wonder if the OP's problem has been one I've seen here a few times.
It has occured with some three times or so. Firefox simply stops
reacting to any address I type. Nothing happens, as if I'll get a
time-out page soon, though nothing happens at all. The title bar
displays the address typed and the hourglass, but it doesn't time out
even hours later. Restarting Firefox doesn't make any difference. I
don't know if I tried other profiles, but I think I did one other and it >behaved the same.

No error message to show.

Yes, that is exactly what happened.

When I started Firefox, it asked me if I wanted to transfer settings
from my previous browser. I ignored that, because I had no previous
browser.

Days later, it came back to normal.

It actually came back to normal the same day, when I was about to
switch to MS Edge. As a last resort before doing that I looked at the
menu and then tried to go to the Firefox site, which did open. It
wanted me to register with Mozilla before doing things there. I tried
to register there, but failed -- thhey said they sent me a code by
email, but the code never arrived, even after repeated requests. But
after making the request I tried again to visit other sites, and,
mirabile dictu, it worked again.

I'm glad to see that I am not the only one who has experienced this
strange behaviour.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)

On Sat, 11/23/2024 8:08 PM, Steve Hayes wrote:

On Sat, 23 Nov 2024 09:01:55 -0300, Wolfgang Agnes
<[email protected]> wrote:

Paul <[email protected]d> writes:

On Fri, 11/22/2024 11:01 PM, Steve Hayes wrote:

This morning Firefox stopped working on on my Windows 10 laptop.

I can enter a URL, but it doesn't find it.

Has anyone else experienced such a problem? Could it have been caused
by a Windows update. or a Firefox update?

Does

nslookup www.desiredsite.com

work to produce an IP address ?

If you ping

nslookup www.desiredsite.com

is the site reachable ? Not all sites have to respond to a ping,
but it helps if they leave that enabled.

Presumably, your Firefox window just remains "motionless" and unresponsive. >>> Normally, Firefox issues a diagnostic to the screen, indicating
either the site responded with a NACK, or the site could not
be resolved through DNS (like nslookup does). Firefox is not usually
completely quiet when fed bad food.

I wonder if the OP's problem has been one I've seen here a few times.
It has occured with some three times or so. Firefox simply stops
reacting to any address I type. Nothing happens, as if I'll get a
time-out page soon, though nothing happens at all. The title bar
displays the address typed and the hourglass, but it doesn't time out
even hours later. Restarting Firefox doesn't make any difference. I
don't know if I tried other profiles, but I think I did one other and it
behaved the same.

No error message to show.

Yes, that is exactly what happened.

When I started Firefox, it asked me if I wanted to transfer settings
from my previous browser. I ignored that, because I had no previous
browser.

Days later, it came back to normal.

It actually came back to normal the same day, when I was about to
switch to MS Edge. As a last resort before doing that I looked at the
menu and then tried to go to the Firefox site, which did open. It
wanted me to register with Mozilla before doing things there. I tried
to register there, but failed -- thhey said they sent me a code by
email, but the code never arrived, even after repeated requests. But
after making the request I tried again to visit other sites, and,
mirabile dictu, it worked again.

I'm glad to see that I am not the only one who has experienced this
strange behaviour.

If you change "streams" on Firefox, it opens a brand new profile.
It asking to import something, implies you were on a new profile
with that version. ESR, Beta, Nightly, Release? all have different
profiles. Pointers to *all* the profiles should be in Profiles.ini .
There is only one Profiles.ini file in a Firefox installation,
so evidence of all the profiles that ever existed are there.

Don't ask me to comment on the file :-) Who the hell can figure
out their scheme, from looking at their file ? I cannot. There are
extra entries in there, which I have not seen explained.

I have seen a comment, that the streams now have separate profiles.
And that's the easiest explanation I can think of, for it to suddenly
be looking for something to import. It means a brand new profile
with a very recent date, should be on that new profile entry.

Paul

--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)