Score:2

Ubuntu

Ubuntu 20.04.3 Problems running Firefox from terminal

kowczarek

3/28/23, 2:44 PM

I am a fresh user of Ubuntu 20.04.3. I came across a problem with running firefox web browser from the terminal.

When I type 'firefox' in the terminal I get the message:

ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.

ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.

ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.

ATTENTION: default value of option mesa_glthread overridden by environment.

Firefox eventually launches, but if I close the terminal window it also shuts down my firefox.

2162

0 + 0

command-line

firefox

20.04

Archisman Panigrahi

3/28/23, 3:05 PM

Please edit the question to add the terminal outputs as code, instead of posting screenshots.

Score:3

Ubuntu

bac0n

3/30/23, 8:21 AM

There are a few ways to make your background process resilient to hangup first, you have nohup which instructs the signal function to ignore SIGHUP before replacing itself with the new process (execvp). However, for applications that re-implements signal handling, this is not possible.

Next, the setsid command works much the same way, but instead of manipulating the signal, setsid() is used to create a new session, this will not make your application immune, but at least it will not receive any more signal from the terminal. Now, these two commands can be combined, e.i., if SIGHUP is honored, or nohup will be redundant.

Lastly, with disown you can either remove your application from active jobs or mark the application using -h to not receive SIGHUP sent from the shell. Now, as with setsid, this will not make your application immune, but as long as SIGHUP is not sent directly to the process, you should be fine.

firefox &>/dev/null & disown

You may also disown a running application.

$ firefox
ctrl + z
^Z
[1]+  Stopped                 firefox
$ bg
$ disown

disown also takes either jobspec or pid as an argument.

0 + 0

sudodus

3/30/23, 4:43 PM

+1, Thanks, this is a very useful answer :-)

Score:2

Ubuntu

ChanganAuto

3/28/23, 3:00 PM

If you want to be able to close the terminal after launching the graphical software you need to use --detach.

Example:

firefox --detach

0 + 0

N0rbert

3/28/23, 3:11 PM

I do not see `--detach` on [firefox's man-page](http://manpages.ubuntu.com/manpages/focal/en/man1/firefox.1.html). Do you mean `Ctrl`+`Z`, followed by `bg` ?

sudodus

3/28/23, 3:12 PM

Do you know the difference between using `firefox --detach &` and `nohup firefox &` (except that nohup will save terminal output to `nohup.out`)?

sudodus

3/28/23, 3:12 PM

@N0rbert, you are right, but it works anyway.

ChanganAuto

3/28/23, 3:31 PM

@N0rbert This is the same parameter used by the Firefox ESR based TOR Bundle browser, that why it works and is simple enough for the OP to use.

kowczarek

3/28/23, 3:52 PM

@ChanganAuto after using firefox --detach, on an attempt to close terminal, it still closes the web browser

ChanganAuto

3/28/23, 3:57 PM

@kowczarek Simply put that's not possible. Either you typed something wrong or maybe your trying to run it as root, something you should never do.

sudodus

3/28/23, 4:45 PM

@kowczarek, `--detach` works for me, but something must be different between our systems. Anyway, please try `nohup firefox &` and let us know how that works, when you close your terminal window. - By the way, how do you close your terminal?

kowczarek

3/28/23, 6:36 PM

@sudodus I have tried 'nohup firefox &' it launches the firefox and I am able to close terminal, but when I do it likes kill my firefox session and I get this message: "Gah. Your tab just crashed. We can help! Choose Restore This Tab to reload the page." And for your question 'how do I close terminal' I just press the X in the upper right corner, is it a bad way to do it? :(

bac0n

3/28/23, 8:37 PM

usually, when you really want to detach a process I think `setsid` works best.

sudodus

3/28/23, 8:37 PM

@kowczarek, This is strange. I tested in my main computer with 18.04.x LTS, where it works. Now I tested in a test system with an up to date standard Ubuntu 20.04.3, and I get the same as you. It ***should*** be OK to close the terminal window with the x button :-( But when I closed the terminal by typing `exit` (from bash in the terminal window), firefox survived without complaint :-)

sudodus

3/28/23, 8:43 PM

See [this link](https://paste.ubuntu.com/p/G4wNMBRYMY/) to the Ubuntu pastebin with the output to the Firefox tab and to `nohup.out`, when exiting from `gnome-terminal' in Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS.

sudodus

3/28/23, 8:50 PM

You are right @bac0n, `setsid firefox &` works. Firefox survives when exiting from `gnome-terminal' in Ubuntu 20.04.3 LTS (also when pressing the x button). Can you explain the difference? I suggest that you write an answer (and I promise to upvote it).

bac0n

3/28/23, 8:59 PM

maybe `setsid -f firefox` works.

Elon Musk

I sit in a Tesla and translated this thread with Ai:

EN: Ubuntu 20.04.3 Problems running Firefox from terminal

TH: Ubuntu 20.04.3 ปัญหาในการเรียกใช้ Firefox จากเทอร์มินัล

RO: Ubuntu 20.04.3 Probleme la rularea Firefox de pe terminal

RU: Ubuntu 20.04.3 Проблемы с запуском Firefox из терминала

VI: Ubuntu 20.04.3 Sự cố khi chạy Firefox từ thiết bị đầu cuối

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