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PFirefox: "Firefox is already running", but Firefox ok

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March 6, 2006 - 12:45pm
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Anonymous (not verified)
PFirefox: "Firefox is already running", but Firefox ok

Hi

I have read the topics on this subject, and since I am encountering the same problems, I am posting my findings.

I have a new installed computer with XP Pro+SP1. I burn a CDR with Portable Firefox along with Apache (portable configuration of it), and PHP. My application is working fine using default browser installed on my computer like normal Firefox and IE.

When I launch portable firefox from CDR either automatically or by double clicking on the EXE, I get the now well famous message: "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Firefox process, or restart your system." Needless to say, that I did not change an inch of the config of firefox, nor the EXE name, nothing at all. I am using what has been packaged and extracted.

However, when I start from CDR, normal Firefox which is nested in a subdirectory of Portable Firefox, I have no problem at all. I tried to have the content of my CDR on my USB key, and "miraculously" Portable Firefox is working fine. Therefore, this led me to believe that we need to have a writable medium for Portable Firefox to be able to run.

Besides, from what I understand, there is Portable Firefox Live with works from a CDR. What are the differences and roadmap?

QUESTIONS:
1. Is Portable Firefox running on READ-ONLY medium?
2. What are the consequences of me using the nested Firefox instead of Portable Firefox from my CDR?
3. Any comments, suggestions or work-arounds?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Kangoo

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March 6, 2006 - 12:52pm
John T. Haller
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Write Access Required

Both the firefox runtime directory and the profile directory MUST be writeable. You can NOT run it directly from a CDR. You can use PFF Live to copy it from a CDR and run it locally.

All portable apps require a writeable medium unless stated otherwise. That's why the examples given (USB thumbdrive, iPod/MP3 player, portable hard drive, etc) are what they are.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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March 6, 2006 - 12:58pm
(Reply to #2)
kangoo (not verified)
But how come is normal

But how come is normal Firefox on my CDR launching fine? (I do not have Firefox installed on my computer).

I saw on the forum that "it's also going to have a major update soon adding in compatibilty for Win9x and ditching the batch file." What do you mean by that? Would it be possible to run PFF Live from CD, not from TEMP then?

Thanks

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March 6, 2006 - 1:00pm
(Reply to #3)
John T. Haller
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Because it isn't

It's actually using your LOCAL profile when you run firefox.exe directly from a CDR. And if FF isn't installed, it will actually create a full profile locally and leave it there... which isn't very portable at all.

No no... PFF Live COPIES FF and profile to temp... runs it... and then deletes it when it's done. That's the only way you can actually run Firefox from a CDR.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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March 6, 2006 - 1:12pm
(Reply to #4)
kangoo (not verified)
Ok, thanks for the

Ok, thanks for the information and for your quickness.

In fact, in this particular case, this may be useful to me. As an International Organization, our goal is to deliver applications on CD to developing countries, which usually run older versions of Windows down to Windows 95 (which is nevertheless quite rare). We used to use their default browsers, but then we have compatibility problems with CSS, Javascript, and everything, and it is just a mess to keep multiple copies of scripts. So we decided to ship Firefox on the CD as well and to make code compliant to it. Our applications actually copies a full MySQL database to the TEMP directory, so portability isn't much of an issue in our case.

My worry is in fact not to have a fully portable Browser, since I am not interested in people updating their bookmarks, or anything of this kind. So READ ONLY mode, is just fine for me. This is to overcome compatibility issues and to use a STANDARD browser which is STANDARD-compliant.

My questions are then:
1. In my situation, would it work just fine, or am I subject to encountering problems running it from CDR as I am doing now?
2. As per the profile, do you know in which directory it is created: TEMP?
3. Therefore I understand that even if Firefox finds a profile on the CDR, it will create one on the local drive to be able to write to it?
4. Why is PFF not working whilst Firefox is working from CDR?

Thanks a lot again

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March 6, 2006 - 1:23pm
(Reply to #5)
John T. Haller
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You Misunderstand

Firefox is NOT meant to be run from a CDR. When it does (if you run firefox.exe directly), it creates a full, local profile in the normal location... Documents and Settings. NOT temp. You can not control this or alter this behavior. It will not use a profile on the CDR. And the profile will be left behing on the PC after you close Firefox and eject the CD.

As I've already said, Portable Firefox DOES NOT work from read only media. NONE of the portable apps do. You must use PFF Live.

Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!

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March 6, 2006 - 1:28pm
(Reply to #6)
kangoo (not verified)
oh ok, I get your

oh ok, I get your point.
Thanks for all the good info and the good work with those apps.

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