It is best not to use the -no-remote command for the Profile that is listed as Default=1 in the profiles.ini file that is in the same folder as your Profile folder. You will have to open that Profile first if you want run both simultaneously, or you won't be able to open that one as long as another is running. You also need to verify the your "working" Profile is the one labeled as Default =1. The last Profile that was selected in the Profile Manager dialog window is usually the one with that label.

But you will avoid the un-predictable behavior you are seeing, and if you would be running two different versions of Firefox you would be avoiding the inadvertent launch of the wrong Profile with the wrong version of Firefox - which could result in the bOrking of that Profile.

Thank you for your answer. I tried to run my default profile without -no-remote, it only works if I have no other profiles running already, just like you described. So is it unsupported to start my default profile after the secondary? Or to start my default profile first, start my secondary profile, then close my default profile and open it again?

I'm not running 2 different versions of Firefox, got only 1 Firefox installed.

If Firefox is already running then profiles.ini doesn't matter. That will only apply if no Firefox programs are running and you double click an HTML or other link to launch the browser.

On Linux -no-remote seems to work differently from what I remember from Windows. On Linux you can still open links in a Firefox process started via -no-remote and you need to open the Firefox profiles in the required order: news first and personal last if you want to open external links in the news profile. You can't open a second profile without the -no-remote switch as the process will use the first profile opened.

traysh,

Profiles period are "unsupported" by Mozilla. Profiles are "there" but the developers want no part of non-developers using them or fixing anything related to Profiles that has been suggested in a Bug report, or documenting much related to Profiles. Profiles as we know them now are going to disappear from Firefox in the near future, although no specific version number or date has been fixed for that to happen. It is up to us user's to share our experiences with Profiles with other user's. I'm a relative noob to Linux, and all my experience with running multiple Profiles and -no-remote is with Windows OS's.

cor-el,

So are you saying that on Linux external links will only open in the first Profile that was opened if multiple Profiles are running?

And that external links won't open a Profile that isn't already running - if any Profile is already running?

I wish the differences between Windows and Linux as far as -no-remote and running multiple Profiles were better documented for "us" Linux noobs over at the MozillaZine KnowledgeBase - hint. Unless I am not looking hard enough in the MZ KB for that information....

Well, if profiles aren't fully supported it is not unexpected that they're not fully documented, right?

Yes, external links will only open in the first profile opened. Then if you close that profile, they will only open in the next one and so on. Also right, external links won't open a Profile that isn't already running if there's at least 1 already running. In fact, if any profile is running, the only way to open a new profile is using -no-remote. Another thing I read that isn't true for linux is that -no-remote sessions can't open external links. In fact, they can if they're the older firefox process.

Today I downloaded the last 4.0 beta and I think I won't miss profiles with that new grouping tabs feature. =)