Search Support

Avoid support scams. We will never ask you to call or text a phone number or share personal information. Please report suspicious activity using the “Report Abuse” option.

Learn More

Open New Window in Running Instance from the outside

  • 2 ŋuɖoɖowo
  • 1 masɔmasɔ sia le esi
  • 52 views
  • Nuɖoɖo mlɔetɔ m4tze

more options

Dear Community,

I recently updated Firefox on my Gentoo system (Window Manager is Ratpoison). I had a shortcut <Ratpoison escape key>-F to open firefox. Before the update I used to press this combination again and another FF window comes up without any problems. Thus, I had 5-6 running FF windows on a normal working day, each with several tabs in it.

Since the update, when I use the same method, no new window appears but after a few seconds the message window comes up saying that the running instance is not responding and that FF could not be started. I know the problem with concurrent access of the profile. But, there was (and should be) the functionality that FF connects to a running instance and opens a new window in it. Unfortunately, I do not know how this works programmatically. I already installed dbus (and yes, I also started the dbus daemon) to ensure that this is not the reason - I usually do not use dbus in my setup.

Is there a way to reliably trigger the running instance to open a new window from my window manager? How does this "connection to a running instance" usually works? Why is it not working? What can I do to use it, are there any requirements needed?

Thank you very much for your effort to help me out.

Kind regards - M4tze

Dear Community, I recently updated Firefox on my Gentoo system (Window Manager is Ratpoison). I had a shortcut <Ratpoison escape key>-F to open firefox. Before the update I used to press this combination again and another FF window comes up without any problems. Thus, I had 5-6 running FF windows on a normal working day, each with several tabs in it. Since the update, when I use the same method, no new window appears but after a few seconds the message window comes up saying that the running instance is not responding and that FF could not be started. I know the problem with concurrent access of the profile. But, there was (and should be) the functionality that FF connects to a running instance and opens a new window in it. Unfortunately, I do not know how this works programmatically. I already installed dbus (and yes, I also started the dbus daemon) to ensure that this is not the reason - I usually do not use dbus in my setup. Is there a way to reliably trigger the running instance to open a new window from my window manager? How does this "connection to a running instance" usually works? Why is it not working? What can I do to use it, are there any requirements needed? Thank you very much for your effort to help me out. Kind regards - M4tze

Ŋuɖoɖo si wotia

Dear jonzn4SUSE,

my problem is solved. I downloaded the binary distribution for generic Linux distributions. I also made other changes inspired by this download - and I am pretty sure that it was in fact a dbus problem. Obviously my dbus instance changed the location of the socket which invalidated the environment settings, especially DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS. It was in /run/dbus before and now resides in /tmp. My window manager is started before dbus and therefore had no clue about the correct value. I changed the start order and now, when all components share the same env var, everything works again.

Thank you for your support!

Kind regards - M4tze

Xle ŋuɖoɖo sia le goya me 👍 1

All Replies (2)

more options

Try downloading another copy of Firefox and run it from the folder. Do not sign into your Firefox account and see if you have the same issue.

https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/all/#product-desktop-release

What does Ctrl + N do on your desktop? I get a new window in KDE.

more options

Ɖɔɖɔɖo si wotia

Dear jonzn4SUSE,

my problem is solved. I downloaded the binary distribution for generic Linux distributions. I also made other changes inspired by this download - and I am pretty sure that it was in fact a dbus problem. Obviously my dbus instance changed the location of the socket which invalidated the environment settings, especially DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS. It was in /run/dbus before and now resides in /tmp. My window manager is started before dbus and therefore had no clue about the correct value. I changed the start order and now, when all components share the same env var, everything works again.

Thank you for your support!

Kind regards - M4tze