I'm running Debian Jessie and I seem to have the problem as well. First, I have two main Firefox profiles, "default" and "empty". Empty has few extensions while default is my fully loaded profile. In order to be able to easily run them, I create custom .desktop files that execute "firefox -P <default|empty> -new-instance %U" If I don't use the "-new-instance" (or "-no-remote"), and I decided I want to run the empty profile but the default is already running or vice versa, I get the "already running error".
It seems, when I create a shell script to execute "xterm" and set it as the mail application in Firefox, I get a bunch of MOZ_ environment variables. I played around with un-setting the variables before running Thunderbird. It just so happens that, at least for me, if I unset a variable "MOZ_NEW_INSTANCE" then it seems to work. To verify I start Thunderbird and then open a terminal without any MOZ_VARIABLES and execute "thunderbird mailto:t...@dummy.com";. Everything works. If I then execute "MOZ_NEW_INSTANCE=1 thunderbird mailto:t...@dummy.com"; I get the "already running" error. So it seems that what is happening, at least for me, is when I run Firefox with -new-instance, it sets an environment variable that is in turn passed to child processes. When I click on an email link it launches Thunderbird, but that environment variable is set and Thunderbird tries to start a new instance. The same seems to happen if I use -no-remote instead, it just sets a variable MOZ_NO_REMOTE=1 I create the following script and set it as the mail handler for the time being. #!/bin/sh env -u MOZ_NEW_INSTANCE -u MOZ_NO_REMOTE thunderbird "$@" Currently there is no way around "-no-remote" or "-new-instance" with Firefox it seems. If I launch one profile, and wish to launch another profile, then it will complain unless I use one or the other. Ideally, there should be a way to launch multiple profiles, but to have "remote" features with both, either designating one as the default to receive remote commands or a chooser to list available instances to receive remote commands. For now, the shell script to remove the environment variables seems to help. -- You received this bug notification because you are a member of Desktop Packages, which is subscribed to thunderbird in Ubuntu. https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/711305 Title: Thunderbird is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Thunderbird process, or restart your system. Error received when clicking a mailto link in firefox. Status in Mozilla Thunderbird: Confirmed Status in thunderbird package in Ubuntu: Triaged Bug description: Binary package hint: thunderbird This thunderbird error is given when clicking a mailto link. Instead of using the thunderbird that's already open it tries to open a new instance. Preferred Applications has Thunderbird select, but I have also tried Custom command "thunderbird %s". This has been tested on 10.04 and 10.10. Both result in this error if thunderbird is already running. Thunderbird is already running, but is not responding. To open a new window, you must first close the existing Thunderbird process, or restart your system. ProblemType: Bug DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.10 Package: thunderbird 3.1.7+build3+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.10.10.1 ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.35-25.44-generic 2.6.35.10 Uname: Linux 2.6.35-25-generic i686 Architecture: i386 Date: Tue Feb 1 10:19:09 2011 InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.10 "Maverick Meerkat" - Release i386 (20101007) ProcEnviron: LANG=en_CA.utf8 SHELL=/bin/bash SourcePackage: thunderbird To manage notifications about this bug go to: https://bugs.launchpad.net/thunderbird/+bug/711305/+subscriptions -- Mailing list: https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages Post to : desktop-packages@lists.launchpad.net Unsubscribe : https://launchpad.net/~desktop-packages More help : https://help.launchpad.net/ListHelp
