Re: segmentation fault with firefox 1.5 after apt-get upgrade yesterday

[Christoph Fassbach <chritoph@gmx.de>]

Andrei Mikhailovsky wrote:

> Same thing, after an update a few days ago, firefox segfaults.
>
> However, If i run firefox from the 32bit chroot and execute 64bit
> firefox while the 32bit one is open, no segfault occurs and firefox runs
> ok. Very odd
>
> Andrei
>  
Hi!

This behaviour is easy to explain;

If firefox is starting it asks X11 if another firefox is present.
If firefox is running, this instance of firefox is asked to spawn 
another window.

Example:
Imagine two Systems:

Sam
outdated debian unstable
username@sam:~$ mozilla-firefox --version
Mozilla Firefox 1.0.6, Copyright (c) 1998 - 2005 mozilla.org

Bruno
2 hours before updated debian unstable
username@bruno:~$ firefox --version
Mozilla Firefox 1.5, Copyright (c) 1998 - 2005 mozilla.org

If you are sitting in front of bruno and start a local firefox,
it will display same version in command line and in Help->About.

But if you are using ssh with X-forwarding to sam and start a remote 
firefox,
it will display version 1.0.6 in command line but 1.5 in Help->About, if 
you did
not close the local firefox before. If you closed the local one, 
Help->About tells
you 1.0.6 before.

Why?
In the first case, another instance of the local firefox 1.5 was spawned,
in the second case it was a remote one.

Why do I tell you all this?
If a 32bit firefox is running, you will always spawn a 32bit one,
but no seg-faulting 64bit firefox.

So never try to use a remote firefox with little endian sitting in front 
of a
big endian machine and vice versa. Their communication will fail and mess
the local one up.

Greets,

Christoph