On 2018-03-14 at 14:59, John wrote: > Every time I run firefox on Debian (currently Jessie) I get 7 > messages > (firefox-esr:6975): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion 'object->ref_count > 0' failed > > (firefox-esr:6975): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_ref: assertion 'object->ref_count > 0' failed > > (firefox-esr:6975): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion 'object->ref_count > 0' failed > > (/usr/lib/firefox-esr/plugin-container:7023): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_ref: assertion 'object->ref_count > 0' failed > > (/usr/lib/firefox-esr/plugin-container:7023): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion 'object->ref_count > 0' failed > > (/usr/lib/firefox-esr/plugin-container:7023): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_ref: assertion 'object->ref_count > 0' failed > > (/usr/lib/firefox-esr/plugin-container:7023): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_unref: assertion 'object->ref_count > 0' failed > > Does not seem to affect the browser's actions but it is annoying and > ugly. Why do I get this? As I understand matters, these are GLib messages (I think that's something related to GTK, the graphical toolkit used by most-if-not-all Linux versions of Firefox), and they happen because Firefox uses the GLib API in what the current version of GLib considers to be a partly incorrect - or at least potentially unsafe - way. Basically, these are debugging messages, which for some reason get printed - by the library, if I understand things right! - even in production builds. I get similar messages from Chromium, IIRC, since I happen to launch that from an xterm by habit. > What can I do about it? To the best of my awareness, you have three options, in descending order of "theoretically ideal": 1. Patch Firefox to do what these APIs consider to be the right thing, and if possible, get that patch accepted into upstream Firefox. 2. Launch Firefox from a menu item or "desktop shortcut" or other non-terminal-based method. (This won't prevent the messages from occurring, but they won't get printed anywhere you'll see them.) 3. Redirect stderr when launching Firefox, so that these errors get dumped somewhere you don't have to look at them. (Technically you could also patch GLib to be less verbose about this, but I doubt you'd get that accepted upstream, and it'd probably be more difficult than fixing Firefox; it might also be the wrong thing to do, if there ever are any cases where these messages ever are actually legitimate.) -- The Wanderer The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore all progress depends on the unreasonable man. -- George Bernard Shaw
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