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#944706 firefox-esr: Tab crashes immediately after start up and Firefox ESR was unusable. #944706

Package:: firefox-esr

Source:: firefox-esr

Description:: Mozilla Firefox web browser - Extended Support Release (ESR)

Submitter:: "ISHIKAWA,chiaki"

Date:: 2026-06-20 09:29:02 UTC

Severity:: grave

Tags:

#944706#5

Date:: 2019-11-14 05:50:59 UTC

From:

To:

Dear Maintainer,

I don't know where to report, but I want to share an experience and
possible workaround.

I hav filed a mozilla bugzilla entry:
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1596338
Bug 1596338
firefox-esr 68.2.0.ESR startup error under Debian GNU/Linux

My debian kernel version is:
$ uname -a
Linux ip030 5.2.0-3-amd64 #1 SMP Debian 5.2.17-1 (2019-09-26) x86_64
GNU/Linux

I am using a testing package of Debian. So, that may be one of the
reasons of ill-behavior.

SYMPTOM of the problem:

(1) I upgraded my Debian GNU/Linux packages, and firefox seemed to
updated itself some days ago or yesterday, I am not sure when.

When I tried to run Firefox for the first time after these events by
invoking it from the application menu maybe for the first time in a
few days, Firefox was not usable because any tab including the startup
tab(s) that I wanted to create crashed, and firefox displayed the
error message and offered to close the tab or restore the tab.

Since the tab(s) crashed immediately after startup, if I closed the
tab, Firefox terminated.
If I tried to restore the tabs, this again resulted in the same tab
crashing dialog screen page.  There was no way out.

(2) Another bug I noticed is incorrect link in the help dialog.

I get Page not found error when I clicked on the "What's New" link:

HELP -> About Firefox -> What's New link

I get Page not Found error.

The page shown with BIG "Whoops1" message has URL:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/und/firefox/68.2.0/releasenotes/?utm_campaign=whatsnew&utm_medium=firefox-browser&utm_source=firefox-browser

If I delete the "/und" part manually and hit return in the URL bar,
I think the correct page s being accessed.
(I am not sure if the incorrect URL is Debian-specific or originated
in the mozilla binary.)

In then accessed page I see clearly the following message. So it *IS*
the release note.
--- begin quote

Firefox ESR
Release Notes

Release Notes tell you what’s new in Firefox. As always, we welcome
your feedback. You can also file a bug in Bugzilla or see the system
requirements of this release.

     Desktop
     Android
     iOS
     Pre-releases

68.2.0
Firefox ESR

October 22, 2019
Version 68.2.0, first offered to ESR channel users on October 22, 2019
--- end quote

----

ERROR messages:
While the error in (1) was observed, I saw something like the
following (quoted/pasted at the end of this memo.)
in the startup console where I typed /usr/bin/firefox-esr

Possible Workaround ??? :

I found a solution by accident. I have no idea if this works for everybody.

I tried to restart Firefox after disabling plugin, i.e., safe-mode
from the menu.
This operation failed again and no window was created.
Usually Firefox restart after disabling plugins. But I saw no such
window and there does not seem to be any live firefox process anymore.

ps axg | grep firefox

does not show firefox process.

So, after this, I ran firefox-esr again by typing the command line
this time.  To my relief, this time no tab crashed error screen
appeared, and I can access google search, for example eventually.
Something, maybe some profile or whatever, was changed for the better
(?) is my best guess.

Just thought to share my experience.

---
Note; Some error messages that appeared on the command tty window where I
typed
firefox-esr to start Firefox.

Error messages uring the error (1) above:

$ firefox-esr
IPDL protocol error: Handler returned error code!

###!!! [Parent][DispatchAsyncMessage] Error:
PLayerTransaction::Msg_ReleaseLayer Processing error: message was
deserialized, but the handler returned false (indicating failure)

IPDL protocol error: Handler returned error code!

###!!! [Parent][DispatchAsyncMessage] Error:
PLayerTransaction::Msg_ReleaseLayer Processing error: message was
deserialized, but the handler returned false (indicating failure)

IPDL protocol error: Handler returned error code!

###!!! [Parent][DispatchAsyncMessage] Error:
PLayerTransaction::Msg_ReleaseLayer Processing error: message was
deserialized, but the handler returned false (indicating failure)

IPDL protocol error: Handler returned error code!

###!!! [Parent][DispatchAsyncMessage] Error:
PLayerTransaction::Msg_ReleaseLayer Processing error: message was
deserialized, but the handler returned false (indicating failure)

IPDL protocol error: Handler returned error code!

###!!! [Parent][DispatchAsyncMessage] Error:
PLayerTransaction::Msg_ReleaseLayer Processing error: message was
deserialized, but the handler returned false (indicating failure)

IPDL protocol error: Handler returned error code!

###!!! [Parent][DispatchAsyncMessage] Error:
PLayerTransaction::Msg_ReleaseLayer Processing error: message was
deserialized, but the handler returned false (indicating failure)

IPDL protocol error: Handler returned error code!

###!!! [Parent][DispatchAsyncMessage] Error:
PLayerTransaction::Msg_ReleaseLayer Processing error: message was
deserialized, but the handler returned false (indicating failure)

IPDL protocol error: Handler returned error code!

###!!! [Parent][DispatchAsyncMessage] Error:
PLayerTransaction::Msg_ReleaseLayer Processing error: message was
deserialized, but the handler returned false (indicating failure)

IPDL protocol error: Handler returned error code!

###!!! [Parent][DispatchAsyncMessage] Error:
PLayerTransaction::Msg_ReleaseLayer Processing error: message was
deserialized, but the handler returned false (indicating failure)

IPDL protocol error: Handler returned error code!

###!!! [Parent][DispatchAsyncMessage] Error:
PLayerTransaction::Msg_ReleaseLayer Processing error: message was
deserialized, but the handler returned false (indicating failure)

IPDL protocol error: Handler returned error code!

###!!! [Parent][DispatchAsyncMessage] Error:
PLayerTransaction::Msg_ReleaseLayer Processing error: message was
deserialized, but the handler returned false (indicating failure)

IPDL protocol error: Handler returned error code!

###!!! [Parent][DispatchAsyncMessage] Error:
PLayerTransaction::Msg_ReleaseLayer Processing error: message was
deserialized, but the handler returned false (indicating failure)

IPDL protocol error: Handler returned error code!

###!!! [Parent][DispatchAsyncMessage] Error:
PLayerTransaction::Msg_ReleaseLayer Processing error: message was
deserialized, but the handler returned false (indicating failure)

IPDL protocol error: Handler returned error code!

###!!! [Parent][DispatchAsyncMessage] Error:
PLayerTransaction::Msg_ReleaseLayer Processing error: message was
deserialized, but the handler returned false (indicating failure)

[Parent 6980, Gecko_IOThread] WARNING: pipe error (104): Connection
reset by peer: file
/build/firefox-esr-7jzoEE/firefox-esr-68.2.0esr/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/ipc_channel_posix.cc,
line 358
[Parent 6980, Gecko_IOThread] WARNING: pipe error (103): Connection
reset by peer: file
/build/firefox-esr-7jzoEE/firefox-esr-68.2.0esr/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/ipc_channel_posix.cc,
line 358
[Child 7483, Chrome_ChildThread] WARNING: pipe error (3): Connection
reset by peer: file
/build/firefox-esr-7jzoEE/firefox-esr-68.2.0esr/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/ipc_channel_posix.cc,
line 358

###!!! [Child][MessageChannel] Error:
(msgtype=0x530005,name=PHttpChannel::Msg_Cancel) Closed channel: cannot
send/recv

[Parent 6980, Gecko_IOThread] WARNING: pipe error (114): Connection
reset by peer: file
/build/firefox-esr-7jzoEE/firefox-esr-68.2.0esr/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/ipc_channel_posix.cc,
line 358

###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error:
(msgtype=0x1E008F,name=PBrowser::Msg_Destroy) Closed channel: cannot
send/recv


###!!! [Child][MessageChannel] Error:
(msgtype=0x35011D,name=PContent::Msg_DetachBrowsingContext) Closed
channel: cannot send/recv

[Parent 6980, Gecko_IOThread] WARNING: pipe error (65): Connection reset
by peer: file
/build/firefox-esr-7jzoEE/firefox-esr-68.2.0esr/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/ipc_channel_posix.cc,
line 358
[Parent 6980, Gecko_IOThread] WARNING: pipe error (187): Connection
reset by peer: file
/build/firefox-esr-7jzoEE/firefox-esr-68.2.0esr/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/ipc_channel_posix.cc,
line 358
ishikawa@ip030:/NREF-COMM-CENTRAL/mozilla$ firefox-esr
[Parent 7708, Gecko_IOThread] WARNING: pipe error (109): Connection
reset by peer: file
/build/firefox-esr-7jzoEE/firefox-esr-68.2.0esr/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/ipc_channel_posix.cc,
line 358
[Parent 7708, Gecko_IOThread] WARNING: pipe error (51): Connection reset
by peer: file
/build/firefox-esr-7jzoEE/firefox-esr-68.2.0esr/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/ipc_channel_posix.cc,
line 358

###!!! [Parent][MessageChannel] Error:
(msgtype=0x1E008F,name=PBrowser::Msg_Destroy) Closed channel: cannot
send/recv


###!!! [Child][MessageChannel] Error:
(msgtype=0x35011D,name=PContent::Msg_DetachBrowsingContext) Closed
channel: cannot send/recv

ishikawa@ip030:/NREF-COMM-CENTRAL/mozilla$

[end of main part of my writeup]

#944706#14

Date:: 2026-03-16 15:10:25 UTC

From:

To:

Dear Maintainer,

*** Reporter, please consider answering these questions, where appropriate ***

   * What led up to the situation?
   * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
     ineffective)?
   * What was the outcome of this action?
   * What outcome did you expect instead?

*** End of the template - remove these template lines ***

#944706#19

Date:: 2026-03-29 16:29:01 UTC

From:

To:

Dear Maintainer,

*** Reporter, please consider answering these questions, where appropriate ***

   * What led up to the situation?
   * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
     ineffective)?
   * What was the outcome of this action?
   * What outcome did you expect instead?

*** End of the template - remove these template lines ***

#944706#24

Date:: 2026-04-30 11:07:17 UTC

From:

To:

Dear Maintainer,

*** Reporter, please consider answering these questions, where appropriate ***

   * What led up to the situation?
   * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
     ineffective)?
   * What was the outcome of this action?
   * What outcome did you expect instead?

*** End of the template - remove these template lines ***

#944706#29

Date:: 2026-06-20 09:26:04 UTC

From:

To:

Dear Maintainer,

*** Reporter, please consider answering these questions, where appropriate ***

   * What led up to the situation?
   * What exactly did you do (or not do) that was effective (or
     ineffective)?
   * What was the outcome of this action?
   * What outcome did you expect instead?

*** End of the template - remove these template lines ***
--->https://crash-stats.mozilla.org/report/index/eeaa4d17-f88f-458e-9e43-9b68f0260620#allthreads
--->view-source:https://crash-stats.mozilla.org/report/index/eeaa4d17-f88f-458e-9e43-9b68f0260620#allthreads

#944706 firefox-esr: Tab crashes immediately after start up and Firefox ESR was unusable. #944706

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