[Solved] Firefox blowing up immediately with latest bits

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1

I just updated several machines to the latest bits. Firefox is now crashing immediately on initialization. I have no idea what the issue is (tried running under strace but that didn’t help) and while I don’t have anything questionable loaded, I do have a ton of windows and tabs opened in my previous session including personal info and I don’t particularly want to send all that to Mozilla or Fedora to sift through.

If I do this: MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=0 firefox firefox starts and loads my previous session.

I haven’t found anything on here or the wider web that looks like this issue, but beyond my predilection for loading a ton of windows and tabs simultaneously I doubt I’m the only one.

The issue occurs whether I have a default firefox profile or a selection of profiles.

firefox -safe-mode achieves nothing: just sits at the command prompt, no firefox windows appear.

Firefox version is 154.0

2

I’ve just tested 154.0 on arm and x86_64, both just worked, so it is no a general issue.

What is your hardware? Please post the output of inxi -ezxx.

When you say it crashes do you mean that you have a coredump?
Check with coredumpctl list.

Do you have error logs at the time you start firefox in either the user or system journals?

If you run firefox -P can you create a new profile and does firefox start?
If you create a new user and login as that user does firefox start?

3

Please use versions, “latest” will be a useless description in a few days and does’t tell us which desktop you have.

4

I have several systems. Just updated Dell and Lenovo laptops so far - experienced same behavior on both types. Here’s the inxi output for this Thinkpad:

System:
Kernel: 7.1.9-200.fc44.x86_64 arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 16.1.1
Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.7.4 tk: Qt v: N/A wm: kwin_wayland dm: N/A
Distro: Fedora Linux 44 (KDE Plasma Desktop Edition)
Machine:
Type: Laptop System: LENOVO product: 21FWSBAH00 v: ThinkPad P1 Gen 6
serial: Chassis: type: 10 serial:
Mobo: LENOVO model: 21FWSBAH00 v: SDK0T76530 WIN
serial: part-nu: LENOVO_MT_21FW_BU_Think_FM_ThinkPad
P1 Gen 6 Firmware: UEFI vendor: LENOVO v: N3ZET54W (1.41 )
date: 02/23/2026
Battery:
ID-1: BAT0 charge: 63.2 Wh (74.8%) condition: 84.5/90.1 Wh (93.8%)
volts: 16.39 min: 15.52 model: SMP 5B11M90061 serial: charging:
status: not charging control: start: 15% end: 91% cycles: 39
CPU:
Info: 14-core (6-mt/8-st) model: 13th Gen Intel Core i7-13800H bits: 64
type: MST AMCP arch: Raptor Lake rev: 2 cache: L1: 1.2 MiB L2: 11.5 MiB
L3: 24 MiB
Speed (MHz): avg: 900 min/max: 400/2500:1800 cores: 1: 900 2: 900 3: 900
4: 900 5: 900 6: 900 7: 900 8: 900 9: 900 10: 900 11: 900 12: 900 13: 900
14: 900 15: 900 16: 900 17: 900 18: 900 19: 900 20: 900 bogomips: 116736
Flags-basic: avx avx2 ht lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx
Graphics:
Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake-P [Iris Xe Graphics] vendor: Lenovo driver: i915
v: kernel arch: Xe ports: active: eDP-1 empty: none bus-ID: 00:02.0
chip-ID: 8086:a7a0
Device-2: NVIDIA AD104GLM [RTX 3500 Ada Generation Laptop GPU]
vendor: Lenovo driver: nouveau v: kernel arch: Lovelace pcie: speed: 16 GT/s
lanes: 8 ports: active: none empty: DP-1,DP-2,HDMI-A-1 bus-ID: 01:00.0
chip-ID: 10de:27bb
Device-3: Luxvisions Innotech Integrated Camera driver: uvcvideo type: USB
rev: 2.0 speed: 480 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-8:3 chip-ID: 30c9:00ad
Display: wayland server: Xwayland v: 24.1.13 compositor: kwin_wayland
driver: gpu: i915 display-ID: 0
Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: Samsung 0x4165 res: 3840x2400 hz: 60 dpi: 284
diag: 406mm (16")
API: EGL v: 1.5 platforms: device: 0 drv: zink device: 1 drv: iris
device: 2 drv: swrast gbm: drv: zink surfaceless: drv: zink wayland:
drv: iris x11: drv: iris
API: OpenGL v: 4.6 vendor: intel mesa v: 26.1.7 glx-v: 1.4
direct-render: yes renderer: Mesa Intel Iris Xe Graphics (RPL-P)
device-ID: 8086:a7a0 display-ID: :0.0
API: Vulkan v: 1.4.341 surfaces: N/A device: 0 type: integrated-gpu
driver: mesa intel device-ID: 8086:a7a0 device: 1 type: discrete-gpu
driver: mesa nvk device-ID: 10de:27bb device: 2 type: cpu
driver: mesa llvmpipe device-ID: 10005:0000
Info: Tools: api: clinfo, eglinfo, glxinfo, vulkaninfo
de: kscreen-console,kscreen-doctor wl: wayland-info x11: xdriinfo,
xdpyinfo, xprop, xrandr
Audio:
Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake-P/U/H cAVS vendor: Lenovo
driver: sof-audio-pci-intel-tgl bus-ID: 00:1f.3 chip-ID: 8086:51ca
Device-2: NVIDIA AD104 High Definition Audio vendor: Lenovo
driver: snd_hda_intel v: kernel pcie: speed: 16 GT/s lanes: 8
bus-ID: 01:00.1 chip-ID: 10de:22bc
API: ALSA v: k7.1.9-200.fc44.x86_64 status: kernel-api
Server-1: PipeWire v: 1.6.8 status: active with: 1: pipewire-pulse
status: active 2: wireplumber status: active 3: pipewire-alsa type: plugin
4: pw-jack type: plugin
Network:
Device-1: Intel Raptor Lake PCH CNVi WiFi driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
bus-ID: 00:14.3 chip-ID: 8086:51f1
IF: wlp0s20f3 state: up mac:
Bluetooth:
Device-1: Intel AX211 Bluetooth driver: btusb v: 0.8 type: USB rev: 2.0
speed: 12 Mb/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: 1-10:4 chip-ID: 8087:0033
Report: btmgmt ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: up address: bt-v: 5.4
lmp-v: 13
Drives:
Local Storage: total: 3.64 TiB used: 1.05 TiB (28.8%)
ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 vendor: Smart Modular Tech. model: SHPP41-2000GM
size: 1.82 TiB speed: 63.2 Gb/s lanes: 4 serial: temp: 51.9 C
ID-2: /dev/sda vendor: SanDisk model: Extreme 55AE size: 1.82 TiB
type: USB rev: 3.2 spd: 5 Gb/s lanes: 1 serial:
Partition:
ID-1: / size: 1.82 TiB used: 450.47 GiB (24.2%) fs: btrfs
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3
ID-2: /boot size: 1.9 GiB used: 845.6 MiB (43.5%) fs: ext4
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2
ID-3: /boot/efi size: 598.8 MiB used: 20.1 MiB (3.4%) fs: vfat
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1
ID-4: /home size: 1.82 TiB used: 450.47 GiB (24.2%) fs: btrfs
dev: /dev/nvme0n1p3
Swap:
ID-1: swap-1 type: zram size: 8 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) priority: 100
dev: /dev/zram0
Sensors:
System Temperatures: cpu: 63.0 C mobo: 62.2 C
Fan Speeds (rpm): fan-1: 2325 fan-2: 2019
Info:
Memory: total: 64 GiB note: est. available: 62.43 GiB
used: 24.35 GiB (39.0%)
Processes: 513 Power: uptime: 1d 5h 50m wakeups: 3 Init: systemd v: 259
default: graphical
Packages: pm: rpm pkgs: N/A note: see --rpm Compilers: gcc: 16.2.1
Shell: Bash v: 5.3.9 running-in: konsole inxi: 3.3.41

I am using Firefox 154.0 right now with Wayland disabled via environment variable. I have a couple of Firefox profiles.

5

Firefox crash handler deployed but as I said, I am leery of sending crash dumps to anyone in case there’s sensitive info in there.

6

I posted the topic as a heads-up as much as anything, but it seems that it’s something that’s only affecting me. I had something very similar happen in the past that appeared related to the amount of tabs and windows I tend to keep on the go: I updated to a new version and was immediately met with crashes. In that instance I managed to delete some Firefox state and Firefox started again.

This time I tried deleting Firefox *.sqlite etc. files (actually, just moved them out of .mozilla directories e.g.) but none of my arbitrary changes resulted in a working installation (I restored them after experimenting). Only setting MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=0 got me going.

If nothing gets magically fixed in the next week or so I guess I’ll just uninstall and reinstall Firefox from scratch, and probably lose a bunch of state.

Thanks.

7

Does the crash dump hansler allow you to see crash details without sending them out?

Usually you need to install the rpmfusion nvidia drivers to get working kde plasma.
See Making sure you're not a bot!

After install the rpmfusion nvidia drivers if you still have issues please do these::

8

I had exactly the same problem. Safe mode resulted in nothing. Instant crashes otherwise. Nothing really came up on the internet, so I guessed it was at my end. I recently forced its built in VPN via about:config browser.ipProtection.enabled, and updated some containers, so I assumed it was related to this. Safe mode and reinstalling did not help.

I had a backup of my bookmarks, so I uninstalled Firefox, deleted my entire .Mozilla directory in \home, reinstalled Firefox, and everything worked.

9

Reinstall of firefox will change nothing as all the config is in your $HOME.
This is a general point about Fedora - a reinstall will not change config.

When you deleted the .mozilla stuff that removed your firefox profile and maybe some addons if you use them.

Often it is sufficient to create a new profile to track down a config issue.
This you can do with the firefox -P command line option.

10

As the OP stated, it was impossible to start Firefox with either the firefox -P or firefox -safe options. It just crashed.

11

Anyone got any journal output from the crashes? Given that issue was remediated via the use of a flag which turns off the use of Wayland by the Firefox executable, it’s doubtful that the profile has much to do with it.

I’d like to see what Wayland and Firefox emitted when detonating.

12

The Dell laptop I updated first has an RTX 3050 and rpmfusion drivers. Firefox failed the same way. I’m not installing rpmfusion on the Thinkpad because I had it running Arch (with Nvidia drivers from the Arch distro) and it produced a lot of kernel panics and oops. Since I’m not doing anything graphics related I’ve not bothered with the additional hassle of Nvidia drivers. Since I swapped Arch for Fedora (clean install, new SSD) it’s been running like a charm prior to the Firefox issue.

13

I checked journalctl. Didn’t see anything related to Firefox per se. Same with coredumpctl. However, there was a single wireplumber crash (SIGABRT - inaccessible) around the same time as I was struggling with Firefox.

14

FYI we are not hearing such report for Fedora and the rpmfusion drivers.

15

Firefox does start if I do firefox -P in my current account. I created a new Test profile which as you’d expect is completely devoid of any prior state. However, I had a Dev profile in addition to the default profile. That has now disappeared and the following profile dialog doesn’t look like the one I normally experience (below):

Screenshot_20260825_152328
Screenshot_20260825_152328766×681 48.6 KB

If I choose default-release Firefox still crashes:

Screenshot_20260825_152407
Screenshot_20260825_1524071167×831 108 KB

If I start firefox with MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=0 firefox I do still get my Dev profile and this familiar profile dialog:

Screenshot_20260825_152610
Screenshot_20260825_1526101522×1571 162 KB

As I said, I’m sure it’s something to do with the number of tabs & windows I keep open simultaneously. A very similar situation occurred after a firefox update in the past but this time I’m not able to get myself going by deleting/moving various firefox state files like I did previously. It seems that without nuking my firefox installation or trying to rebuild all my bookmarks et al from scratch (don’t tend to keep regular backups of those) with a new profile (and the default will still be crashing it seems) then I can’t rescue firefox from whatever state it’s in after the recent update.

16

Which is why I’m back to Fedora on this machine, thanks. But as I said, since I’m not doing anything graphics-intensive and since I had a bad experience with the previous installation I thought I’d use the simplest configuration I could get away with. I’d had enough of swapping SSDs and installing distros when I just wanted to use the machine to write code.

17

Something very weird is going on with profiles on my machine(s): I figured if the problem really is the number of tabs and windows then maybe I can clean that up. I managed to start my original and Dev profiles (WAYLAND disabled) and delete various windows and tabs (worst offender: 161 tabs, but there were other similar ones) then save the state. That didn’t fix the problem. Either I can only start with MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=0 firefox or I get the profile dialog with the empty Test profile I just created when starting firefox normally (no env variable) and in which the default profile still crashes if I try to start it.

When started with the WAYLAND env var, I have access to my Dev profile. However, if I try to switch to that having started in the default profile, I get a whole new invocation of firefox without the original closing and some unfamiliar diagnostic output in the terminal:

$ MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=0 firefox
libva info: VA-API version 1.23.0
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib64/dri-nonfree/iHD_drv_video.so
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib64/dri-freeworld/iHD_drv_video.so
libva info: Trying to open /usr/lib64/dri/iHD_drv_video.so
libva info: Found init function __vaDriverInit_1_23
libva info: va_openDriver() returns 0

In ps, I see, e.g., the original firefox process:

19955 pts/1 Sl+ 5:15 /usr/lib64/firefox/firefox

and then this one, e.g., when I try to switch to my Dev profile:

22196 pts/1 Rl+ 0:47 /usr/lib64/firefox/firefox --profile /home/user/.mozilla/firefox/profileid.Profile 1 --profiles-activate

where profileid is the firefox-generated profile id.

Summary: if I start firefox normally, with my default and Dev profiles, firefox crashes, even having closed many tabs and windows and saving the new state. If I start firefox with MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=0 firefox firefox doesn’t crash, but if I try to switch profiles a new firefox process is started with the new profile loaded and the previous firefox process with the previous profile stays intact (new or different processes on switching profiles may be standard behavior, I’ve never checked before, but I tend to doubt that). It appears to me that there are different profiles or identities depending on whether I’m running under the normal Wayland configuration, or with Wayland disabled for firefox (presumably it’s using the X11 bridge?)

I think the best thing to do is export my bookmarks, uninstall, delete any state, then reinstall firefox from scratch, import the bookmarks and carry on with what’s left of my life and sacrifice all my session state to posterity. Or, just keep running with MOZ_ENABLE_WAYLAND=0 firefox.

PS: before running these latest tests I did update to the latest available binaries, just in case. I went from 7.1.9-200.fc44.x86_64 to 7.1.10-200.fc44.x86_64 kernel.

18

I’m resolving this as solved/fixed. I removed and reinstalled Firefox. It’s now working normally, or appears to be. No idea what the issue was but it’s evidently something to do with the way I’ve been using Firefox.

One thing I did notice: my firefox state was being stored in ~/.mozilla. Now that I’ve installed it from fresh I notice state appears to have moved to ~/.config/mozilla. Was that the reason for my previous firefox installations behaving erratically? I keep upgrading Fedora across versions, although my Thinkpad Fedora installation was a fresh install of 44. I likely did rsync my home directory from a previous machine/installation however.

I saved and restored my bookmarks but the rest of my persistent state has gone. Guess I’ll be enabling Firefox to automatically backup from now on.

Thanks to all who took a look at this and ventured assistance.

19

The default location changed in Firefox 147, but I think existing installs went on using the original ~/.mozilla directory.

I wouldn’t be shocked in principle if that caused some weirdness, though I don’t recall seeing many reports of problems.