After updating 11.3 to 11.4 I experienced that no shutdown or restart of my system is possible as long Firefox delivered with 11.4 is running. This doesn’t happen with all the other browsers I’m working with. I don’t know if this thread better fits into the application chapter of the forum or into Install/Boot/Login (I’m missing “shutdown” and “restart”).
Does somebody else experience this problem or has already a solution for it?
i have had similar problems with firefox. linux generally runs on a jounalling filesystem, so just unplug/switch off.
I always exit all programs before shutdown or restart, and don’t understand why you want to keep Firefox running. Lazy?
On 2011-10-12 23:46, utopicdog wrote:
>
> i have had similar problems with firefox. linux generally runs on a
> jounalling filesystem, so just unplug/switch off.
That is dangerous, eventually. Instead, just kill the X session:
ctrl-alt-backspace, twice.
Or find out why FF doesn’t close. Try close it before closing the session:
if it takes a long time, often you get a popup message somewhere saying
that a script in some page does not end, stop it or wait? Answer stop and
then FF closes.
Or kill FF. Run ‘xkill’, the mouse arrow changes to crossbones and skull,
click on the window you want to kill.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)
Carlos is right. shutting off the computer like that, whether Windows or Linux is bad. Most people have a hard drive with a platter that spins at about 7200 rpms. Now when the OS is in use, the drive is mounted (even in Windows) so that it can allow for reading and writing. Now there is a magnetic needle just above the platter and when you shut down the computer like that it can cause the needle to hit the platter causing a scratch or whatever. This is why Linux does an fsck after such a shut down and Windows does a scan disk. So if you want to ruin your hard drive, keep doing this. If you want to take care of your hard drive, don’t ever cold boot your computer.
With modern hard drives, this is not happening, the heads are moved to the parking posistion anyway. There is no risk of damaging the hardware.
Linux does an fsck (or replays the journal) because a file system can contain logical errors if not unmounted properly. While most of the time everything is okay after the fsck, there is still a risk that some data is lost or files damaged.
In any event, it is certainly a good advice to not just turn off the power. Closing Firefox first and/or finding out why it does prevent the X Session to end properly, as suggested by other posters, is the better approach.