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Has anyone seen firefox autoupdate conflict with a locked screen saver on Mac OS X... preventing user from logging in to system?

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  • Last reply by FredMcD

pdmiller
pdmiller
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A number of times when I open my macbook pro, the screen is on, but black. There are no windows visible, not even the login prompt. I end up doing a forced power off in order to log in. Recently I saw that the display was in the process of presenting the login form, and also present was the Firefox autoupdate progress bar dialog. Everything seemed locked up... no updates to the progress bar, and the login form was not accessible. The only differences this time was that the screen saver display was not blocking my view of the display... but I could see just those two items, not the full desktop. Makes me wonder if there is some sort of conflict or race condition present when autoupdate is trying to run when the screen is locked. I have since turned off Firefox's autoupdate feature and have it set to 'prompt me'. Will have to wait for the next Firefox update to see if that had an effect.

I wish I had taken a pic of the screen in that bizarre state.

A number of times when I open my macbook pro, the screen is on, but black. There are no windows visible, not even the login prompt. I end up doing a forced power off in order to log in. Recently I saw that the display was in the process of presenting the login form, and also present was the Firefox autoupdate progress bar dialog. Everything seemed locked up... no updates to the progress bar, and the login form was not accessible. The only differences this time was that the screen saver display was not blocking my view of the display... but I could see just those two items, not the full desktop. Makes me wonder if there is some sort of conflict or race condition present when autoupdate is trying to run when the screen is locked. I have since turned off Firefox's autoupdate feature and have it set to 'prompt me'. Will have to wait for the next Firefox update to see if that had an effect. I wish I had taken a pic of the screen in that bizarre state.

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FredMcD
FredMcD
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pdmiller said

I wish I had taken a pic of the screen in that bizarre state.

If it happens again, please do so.

Your system details shows you are on the current Firefox, but an update was put out not too long ago.

Let’s do a full clean re-install;

Download Firefox For All languages And Systems {web link}

Save the file. Then Close Firefox.

Using your file browser, open the Programs Folder on your computer.

Windows: C:\Program Files C:\Program Files (x86)

Mac: Open the "Applications" folder. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/how-download-and-install-firefox-mac

Linux: Check your user manual. If you installed Firefox with the distro-based package manager, you should use the same way to uninstall it. See Install Firefox on Linux; https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/install-firefox-linux

If you downloaded and installed the binary package from the Firefox download page, simply remove the folder Firefox in your home directory. http://www.mozilla.org/firefox#desktop ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Look for, and remove any Mozilla or Firefox program folders. Do not remove the Mozilla Thunderbird folder if there is one.

Do Not remove the profiles folder.

After rebooting the computer, run a registry scanner if you have one. Then run the installer. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++ If there is a problem, start your Computer in safe mode and try again.

http://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Linux+Safe+Mode This shows how to Start all Computers in Safe Mode; Free Online Encyclopedia