security updates causing firefox trouble?

[stan]

On Fri, 7 Aug 2009 16:23:33 -0700
jackson byers <byersjab at gmail.com> wrote:
> I first logged out of X and back in.
> 
> it turned out to be easy to do;
> 
>  but i cant be certain what did it:
> 
>  ps ax |grep -i firef
>  showed 8024 as before
>  just before doing:
> 
> [root at f10 ~]# fg %8024
> -bash: fg: %8024: no such job
> [root at f10 ~]# kill -15 8024
> -bash: kill: (8024) - No such process
> [root at f10 ~]# kill -9 8024
> -bash: kill: (8024) - No such process
> [root at f10 ~]# ps ax |grep -i firef
> 19058 pts/1    S+     0:00 grep -i firef
> [root at f10 ~]#
> 
> we see 8024 now gone.
> 
> So, one of those 3 commands, or their combination,
>  resulted in killing the 8024 process.

I think it was the log in and out of X that allowed the process to
complete.  It was sleeping waiting for a resource.  When you logged out,
I surmise it got access to the resource it was waiting for and was able
to finish.  The fact that the commands showed no such process indicates
it was finished before you ran them.  Nice illustration of the scheduler
in the kernel doing its job.

I know Tony said that can't happen in *nix, and I agree with him, *but*
your situation indicates to me that it (or something very like it) did.
Maybe there is another explanation.

> 
> [root at f10 ~]# yum-complete-transaction
> Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, presto, refresh-packagekit
> Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
>  * fedora: fedora.mirror.facebook.net
>  * rpmfusion-free: mirror.web-ster.com
>  * rpmfusion-free-updates: mirror.web-ster.com
>  * rpmfusion-nonfree: mirror.web-ster.com
>  * rpmfusion-nonfree-updates: mirror.web-ster.com
>  * updates: mirror.stanford.edu
> ...
> No Presto metadata available for updates
> No unfinished transactions left.
> -------
> [root at f10 ~]# package-cleanup --problems
> Setting up yum
> Loaded plugins: fastestmirror, presto, refresh-packagekit
> Loading mirror speeds from cached hostfile
> Setting up and reading Presto delta metadata
> Reading local RPM database
> Processing all local requires
> No problems found
> [root at f10 ~]#
> 
> It is good to have learned these commands.
> Appears my system is ok,
> including updated new kernel
> 
> byers at f10 ~]$ uname -a
> Linux f10.pacbell.net 2.6.27.29-170.2.78.fc10.i686 #1 SMP Fri Jul 31
> 04:40:15 EDT 2009 i686 i686 i386 GNU/Linux
> 

This is great!  And again, indicates to me that the process finished
normally, allowing it to finish all tasks and clean up properly.

> 
> thanks again for the help
> Jack
> 
Welcome!