Firefox does not start with Athlon XP CPU (Known Issue)

[Falcon]

I have a desktop computer running a core i3 processor, 16GB of RAM, 250 GB SSD and a 500GB HDD. I installed MX Linux 18 on it and it seems to work very well except for one thing and that is the interaction, or lack of it, between Thunderbird and web browsers. I started using the version of Firefox that came with the Installation of MX Linux 18. It was marked as being the default browser. I also created some email accounts in Thunderbird and was able to send and receive email with them. The problems come in when I try to click a link in an email.

1) If Firefox is not running and I click the Firefox icon in the Panel, Firefox starts up and does not ask me to make it the default browser.

2) If Firefox is NOT running, and I click a link in an email, Firefox opens, but asks me to make it the default browser. As mentioned above, it is ALREADY the default browser.

3) If Firefox is still running and I click another link in an email nothing happens; Firefox stays running, but no new tabs are opened.

4) If I shut down Firefox, and then restart it, it asks me to make it the default web browser. If I click "Yes", then tabs open that correspond to the links that I clicked in the emails previously.

I executed the following command in a terminal:

Code: Select all

Bob@Warthog:~
$ su
Password: 
root@Warthog:/home/Bob# update-alternatives --config x-www-browser
There are 3 choices for the alternative x-www-browser (providing /usr/bin/x-www-browser).

  Selection    Path                Priority   Status
------------------------------------------------------------
  0            /usr/bin/firefox     100       auto mode
* 1            /usr/bin/firefox     100       manual mode
  2            /usr/bin/mx-viewer   20        manual mode
  3            /usr/bin/waterfox    40        manual mode

Press <enter> to keep the current choice[*], or type selection number: 

I finally decided that there must be some kind of problem between Thunderbird and Firefox, so I decided to install Waterfox from the MX Package Installer and make it the default browser, but I got the same type of operation that I got with Firefox. Here is a readout of my System Information:"

Code: Select all

[code]
System:    Host: Warthog Kernel: 4.19.0-1-amd64 x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 6.3.0 
           Desktop: Xfce 4.12.3 Distro: MX-18.3_x64 Continuum Apr 7  2019 
           base: Debian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch) 
Machine:   Type: Desktop Mobo: ASUSTeK model: B150M-A D3 v: Rev X.0x serial: <filter> 
           UEFI [Legacy]: American Megatrends v: 0212 date: 07/10/2015 
CPU:       Topology: Dual Core model: Intel Core i3-6100 bits: 64 type: MT MCP arch: Skylake-S 
           rev: 3 L2 cache: 3072 KiB 
           flags: lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 29568 
           Speed: 899 MHz min/max: 800/3700 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 899 2: 1250 3: 1277 
           4: 1235 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 530 vendor: ASUSTeK driver: i915 v: kernel 
           bus ID: 00:02.0 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.19.2 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
           resolution: 1920x1200~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel HD Graphics 530 (Skylake GT2) v: 4.5 Mesa 18.2.6 
           direct render: Yes 
Audio:     Device-1: Intel Sunrise Point-H HD Audio vendor: ASUSTeK driver: snd_hda_intel 
           v: kernel bus ID: 00:1f.3 
           Sound Server: ALSA v: k4.19.0-1-amd64 
Network:   Device-1: Realtek RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet vendor: ASUSTeK 
           driver: r8169 v: kernel port: e000 bus ID: 05:00.0 
           IF: eth0 state: up speed: 100 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter> 
Drives:    Local Storage: total: 698.65 GiB used: 36.53 GiB (5.2%) 
           ID-1: /dev/sda vendor: Samsung model: SSD 850 EVO 250GB size: 232.89 GiB 
           ID-2: /dev/sdb vendor: Western Digital model: WD5000AZRX-00A3KB0 size: 465.76 GiB 
Partition: ID-1: / size: 226.23 GiB used: 9.90 GiB (4.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1 
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 2.00 GiB used: 0 KiB (0.0%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda2 
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 37.0 C mobo: N/A 
           Fan Speeds (RPM): cpu: 0 
Repos:     Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/antix.list 
           1: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/antix/stretch stretch main
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian-stable-updates.list 
           1: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch-updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.list 
           1: deb http://ftp.us.debian.org/debian/ stretch main contrib non-free
           2: deb http://security.debian.org/ stretch/updates main contrib non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mx.list 
           1: deb http://mirrors.rit.edu/mxlinux/mx-packages/mx/repo/ stretch main non-free
           Active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/skype-stable.list 
           1: deb [arch=amd64] https://repo.skype.com/deb stable main
           No active apt repos in: /etc/apt/sources.list.d/various.list 
Info:      Processes: 193 Uptime: 1h 58m Memory: 15.55 GiB used: 1.03 GiB (6.6%) Init: SysVinit 
           runlevel: 5 Compilers: gcc: 6.3.0 Shell: bash v: 4.4.12 inxi: 3.0.33 

[/code]

Incidentally, my laptop computer which is also running MX Linux 18, has this same problem.

My desktop is using the following software versions:

T-Bird 60.6.1

Firefox 67.0.2

Waterfox 56.2.10.1

I hope that someone can provide some assistance in finding a solution to this frustrating problem.

Thanks in advance...!!!

[JayM]

Why are you opening a new topic for this? You're needlessly duplicating the one you've already opened and haven't responded to:
viewtopic.php?f=104&t=50761

[Falcon]

I'm opening a new topic here because I am having the same problem on two totally different machines so this seems to be a systemic problem having to do with Thunderbird and the way that it interfaces with browser programs, not just Thunderbird and Firefox. It seems more like a Software/Configuration Forum problem to me than an MX Help Forum problem. Hence, I opened the topic here.

[JayM]

Well, I'll leave the moderating to the moderators, but if it was me I'd just add the information to the previous post that my second computer is having the same issue, and post its quick system information, rather than starting a duplicate topic. By the way, did you ever try those testing steps that I suggested?

[richb]

Topics have been merged.

[mike lovin]

My processor is one of the old Athlon XP that does not have the SSE2 extension. Firefox 49 will not support these CPUs. As a result, it will be open to possible security vulnerabilities found in future versions of Firefox. Chrome has stopped supporting these processors for months. You can still download the extended support version that supports these processors, but this will end in March 2017.

My processor is the AMD Athlon XP 3200+ and it runs Firefox-esr in the latest AntiX, so I'm trying to figure out why using Firefox-esr will not work in MX with my machine, because I would rather use MX. I've tried the AntiX kernel, but that didn't fix it. Btw the AntiX version is 17.4.1_386-full and the Firefox-esr version is 60.6.1

[Utopia]

The post by bkdroid13 has been deleted as spam.
It was copied from an old post at Bleepingcomputer.com.
Henry

[JayM]

A quick websearch for web browser that works with athlon xp turned these up:
https://softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/ ... uction-set
https://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=125659
Palemoon may work depending on version, Opera may work depending on version, Dillo is said to work and be very fast. There just aren't many modern web browsers that don't require a CPU with the SSE2 instruction set.

[Stevo]

I'm opening a new topic here because I am having the same problem on two totally different machines so this seems to be a systemic problem having to do with Thunderbird and the way that it interfaces with browser programs, not just Thunderbird and Firefox. It seems more like a Software/Configuration Forum problem to me than an MX Help Forum problem. Hence, I opened the topic here.

You're not opening a new thread, you're hijacking one that has nothing to do with your problem.

Please stick with established forum etiquette in the future. Thank you.