Member Avatar for ehpratah

Hi

Has anyone of you having a problem opening firefox , google chrome and thunderbird since yesterday? coz almost all of our unit that is running in ubuntu and Zorin OS are experiencing the same bugs.. i already tried updating and upgrading the OS but still having the error and i also tried re installing the applications but im not getting any progress..

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  • Latest Post Latest Post by ehpratah

Dani AI

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Short summary and context: discovered the browsers failing to start were being blocked by on‑access scanning from Sophos (while reported no problem on their Kubuntu box). Below are concise, practical steps to confirm the cause and safely remediate the problem for Ubuntu/Zorin machines.

Quick checks to reproduce the error and capture messages:

  • Start the browser from a terminal to see any stderr output or segfault messages.
  • Try the browsers in safe mode to rule out extensions/profile corruption.
firefox -safe-mode
thunderbird -safe-mode
# run normally to capture any terminal errors:
firefox

If Sophos is present, test whether on‑access scanning is the trigger by temporarily stopping it (this is a diagnostic step only; turning real‑time scanning off reduces protection). On traditional Sophos for Linux the on‑access control and status tools are under /opt/sophos-av; you can disable/enable and check status with the included utilities. To make the change persistent there is a savconfig option as well. (community.sophos.com)

sudo /opt/sophos-av/bin/savdctl disable
sudo /opt/sophos-av/bin/savdstatus
# to persistently disable starting on boot (use with caution):
sudo /opt/sophos-av/bin/savconfig set EnableOnStart false

Follow‑up actions and safe fixes: if disabling on‑access fixes the browsers, re‑enable scanning and instead create targeted exclusions for the browser binaries, cache and profile folders. Also ensure Sophos is updated (engine and product), check Sophos logs (installation path differs in newer SPL builds), and open a support case with Sophos if legitimate apps are being blocked. Don’t leave real‑time scanning off on production machines—either add exclusions or move to a supported configuration. (docs.sophos.com)

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Member Avatar for Gribouillis

No problem with firefox in kubuntu.

Member Avatar for ehpratah

Foud the problem. it seems that the on access scanning of sophos is the one causing of the bugs.

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