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Sometimes programs tell me I can't start it because there is already another instance of it running. Best example would be Firefox and Chromium, but this problem accounts for many applications.

I cannot find the applications PID in the running processes.

How to kill all running instances of a program, e.g. Firefox?

I tried:

ps ax | grep firefox

But everything I can find is:

8193 ?        Rl     0:08 /usr/lib/firefox/firefox

I tried:

kill 8193

But I get:

Process not found

Actually, even when Firefox is running accurately, I cannot find its instances in ps.

What did I miss?

3
  • 3
    With killall firefox you will kill it. Jan 10, 2013 at 19:47
  • 1
    and add a -9 if that doesn't work Jan 11, 2013 at 12:41
  • This really hasn't been asked before?
    – Nobody
    Oct 2, 2016 at 13:23

4 Answers 4

35

The easiest solution for a program that is not responding would be:

killall firefox

and if this doesn't work

killall -9 firefox

and if this still doesn't work, reboot, nothing else will.

For other killall options, see this article on Wikipedia: Link

7

Check if this works

kill -9 `ps -e | grep firefox | cut -b1-6`
3
  • So ps -e | grep firefox shows me the right process, interesting!
    – mcbetz
    Jan 10, 2013 at 19:51
  • 2
    actually, pidof is much easier than this. pidof firefox will get you the right proces immediately. So the the solution could be kill -9 $(pidof firefox). ( the use of backticks (`) is depracated). But I prefer Uri Herrera's solution killall -9 firefox which should do exactly the same. Jan 11, 2013 at 12:45
  • sudo kill -9 `ps -e | grep teamviewer | cut -b1-6` worked pidof did not (Ubuntu 16.04)
    – WiredIn
    Nov 1, 2016 at 22:20
2

Also, to add more functionality to your Ubuntu system
go into settings > keyboard > keyboard shortcuts click add to add to a new shortcut
call the command forcequit or something
the command is xkill
set the shortcut to your choice of buttons
your mouse should turn into a 'x' and it will kill any process you click on

1

In certain circumstances kill and killall may not have the desired effect. This can happen, for instance, if the graphical container of a programme goes haywire. In such cases the process must be killed through xkill.

Simply open the a command line and run xkill. The mouse pointer becomes a cross and the following message appears:

Select the window whose client you wish to kill with button 1....

Then left-click with the mouse pointer on the window containing the rogue programme.

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