Linked to SIDE-171 After updating to Firefox 3, i add the following Stack Trace when starting a selenium session with *firefox: 2008-07-31 19:56:25,093 [SocketListener0-1] WARN HttpConnection - POST /selenium-server/driver/ HTTP/1.1 java.lang.RuntimeException: Firefox refused shutdown while preparing a profile at org.openqa.selenium.server.browserlaunchers.FirefoxCustomProfileLauncher.waitForFullProfileToBeCreated(FirefoxCustomProfileLauncher.java:277) at org.openqa.selenium.server.browserlaunchers.FirefoxCustomProfileLauncher.launch(FirefoxCustomProfileLauncher.java:147) at org.openqa.selenium.server.browserlaunchers.AbstractBrowserLauncher.launchRemoteSession(AbstractBrowserLauncher.java:24) at org.openqa.selenium.server.BrowserSessionFactory.createNewRemoteSession(BrowserSessionFactory.java:312) at org.openqa.selenium.server.BrowserSessionFactory.getNewBrowserSession(BrowserSessionFactory.java:113) at org.openqa.selenium.server.BrowserSessionFactory.getNewBrowserSession(BrowserSessionFactory.java:78) at org.openqa.selenium.server.SeleniumDriverResourceHandler.getNewBrowserSession(SeleniumDriverResourceHandler.java:653) at org.openqa.selenium.server.SeleniumDriverResourceHandler.doCommand(SeleniumDriverResourceHandler.java:410) at org.openqa.selenium.server.SeleniumDriverResourceHandler.handleCommandRequest(SeleniumDriverResourceHandler.java:388) at org.openqa.selenium.server.SeleniumDriverResourceHandler.handle(SeleniumDriverResourceHandler.java:135) at org.mortbay.http.HttpContext.handle(HttpContext.java:1530) at org.mortbay.http.HttpContext.handle(HttpContext.java:1482) at org.mortbay.http.HttpServer.service(HttpServer.java:909) at org.mortbay.http.HttpConnection.service(HttpConnection.java:816) at org.mortbay.http.HttpConnection.handleNext(HttpConnection.java:982) at org.mortbay.http.HttpConnection.handle(HttpConnection.java:833) at org.mortbay.http.SocketListener.handleConnection(SocketListener.java:244) at org.mortbay.util.ThreadedServer.handle(ThreadedServer.java:357) at org.mortbay.util.ThreadPool$PoolThread.run(ThreadPool.java:534) Caused by: org.openqa.selenium.server.browserlaunchers.FirefoxCustomProfileLauncher$FileLockRemainedException: Lock file still present! C:\temp\customProfileDirb890145d88f64b5b9c96a0cc939655b3\parent.lock at org.openqa.selenium.server.browserlaunchers.FirefoxCustomProfileLauncher.waitForFileLockToGoAway(FirefoxCustomProfileLauncher.java:235) at org.openqa.selenium.server.browserlaunchers.FirefoxCustomProfileLauncher.waitForFullProfileToBeCreated(FirefoxCustomProfileLauncher.java:275) ... 18 more I tried to apply the patch from issue SIDE-171 but it did not work for me - same error. Then i tried to get the latest dist from the snapshot repo : selenium-remote-control-1.0-20080731.210103-589-dist.zip. But it also failed when trying to start Firefox 3. I figured out how to make firefox 3 working though. Just have to open the jar file, edit all install.rdf files that are in: customProfileDirCUSTFF\extensions{538F0036-F358-4f84-A764-89FB437166B4}\ customProfileDirCUSTFF\extensions\readystate@openqa.org\ customProfileDirCUSTFFCHROME\extensions{503A0CD4-EDC8-489b-853B-19E0BAA8F0A4}\ customProfileDirCUSTFFCHROME\extensions{538F0036-F358-4f84-A764-89FB437166B4} customProfileDirCUSTFFCHROME\extensions\readystate@openqa.org\ and replace: <em:maxVersion>2.0.0.*</em:maxVersion> by <em:maxVersion>3.0.*</em:maxVersion>