1076673 - High memory usage and lots of ghost windows due to Pubpeer 0.1.5 or Garmin Communicator extension

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Extension Compatibility, defect)

Description

[brian.hanley]

Attachment: FB-Memory-Hog.png

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/7.0; SLCC2; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; HPNTDF; .NET4.0C; .NET4.0E; Zune 4.7; rv:11.0) like Gecko

Steps to reproduce:

Start Firefox. (Version 32.0.3) Open 7 sites. Open Facebook. Monitor memory use over an hour during casual use. Split off FB into MSIE and only use Firefox for other sites. 


Actual results:

Firefox went from 166,532K of ram to 737,460K in 45 minutes. I had been monitoring memory use for a couple of months because Firefox would get to memory consumption as high as 1,800,000K which grinds my computer to a halt. After running these tests and seeing that after 2 months and some updates it wasn't fixed, I thought it must be FB. I tried closing the browser tab for FB, and for other sites. Memory might fluctuate, but it isn't let go. So, I started using FB in MSIE. MSIE does not do this. So, I thought it was bad programming in FB. But after using MSIE exclusively for FB, and Firefox for almost everything else, Firefox creeps up in memory use for other sites as well. I've been monitoring it and when it gets to 750,000K or more, I just kill it using Task Manager. That was 4 or 5 times today. 


Expected results:

Pretty obvious. Firefox should not act like it has  memory leak.  Facebook is doing something pretty active, I'm sure of that. But apparently MSIE doesn't have a problem.

Comment 1

[Loic]

That memory increase is not normal. But we need more info.

When the memory use is huge and unusual, type about:memory in a new tab, save a memory log and attach it to the bug.

If you're using add-ons, type about:support and paste the list of add-ons.

In addition, it would be good to test with add-ons disabled, because in many cases, add-ons are the cause of memory leaks.

Comment 2

[brian.hanley]

Attachment: Memory log at 800,000K +

This is the memory log after starting FB about an hour prior.

Comment 3

[brian.hanley]

Attachment: Post-minimization-memory-report.json.gz

This is the memory log after I closed all but the Restore Session page and released memory.

Comment 4

[brian.hanley]

Attachment: Addons screen captures

Screen capture of addons.

Comment 5

[Nicholas Nethercote [inactive]]

Thanks for the additional data, Brian.

In the memory reports is this:

> 219 ── ghost-windows

A "ghost window" is a particular kind of memory leak that shouldn't be happening, and 219 is a really high number of them. In my experience it's usally an extension that's the cause.

You have the "Skype Click to Call" extension installed. That extension has a terrible history of causing memory leaks in Firefox. I suggest disabling that and see if it fixes the problem. Please let us know how that goes. Thank you!

Comment 6

[brian.hanley]

Attachment: Memory log after 1 hr and Skype Click-to-Call disabled. Rebooted after disabling.

Don't think Skype Click-to-Call is it. Disabled that yesterday. Rebooted this morning. Started FB and an hour later memory use is at 757,000. 

MSIE stays stable below 250,000K

Comment 7

[Kris Maglione [:kmag]]

That's somewhat surprising. The other two add-ons seem like likely culprits (and the Garmin Communicator add-on is just a vehicle for plugins; it doesn't have any code of its own).

Can you please provide the contents of about:support rather than screenshots of about:addons? It includes additional information which might be useful.

Thanks.

Comment 8

[brian.hanley]

Application Basics
------------------

Name: Firefox
Version: 32.0.3
User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:32.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/32.0

Crash Reports for the Last 3 Days
---------------------------------

All Crash Reports

Extensions
----------

Name: Garmin Communicator
Version: 4.2.0.0
Enabled: true
ID: {195A3098-0BD5-4e90-AE22-BA1C540AFD1E}

Name: PubPeer
Version: 0.1.5
Enabled: true
ID: jid1-rU2mNakSg7IiSQ@jetpack

Name: Skype Click to Call
Version: 7.3.16540.9015
Enabled: false
ID: {82AF8DCA-6DE9-405D-BD5E-43525BDAD38A}

Graphics
--------

Adapter Description: Intel(R) HD Graphics
Adapter Drivers: igdumd64 igd10umd64 igdumdx32 igd10umd32
Adapter RAM: Unknown
Device ID: 0x0046
Direct2D Enabled: true
DirectWrite Enabled: true (6.2.9200.16571)
Driver Date: 8-31-2011
Driver Version: 8.15.10.2509
GPU #2 Active: false
GPU Accelerated Windows: 1/1 Direct3D 10
Vendor ID: 0x8086
WebGL Renderer: Google Inc. -- ANGLE (Intel(R) HD Graphics Direct3D9Ex vs_3_0 ps_3_0)
windowLayerManagerRemote: false
AzureCanvasBackend: direct2d
AzureContentBackend: direct2d
AzureFallbackCanvasBackend: cairo
AzureSkiaAccelerated: 0

Important Modified Preferences
------------------------------

accessibility.blockautorefresh: true
accessibility.typeaheadfind: true
accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar: 0
browser.cache.disk.capacity: 358400
browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value: 358400
browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run: false
browser.cache.disk.smart_size.use_old_max: false
browser.cache.frecency_experiment: 2
browser.display.use_system_colors: true
browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion: 7
browser.search.useDBForOrder: true
browser.sessionstore.upgradeBackup.latestBuildID: 20140923175406
browser.startup.homepage: http://scholar.google.com/
browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID: 20140923175406
browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone: 32.0.3
browser.tabs.loadInBackground: false
dom.mozApps.used: true
extensions.lastAppVersion: 32.0.3
font.internaluseonly.changed: true
font.minimum-size.x-western: 13
gfx.direct3d.last_used_feature_level_idx: 1
keyword.URL: http://www.google.com
network.cookie.cookieBehavior: 1
network.cookie.prefsMigrated: true
places.database.lastMaintenance: 1412381820
places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages: 102076
plugin.disable_full_page_plugin_for_types: application/pdf
plugin.importedState: true
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_bgcolor: false
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_bgimages: false
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_colorspace:
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_command:
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_downloadfonts: false
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_duplex: -2130280380
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_edge_bottom: 0
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_edge_left: 0
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_edge_right: 0
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_edge_top: 0
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_evenpages: true
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_footercenter:
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_footerleft: &PT
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_footerright: &D
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_headercenter:
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_headerleft: &T
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_headerright: &U
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_in_color: true
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_margin_bottom: 0.5
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_margin_left: 0.5
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_margin_right: 0.5
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_margin_top: 0.5
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_oddpages: true
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_orientation: 0
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_page_delay: 50
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_paper_data: 1
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_paper_height: 11.00
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_paper_name:
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_paper_size_type: 0
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_paper_size_unit: 0
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_paper_width: 8.50
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_plex_name:
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_resolution: -2146270936
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_resolution_name:
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_reversed: false
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_scaling: 1.00
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_shrink_to_fit: true
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_to_file: false
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_unwriteable_margin_bottom: 0
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_unwriteable_margin_left: 0
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_unwriteable_margin_right: 0
print.printer_PDF_Creator.print_unwriteable_margin_top: 0
privacy.donottrackheader.enabled: true
privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs: true
storage.vacuum.last.index: 0
storage.vacuum.last.places.sqlite: 1409344938

JavaScript
----------

Incremental GC: true

Accessibility
-------------

Activated: false
Prevent Accessibility: 0

Library Versions
----------------

NSPR
Expected minimum version: 4.10.6
Version in use: 4.10.6

NSS
Expected minimum version: 3.16.5 Basic ECC
Version in use: 3.16.5 Basic ECC

NSSSMIME
Expected minimum version: 3.16.5 Basic ECC
Version in use: 3.16.5 Basic ECC

NSSSSL
Expected minimum version: 3.16.5 Basic ECC
Version in use: 3.16.5 Basic ECC

NSSUTIL
Expected minimum version: 3.16.5
Version in use: 3.16.5

Experimental Features
---------------------

Comment 9

[Nicholas Nethercote [inactive]]

Thanks for disabling the Skype extension, Brian. Can you try temporarily disabling PubPeer and Garmin as well? That will help us understand if the problem lies in Firefox's core or not. Thank you.

Comment 10

[brian.hanley]

This morning, I let MS update. Rebooted. Started up, and ran for about 20 minutes with FB on in Firefox. computer stopped operating. Looked at memory use, and Firefox was over 2.2 gigabytes. Unfortunately, over the next 10 minutes, I couldn't get a response to create a new tab or get a dump. So I killed Firefox using the task manager.

Comment 11

[brian.hanley]

Ok. Disabled those also.  
FWIW - I'm seeing a lesser degree of memory issues with MSIE. And some messages about cross-window code being modified to prevent it from operating. Also, that MSIE has a different architecture. I can see multiple processes going. If I kill one with a lot of memory taken, it temporarily knocks out a window, but MSIE auto-recovers. I would guess that Firefox uses tasks instead.

Comment 12

[Nicholas Nethercote [inactive]]

Brian: sorry, it's unclear to me if the problem is still there with all the extensions disabled?

Comment 13

[brian.hanley]

Sorry. I wanted to wait for a while to see if it would recur, then got wrapped up in other things. One of those was backing off the latest Microsoft updates that killed my computer. The last 4 MS updates, 3 of them clobbered something. Two killed Office 2013. I traced that to Silverlight updates and after cleaning off Silverlight, everythings fine there. This last was a total freezeup. No clue, but safe mode is my friend. Not that you guys care about that. But... 

It hasn't happened in Firefox since I disabled Pubpeer 0.1.5 and Garmin Communicator.

Comment 14

[Nicholas Nethercote [inactive]]

> It hasn't happened in Firefox since I disabled Pubpeer 0.1.5 and Garmin
> Communicator.

Progress! Excellent. Would you mind doing one more thing? Re-enable one of those two extensions (doesn't matter which one) and then see what the effect is? That should identify which extension is to blame, and we can then take further action. And thank you again for all the effort you've put into this bug :)

Comment 15

[Kris Maglione [:kmag]]

It seems like he made a lot of other changes besides just disabling those extensions, so if re-enabling one doesn't bring the problem back, I don't think we can assume it was the other.

So, if you don't see the problem again after re-enabling one, can you please test re-enabling just the other, and if that doesn't do it, enabling both?

Thanks.

Comment 16

[Nicholas Nethercote [inactive]]

Brian, any further progress? We're *this* close to a full diagnosis :)

Comment 17

[brian.hanley]

Sorry. I've been doing real work. :) 
I just enabled Garmin Communicator. And I'll run FB in Firefox.

Comment 18

[Nicholas Nethercote [inactive]]

FWIW: PubPeer is on AMO here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/pubpeer/. AMO says it has 366 users, i.e. not many.

Garmin Communicator is here: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/garmin-communicator/?src=cb-dl-mostpopular. AMO says it has 367,000 users, which puts it just inside AMO's top 50 list.

Comment 19

[Andrew McCreight [:mccr8]]

There's not really enough information here, plus the bug report is very old, so I'm going to close this as incomplete.