214983 - aws.com Java applet high CPU and instability in Jaguar

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Core Graveyard :: Java: OJI, defect)

Description

[Justin Shore]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; PPC Mac OS X Mach-O; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624

I noticed today that the AWS WeatherNet java applet that our local school
district uses on their website causes Mozilla issues on Mac OS X.  The status
bar indicates that Moz is trying to load a number of pages and download a number
of images.  At the same time the CPU usage skyrockets.  The applet never does
load (although it loads in Netscape 4.7x on Mac OS 9 (not a fair comparison
but...).  Closing the window fixes the CPU consumption problem.  However once
the applet fails to load Moz may crash at any time.  I experimented with this. 
Even after changing the default page to something other than the URL I gave
above and relaunching Moz, Moz would still crash after loading just a few random
pages.  Rebooting was the only true (temporary) fix, as long as I didn't trying
to load that applet again.  Odd.

I don't know if this is an OS X issue or a Moz issue.  This machine is running
10.2.6.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Load the URL cited above and wait for the applet to fail to load.
2. Closing that Moz window will fix the CPU usage issue.  Moz may crash at any
time after the failed loading of the applet though.
3. Reboot to restore stability to Moz and don't load the page again.

Actual Results:  
While the applet was trying to load, the CPU consumption on this 1Ghz eMac
jumped to 100% with Moz being the CPU hog.  Closing the window fixes the CPU
usage problem.

Continuing to use Moz will ultimately cause it to crash in a short amount of
time on simple pages.

Relaunching Moz won't restore stability.  Rebooting is the only fix for that.

Expected Results:  
Loaded the applet or at least not caused CPU usage problems and instability.

OS X 10.2.6
1Ghz eMac w/ 1GB RAM

If I can identify the Talkback crash ID (or create a new one) I'll amend my bug
post.

I would have picked a better Component to list this under, however none stood
out as a general component for Java problems.  Please change the component to
the appropriate one if you happen to know what it is.

Comment 1

[M. LaPlante]

I could be wrong about this, but it sounds like more of a problem with the 
Java than with Mozilla.  The Java plugin is responsible for all the behaviors 
of the java program, such as graphics and loading objects.  For that reason, 
if the program was poorly written, it is the applet itself that is more likely 
the cause of the issue than the browser housing it.  What version of the Java 
runtime do you have installed, and have you examined the java console while 
running the program?  I tested the program on my windows machine and it 
appeared to delay while loading, but the ran fine once finished.

Comment 2

[Justin Shore]

That's distinctly possible.  It's been my experience that most of these little
gems, while written in "Java" actually use more proprietary (OS specific) hooks
than a southern bass fisherman.

I wasn't really sure where to check my JVM version on this box but I believe
this tells us what we need to know.

bash-2.05a$ java -version
java version "1.4.1_01"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.1_01-39)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.1_01-14, mixed mode)


Another thing, I can't actually open the Java Console for some odd reason.  It's
distinctly possible that this machine has more Java issues than I know about. 
I'm going to see if I can get a friend of mine running OS X to test it on his
box for me.

Comment 3

[Bill McGonigle (not currently reading bugmail; please contact directly)]

Reporter - can you try this in Safari and see if you get the same results?  That
would rule in or out Mozilla's culpability.

Aside: java applets shouldn't be able to use any JNI functionality as they can't
reach outside of the sandbox.

Comment 4

[Justin Shore]

I no longer have easy access to the OS X box in question, or any OS X box for
that matter.  I'll try it out if I can gain access to the box again.  There's
been a number of major releases since I reported this problem so it may have
been fixed by now.  I'll report back when I get an OS X box to try it on.

Comment 5

[Bill McGonigle (not currently reading bugmail; please contact directly)]

It looks like WeatherNet is defunct.  The URL above gives a missing class
problem, which might be dynamically served via a cgi that's gone broken.  The
company says they don't support Mac or Unix, so maybe they've gone ActiveX?

Much googling revels nowhere to test this.  If there's no good URL to test this
on I'll resolve it invalid next time 'round.

Comment 6

[Justin Shore]

I got it to load tonight on my PC which is now running 1.8a1.  It worked hit and
miss on the OS X box.  I would sometimes have to reload the page a couple times
to get it to work.  It had a bad tendency to crash Mozilla though.  When I get
access to an OS X box again I'll test it on the later versions and report back
with the results.  BTW, the URL I gave in the bug details won't always have a
working WeatherNet machine attached to it.  The school's WeatherNet machine has
some "issues" and frequently reboots.  Since it doesn't automatically log in or
spawn the WeatherNet processes at boot, a human must manually kick the machine
to get everything going.  Yesterday was the last day for kids in that District.
 Here in a week or so there won't be anyone around on a daily basis to keep that
machine running.  I thought I'd mention it just in case someone tried it on a
known working machine and couldn't get it to work.  FYI.

Comment 7

[Bill McGonigle (not currently reading bugmail; please contact directly)]

Justin, can you provide a stable test URL?  Any WeatherNet site should suffice - I couldn't dig up one 
that was working through Google.

Comment 8

[Justin Shore]

I did a little digging tonight and actually found a hundred or more for you via
our local news station's website that we're doing WeatherNet through.

http://www.ksn.com/weather/weatherlabnetwork/default.asp

I came across a page at AWS (makers of WeatherNet?) that lets you pick any site
running WeatherNet by their station ID.  Load the URL above.  Mouseover one of
the sites and note the value of $id.  Then take this URL:

http://aws.com/ksnw/broadcast.asp?javaid=KCHMS&units=0

Substitute the value of $id for $javaid.  That should get you a working
WeatherNet site.  The other way is to take the first URL and pick random
WeatherNet station sites, load their website, and hope you can find the page
linking to the WeatherNet stuff.  HTH

Comment 9

[Bill McGonigle (not currently reading bugmail; please contact directly)]

Thanks for the links.  I updated the URL field with one example.

WFM on X.3.4/Java 1.3.1/Moz 1.7rc1.  Loads, works OK, CPU usage at about 10% on
a 1.25GHz iBook G4.

If anyone can reproduce this, please see which version of Java 1.3 you have, as
Mozilla doesn't yet use Java 1.4.

/System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework/Versions/1.3.1/Commands/java -version

Comment 10

[Bill McGonigle (not currently reading bugmail; please contact directly)]

This also WFM on an iBook 500/G3 but the CPU usage is near 25%.

Extrapolating, a machine near 100MHz would take all of the CPU.  My tests were on Panther - if you 
throw a slower OS into the Mix, say 10.1 running on a 233MHz iMac you might very well hit the wall.

However the original report was on a 1GHz eMac on Jaguar which ought to be plenty, all things being 
equal.

BTW, the missing Java Console is due to Apple's Java Plugin not supporting it - everything goes to the 
system console which you have to use Console.app to see.

So this is either fixed by a current Mozilla or 10.3, I'm not sure which.  If it's a problem with 10.2's java 
Apple's not going to do much about it.  If it's some erstwhile undiscovered 10.2/Mozilla problem that 
would need a looksee but my hunch is it's not. 

So, 10.2 qa still needed.

Comment 11

[Frankie]

Justin, please retest with all Jaguar updates (10.2.8, Java, etc) and a recent
Moz release

WFM OSX 10.3

Comment 12

[Justin Shore]

I no longer have ready access to an OS X machine.  Is anyone else able to test
for this bug?

Comment 13

[Pete Zha]

mass reassign to Alfred

Comment 14

[Bryan Henry]

There's been no activity here since 2004 (besides a reassignment), and I'm unable to reproduce this.

If you have some input on this bug, please post a comment here. Otherwise this bug will be resolved in two weeks (Feb 6, 2008).

Comment 15

[Frankie]

Agree with Bryan.