293336 - Firefox 'freezes' during PDF download - 'unfreezes' after download completes.

Status: RESOLVED DUPLICATE of bug 253117

(Firefox :: File Handling, defect)

Description

[J.Smith]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.7) Gecko/20050414 Firefox/1.0.3
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.7.7) Gecko/20050414 Firefox/1.0.3


When I click on a link that points to a pdf file, all my firefox windows appear
to 'freeze' until Acrobat is started and the entire PDF file is downloaded.
After the startup of Acribat and the download of the PDF is completed, FireFox
'unfreezes' again and everything resumes to normal. 

I am getting the impression that once a PDF is clicked, control is handed over
by FireFox to the plugin the handles the filetype, and FireFox doesnt resume
execution until the plugin has returned control to FireFox. This might happen
with other plug-ins as well, its just that it is so much more obvious for me
with Adobe Acrobat.


I had this behaviour with at least FireFox 1.0.1 and FireFox 1.0.3. It might
also be present in other versions, but I havent tried it. Running FireFox on
Windows XP Professional SP2, and Acrobat Reader v



Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Find a web page that provides a link to a PDF file
2. Click on the link that points to the PDF file.
3. FireFox will now appear to 'freeze' and becomes unresponsive.
4. Wait for the startup of the Acrobat Reader plug-in, and the download of the
PDF to complete.
5. After completion, FireFox resumes normal responsive behaviour.

Actual Results:  
All FireFox windows freeze and becomes unresponsive.

Expected Results:  
FireFox windows should responsive during the startup of the Adobe Acrobat
plug-in and download of the PDF file.

Comment 1

[Grey Hodge (jX)]

This isn't our bug. Acrobat is notoriously slow, and you'll find most of you
system crawls while it loads. One solution is to upgrade to Acrobat Reader 7.

Comment 2

[Ali Ebrahim]

Verifying, upgrading to Adobe Reader 7 will make a huge difference speed wise,
especially if you're currently using Adobe Reader 6.

Comment 3

[J.Smith]

Well I agree that Acrobat is notoriously slow, but to me that is not really the
issue. 

If I start Acrobat by clicking on a PDF in my explorer/file manager, this has no
unreasonable impact on the responsiveness of FireFox. 

From my point of view, the bug is that all of the FireFox windows appear to
'wait' and/or 'block' until the plugin is started. Should this behaviour not be
changed so that at least the other FireFox windows remain responsive during the
start-up of the plug-in ?

Comment 4

[Grey Hodge (jX)]

"If I start Acrobat by clicking on a PDF in my explorer/file manager, this has no
unreasonable impact on the responsiveness of FireFox."

That's because Firefox isn't launching Acrobat as a helper app/plugin when you
do it from Explorer. Firefox's performance also isn't affected when you open a
Word Document or WMV video from Explorer. Same reason, you're now using separate
apps. Your Ford isn't affected when you change the oil in your Chevy.

Comment 5

[Thomas K. (:tom)]

Also, I should reenforce the suggestion to get Acrobat Reader 7.  It really does
load lightyears faster.

Comment 6

[J.Smith]

Thanks for the quick responses, and the suggestion to upgrade to a newer version
of Adobe. Starting the download as we speak. ;)

But please just to make sure here - you feel that all of the FireFox windows
'waiting' and/or 'blocking' until a plugin is started is 'normal' behaviour, and
that this does not need to be changed so that at least the other FireFox windows
remain responsive during the start-up of a plug-in ?

Comment 7

[Grey Hodge (jX)]

There is nothing to be changed in Firefox. This is an Acrobat issue. Do not
reopen this bug.

Comment 8

[Thomas K. (:tom)]

reopening to dupe

Comment 9

[Thomas K. (:tom)]

while duping, another bug to check out is bug 219987

*** This bug has been marked as a duplicate of 253117 ***