364936 - 1.5.0.9 upgrade - sometimes stops working and shows empty message list until restart

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Thunderbird :: Mail Window Front End, defect)

Description

[Arkady Belousov]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows 98; ru) Opera 9.02
Build Identifier: http://ftp-mozilla.netscape.com/pub/mozilla.org/thunderbird/releases/1.5.0.9/win32/ru/Thunderbird%20Setup%201.5.0.9.exe

This bug was introduced in 1.5.0.9 - after some actions (moving between folders) front end stops to work with (News) messages and shows empty Message list and Message content panes (second and third pane). This may happen at any time - almost immediately after TB start or after some long working. I don't know how to reproduce the bug. Panes content reappear after TB restart.

Reproducible: Sometimes

Comment 1

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Does it happen many times for the same folder? Does a re-install help?

Comment 2

[Arkady Belousov]

> Does it happen many times for the same folder? 

     I have only one (active) News account, and bug happen in any folder in it. I just click into (any) folder (in Accounts pane) there and at some random moment (after click on folder) I see, that second and third panes are clean. The more so, when today this happen again, and I was click into some folder outside this News account, then mouse cursor (in this Accounts pane only!) become sand watch. Fortunately, window closing button (in right of title) was working, so I just close TB through it and restart again.

> Does a re-install help?

     No, I was not reinstall TB at all after first install (in the middle of this year). I should? What happen with my settings, accounts, custom directories placement?

Comment 3

[Arkady Belousov]

> The more so, when today this happen again, and I was click into some folder
> outside this News account, then mouse cursor (in this Accounts pane only!)
> become sand watch. Fortunately, window closing button (in right of title) was
> working, so I just close TB through it and restart again.

     But this is not end of story. I restart TB, then continue working in other programs (including writing previous report). But when I switch back to restarted TB and try to write letter, then I was see, that all words was red-underlined (looks like TB forgets to load spell-checker). I was restart TB again - and viola, spellchecker works again! How bad...

Comment 4

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

(In reply to comment #2)
>      No, I was not reinstall TB at all after first install (in the middle of
> this year). I should? What happen with my settings, accounts, custom
> directories placement?

If you have problems, it's always good to try a re-install into an empty folder. Your data is kept in the profile folder (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder) and will not be touched. (Backups are always good to have though...)

Comment 5

[Arkady Belousov]

> >      No, I was not reinstall TB at all after first install (in the middle of
> > this year). I should? What happen with my settings, accounts, custom
> > directories placement?
> If you have problems, it's always good to try a re-install into an empty
> folder. 

1. I don't know how to reproduce given problem.
2. Given problem happen not too often.

If I reinstall TB and it will not show problem some time, how I may be sure, that reinstall _eliminates_ bug?! Especially, if bug is in updating subsystem, then it anyway should be fixed, else it may re-appear again later in other place...

> Your data is kept in the profile folder
> (http://kb.mozillazine.org/Profile_folder) 

     I know, where is my profile folder(s), because I myself customize this. Because original placement of data in Mozilla programs is weird (at least, too deep).

> and will not be touched. 

     You mean, that I should install secondary copy, initialize all account again (God, mad work!), and somewhat prevent secondary TB instance to remove letters from server (because databases in first TB instance should remain independent)?!

     Sorry, this is inappropriate. You can't offer automobile driver to balance wheel, while it sits at rudder and drives automobile at busy highway. I can't have two independent copy of TB, because I can't revert changes, which secondary instance may/will make in external environment (post servers). And I don't know, how to join back databses of both independent instances.

> (Backups
> are always good to have though...)

     Of course. But you can't backup external environment (servers).

Comment 6

[David :Bienvenu]

So you've changed the local directory for your pop3 accounts? What does the new local directory path look like? Any non alphanumeric characters in the path, other than '\'? This is on win98? Perhaps there's something win98 specific - that's not a very common platform anymore...

Comment 7

[Arkady Belousov]

(In reply to comment #2)
> I just click into (any) folder (in Accounts pane) there and at some random
> moment (after click on folder) I see, that second and third panes are clean.
> The more so, when today this happen again, and I was click into some folder
> outside this News account, then mouse cursor (in this Accounts pane only!)
> become sand watch.

     This happen again right now (after full day of working):

1. clicking on News folder shows empty second and third panes;
2. clicking on Inbox in POP account shows (yet) its content;
3. clicking on News folder again shows nothing anyway;
4. second click on Inbox now also shows empty s2nd and 3rd panes and mouse
cursor become sand watch, when moving over 1st and 2nd pane (but not over 3rd
pane).

Comment 8

[Arkady Belousov]

(In reply to comment #6)
> So you've changed the local directory for your pop3 accounts? 

     Yes.

> What does the new
> local directory path look like? 

%appdata%\Thunderbird\profiles.ini
[Profile0]
Name=default
IsRelative=0
Path=C:\WINDATA\AppData\TB\DEFAULT
Default=1

Not the shortest, but much shorter, than original one. Unfortunately, there remains %appdata%\Thunderbird and %appdata%\Mozilla (even though I not yet install Firefox).

> Any non alphanumeric characters in the path,
> other than '\'? 

     See above.

> This is on win98? 

     Yes.

> Perhaps there's something win98 specific -

     For example?

> that's not a very common platform anymore...

Comment 9

[David :Bienvenu]

win98 is a completely different operating system - that's all I meant.

Ah, so you changed the profile directory path itself, not the individual server directories inside TB. Not many people do that, but I can't imagine it would cause such strange problems.

Comment 10

[Arkady Belousov]

(In reply to comment #9)
> win98 is a completely different operating system - that's all I meant.

     All OSes differs betwen each other, DOS from Win3, Win3 from Win95, Win95 from Win98, Win98 from NT, NT from XP, Debian from Suse.

> Ah, so you changed the profile directory path itself, not the individual server
> directories inside TB. 

     They too - all folders reside _not_ inside Default. For example, one account reside in C:\WINDATA\AppData\TB\PMR.

> Not many people do that, but I can't imagine it would
> cause such strange problems.

     Me too. And bug, which is topic of this thread, begin only right after installing (upgrading to) TB 1.5.0.9.

Comment 11

[David :Bienvenu]

win98 is more different from NT than NT is from XP, or Debian is from Suse - that's all I meant.

Are the folders in their default relative paths inside the profile dir? I.e., mail/<server name>? Or did you actually go into account settings and change the local directory for each server? (attaching or e-mailing me your prefs.js would tell me...) If the former, TB wouldn't even really know the difference.

FYI, I think your bug 360539 is the same underlying problem. Which is also the same as bug 364795 and bug 364758.

Do you see excessive memory consumption with 1.5.0.9?

Do you have any rss feeds configured? 

Comment 12

[Arkady Belousov]

> Are the folders in their default relative paths inside the profile dir? 

     No. See example with PMR. I explcitly specify folders placement in Tools / Account. You may also see bug 339564, which relates to changing deirectory in account settings.

> I.e.,
> mail/<server name>? Or did you actually go into account settings and change the
> local directory for each server? 

     Yes.

> (attaching or e-mailing me your prefs.js would
> tell me...) 

     Done (see attachment in email).

> FYI, I think your bug 360539 is the same underlying problem. 

     I doubt, but you may know better.

> Which is also the
> same as bug 364795 

1. I get no any message box from TB;
2. panes become clean when I just click on some News group, there nothing with composing messages (unless some bug with forgotten spell-checker - see comment 3);
3. problem begins only after upgrading to 1.5.0.9, not earlier.

> and bug 364758.

     May be relate, but may problem appear only when I click in News groups.

> Do you see excessive memory consumption with 1.5.0.9?

     Don;t know. Do you mean this:

>pb /?
pv displays information about the running processes.
pv v 5.2.1.2, Copyright (c) Igor Nys, 2000-2006.
>pv.exe -s thunderbird.exe
  MODULE          COUNT BASE       SIZE   PATH
THUNDERBIRD.EXE      1   400000  7933952 C:\WINAPPS\INET\TBIRD\THUNDERBIRD.EXE

> Do you have any rss feeds configured? 

     I was try to use TB as RSS reader (see my prefs.js), but without success. See bug 340324, bug 340911, bug 340913, bug 340906 and bug 340914.

Comment 13

[David :Bienvenu]

It might be interesting to run taskinfo (http://www.iarsn.com/taskinfo.html) and specifically look at the resources TB consumes.  In particular, the amount of memory being used, the number of files open, and the number handles being used. It would be interesting to see if certain operations cause the some resource to get used a lot, and it would be interesting to see what the resource usage is when this bug occurs.

One thing I noticed when doing this is that clicking on a link in TB was consuming about 15 handles every time. This turned out to be because of Eudora's Launch Manager, EuShlExt.dll, in C:\Program Files\Qualcomm\Eudora - renaming that dll fixed the handle consumption problem for me. I don't know if that's a bug in TB or Eudora.

I also noticed that I managed to get two copies of Thunderbird running, because one copy didn't shut down cleanly. Have you seen that? It may have been a one-time thing because the first copy was launched by the installer...

Comment 14

[Arkady Belousov]

> It might be interesting to run taskinfo (http://www.iarsn.com/taskinfo.html)

"Shareware US $35". I prefer not to deal with closed source software. In worsest case (when none alternatives), it should be freeware.

> and specifically look at the resources TB consumes.  In particular, the amount
> of memory being used, the number of files open, and the number handles being
> used. It would be interesting to see if certain operations cause the some
> resource to get used a lot, and it would be interesting to see what the
> resource usage is when this bug occurs.

     I think, better if Mozilla team writes own utility, which will collect information about its products (in memory and on disk) and prepare report, which may be sent back.

> One thing I noticed when doing this is that clicking on a link in TB was
> consuming about 15 handles every time. 

     Let me ask again: if reason is resources leakage, why bug appear only in 1.5.0.9? And in my system was changed (installed) nothing (new).

> I also noticed that I managed to get two copies of Thunderbird running, because
> one copy didn't shut down cleanly. Have you seen that? 

     No. All symptoms, which are outside default behavior, I already describe.

> It may have been a
> one-time thing because the first copy was launched by the installer...

Comment 15

[Steve Kunzer]

I have the same (or at least extremely similar problem) and only since upgrading to Version 1.5.0.9 (20061207). At least 4/5 times a day when I select a different folder (other than inbox), both message list pane and message pane go blank, then clicking on any other folder (including inbox) continues to show blank message list and message panes. Closing Thunderbird down and re-starting cures the immediate problem, until next time. Very frustrating and not reproducable at will.

I have tried uninstalling and installing (the same version of) Thunderbird and the problem still occurs. I have also monitored system usage when this problem occurs and have noticed no unusual symptoms (i.e. no obvious runaway task). Thunderbird continues to respond as normal in other ways, but will not display folder contents until quit/restart.

System: Win XP Pro 2002 SP 2. H/W Toshiba Tecra 1.6Ghz with 512MB RAM. Running Thunderbird Version 1.5.0.9 (20061207) displaying 3 panes (wide view), IMAP account only. Problem has occurred while selecting IMAP folders, Local Folders and News&Blogs (RSS) Folders.

Comment 16

[David :Bienvenu]

Steve, when this happens, have you used task manager to see how much memory is being consumed, both by TB, and system wide? Do you have enough virtual memory configured?

Microsoft has a tool with more info about resource usage - http://download.sysinternals.com/Files/ProcessExplorer.zip  - I haven't tried it yet but I'm going to now.

FYI, despite several reports about this bug, I have not been able to reproduce it at all.

Comment 17

[Arkady Belousov]

> FYI, despite several reports about this bug, I have not been able to reproduce
> it at all.

     Looks like your advice about remving RSS account helps me - up to now, I not encounter any crashes. Fortunately (?!), RSS account was not working anyway, so its removing was not harm me. Interesting, what happen, if I recreate RSS account again? Will it work now? Will it cause clean panes?

Comment 18

[Steve Kunzer]

Attachment: Screen Print of TB showing blank panes, plus Windows Task manager showing memory usage

I've had to blank out some of my folder names, but the folder selected at the time was the first sub-folder under 'projects' - on my IMAP account. The folder & message panes remained blank after selecting other folders.
Memory usage remained static at that shown.

Comment 19

[Steve Kunzer]

The problem happened again (see screenprint).

I tried selecting other folders but the folder and message panes remained blank.
I brought up Windows Task Manager which showed 116,304K memory used! On first opening that's usually 26,000K or thereabouts. I hadn't seen how much memory it was using before the problem occurred, but the memory usage remained static thereafter regardless whether I selected other folders.

This time (but not always) the problem occurred when I tried to create a new sub-folder (under 'Projects' on my IMAP account). The dialog box disappeared, the new folder did *not* appear, and only *then* when I selected a folder the panes showed blank. However, whilst that might help you pinpoint the problem, that is not what normally happens - this problem occurs at other times while in normal use.

Comment 20

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Can you try setting mail.purge.timer_interval to 10000 (using Advanced > General |  Config editor)? Does it make a difference with the memory leak issue?

Comment 21

[Steve Kunzer]

I changed mail.purge.timer_interval from the default (5) to 10000 and it seems to work fine. I tried creating a folder and selecting it, also tried renaming a folder (both actions seemed to cause a problem previously) - and TB continued working as normal (so far so good but it's only been a few hours).

Memory usage grows from 26,000K to approx 30,000K fairly quickly while using it (opening mails etc.), but then remains hovering around the 30,000K to 31,000K mark (so far).

Looks promising - will update if the problem happens again.

Comment 22

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Then this may be a dupe of bug 364795. Tomorrows 2.0 build should have an fix/improvement. Do try it out and see if it helps (without setting the pref).

Comment 23

[Steve Kunzer]

Sorry I haven't updated this in some time - I tried out the suggested fix provided (setting mail.purge.timer_internal to 1000) and I haven't experienced the problem again. Whether it's related to another bug or not, the fix as applied works for me. Thanks.

Comment 24

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

Let's close this as WFM then. Besides, tb2.0 is available and I don't think there are reports of this with the newer version.

Comment 25

[Arkady Belousov]

> Let's close this as WFM then.

     Don't know what is "WFM".

     As per comment #17, after removing RSS fields I have no more encounter problem with empty panes. Unfortunately, I have no more RSS, which to use, so I don't know, if bug is eliminated. But if you think that bug is eliminated, this report mey be closed (and reopened, of bug reappeared).

Comment 26

[Magnus Melin [:mkmelin]]

WFM = worksforme = can't reproduce anymore

It's not FIXED unless you know the patch that fixed it.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=fields.html#resolution