367291 - Firefox & Flash CPU usage high even when firefox is minimized/unmapped

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[chris]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; de; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20060601 Firefox/2.0.0.1 (Ubuntu-edgy)
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; de; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20060601 Firefox/2.0.0.1 (Ubuntu-edgy)

Usecase: Multiple persons access one computer and use multiple X Servers - one for each. 
Now Firefox eats plenty of (commonly 30-60%) CPU even when its minimized and in an unmapped X Session - when pages containing Flash content are open.

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Open a couple of websites containing Flash animations
2. Minimize Firefox
3. Check CPU Usage 
Actual Results:  
CPU Usage is >>0% , with a couple of pages in several tabs often at 30-60%

Expected Results:  
CPU Usage should be very close to 0% when FF is minimized.
Okay - i admit. Flash (or Java should be the same problem?) could be doing something 'useful' (are there flash based chats, downloaders or similar?).

But then a option to choose "[X] Stop {Flash,Java,other active} content when not visible" would be the way to go.

Comment 1

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

do you still see this using newest version of flash?

* http://www.adobe.com/products/flash/about/ shows your version.
* test linux version http://labs.adobe.com/downloads/flashplayer9.html
* current linux version is 9,0,48,0
http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer/

Comment 2

[chris]

the current flash version seems to linder the problem - the CPU usage drops clearly when the flash window is unmapped.

So when the flash is in a second tab or firefox is minimized - the resource usage drops clearly.