531581 - Firefox 3.6b1pre-b4 freezes for few minutes on copying from anywhere of the browser

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[Sam]

User-Agent:       Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2b4) Gecko/20091124 Firefox/3.6b4
Build Identifier: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2b4) Gecko/20091124 Firefox/3.6b4

When I copy (and quickly paste in 3rd party apps) a text from either: URL bar, loaded page, entries in library, browser could hang for few minutes. 
Though it still remains responsive only 100 times slower.

I only could reproduce it on a virgin profile when I used my 50MB places.sqlite file.
(That's why I'm filing it under Places component)

Reproducible: Sometimes

Steps to Reproduce:
1. On a new profile use big enough Places.sqlite (I have ≈ 80K items)
2. Copy something from a URL bar, or a text on a page, or entry (several?) in Library
3. Quickly paste it into third party app - Pages, Yojimbo, Evernote, TextMate, TextEdit.
Actual Results:  
Immediately (sometimes) browser hangs, 100% CPU, still reacts - takes 10-15 seconds to react - though still unusable for a few minutes.

Expected Results:  
Shouldn't hang.


I started happening on 3.6 betas some time ago.

(Just checked quickly on 10.5.4 and on Win7 - no incidents)
Seems related to Places & 10.6.x

P.S. If I click away from selection (URL or Text) I just copied (Cmnd+C) - essentially unfocusing it - and then proceed to target 3rd party app and paste there - no hang occurs.

Comment 1

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

which copy path did you follow, CMD+C through the keyboard, or Copy through context menu?

If you can reproduce this just copying a common text from a loaded page it's hard to associate this to Places. So this case should be confirmed.

Copying several entries in the Libraries could be slow, but that happens on complex folders structures, and looks like a different issue.

Also, could you ensure status of your database running (evaluate) the following command in the Error Console and pasting results here?
Components.utils.import("resource://gre/modules/PlacesDBUtils.jsm");
PlacesDBUtils.checkAndFixDatabase();

Comment 2

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

cc'ing josh due to snow-leopard-only-ness.

Comment 3

[Mike Beltzner [:beltzner, not reading bugmail]]

Or if Juan or Tony can borrow a big places file.

For now I'm going to blocking- on this, if it can be confirmed, let's renominate and work up a regression range.

Comment 4

[Tony Chung [:tchung]]

Dietrich or marco, do you have a large places file from your performance runs that i can use?   i can try and repro what the reporter is seeing in a VM.   our qa sqlite isnt that big.

Comment 5

[Dietrich Ayala (:dietrich)]

talked on irc, ddahl hooked tony up w/ a max places.sqlite.

Comment 6

[Sam]

(In reply to comment #1)
> which copy path did you follow, CMD+C through the keyboard, or Copy through
> context menu?

I just copied several times text on a page - via Menu - no problem.
Seems not quick enough (I'm cumbersome with trackpad) to produce trouble.

> If you can reproduce this just copying a common text from a loaded page it's
> hard to associate this to Places. So this case should be confirmed.

Yeah, that's really strange - but the problem is EXACTLY the same whether you copy from a page or a URL bar or a Library.

> Copying several entries in the Libraries could be slow, but that happens on
> complex folders structures, and looks like a different issue.

I proposed copying several only to make sure you reproduce the problem.
For me it reliably happens on one entry as well.

> Also, could you ensure status of your database running (evaluate) the following
> command in the Error Console and pasting results here?
> Components.utils.import("resource://gre/modules/PlacesDBUtils.jsm");
> PlacesDBUtils.checkAndFixDatabase();

Not sure how to do it.
but I got there a message: 
Error: PlacesDBUtils is not defined
Source File: javascript:%20PlacesDBUtils.checkAndFixDatabase();
Line: 1

Comment 7

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

(In reply to comment #6)
> Not sure how to do it.
> but I got there a message: 
> Error: PlacesDBUtils is not defined
> Source File: javascript:%20PlacesDBUtils.checkAndFixDatabase();
> Line: 1

you should just paste all this text into the eval field in the error console:
Components.utils.import("resource://gre/modules/PlacesDBUtils.jsm");PlacesDBUtils.checkAndFixDatabase();

all as one line, no spaces

Comment 8

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

orh, then click Eval and wait till you see output in the console.

Comment 9

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

(In reply to comment #5)
> talked on irc, ddahl hooked tony up w/ a max places.sqlite.

i was about to suggest the same, even if probably max places.sqlite is too big and will show other kind of issues (due to the fact with a 200MB db we are most likely out of the sqlite memory cache and swapping to disk), probably a med places.sqlite or a 100MB places.sqlite would be cool. David can generate any sized db (well anybody can with his scripts, they just need some better packaging and docs).

Comment 10

[Sam]

(In reply to comment #7)

> you should just paste all this text into the eval field in the error console:
> Components.utils.import("resource://gre/modules/PlacesDBUtils.jsm");PlacesDBUtils.checkAndFixDatabase();

INTEGRITY
ok
- - -
CLEANUP
- - -
VACUUM
places.sqlite: 50278400 byte
- - -
STATS
places.sqlite: 50257920 byte
moz_bookmarks: 35258
moz_bookmarks_roots: 5
moz_keywords: 3
sqlite_sequence: 1
moz_favicons: 7033
moz_annos: 4947
moz_anno_attributes: 13
moz_items_annos: 5511
moz_places: 87363
moz_historyvisits: 107977
moz_inputhistory: 1696
sqlite_stat1: 18
- - -

What's weird I've even managed to freeze an Error Console once, only by copying and entry from it, not even pasting it, as usually the case to produce this bug.

Just got it again (Cmnd+C then immediately Cmnd+Tab) copying from Error Console.

Looks like it's this sequence creates problems: Cmnd+C, then Cmnd+Tab, and maybe Cmnd+V is not essential.

Thing is it's the same sequence (and 'tempo' of keypresses) that I've used since Firefox 2.x
(with Firefox 1.5.x I was using Ctrl+C, then Alt+Tab ;P)

I also have countless entries of exactly this three messages:

Error: gNavToolbox is null
Source File: chrome://browser/content/browser.js
Line: 4354

Error: wnd is null
Source File: chrome://browser/content/browser.js
Line: 4964

Error: frameset is null
Source File: chrome://browser/content/browser.js
Line: 5027

Comment 11

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

fwiw, the database looks sane.

The errors could be interesting though, if they are "countless".

Comment 12

[Sam]

15 of these : 

Error: gNavToolbox is null
Source File: chrome://browser/content/browser.js
Line: 4354

22 of these: 

Error: frameset is null
Source File: chrome://browser/content/browser.js
Line: 5027

153 of these: 

Error: wnd is null
Source File: chrome://browser/content/browser.js
Line: 4964

Going top down in console

Comment 13

[Tony Chung [:tchung]]

Just started looking into this.  I have a 172 max_places.sqlite file running on
a new profile, using: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US;
rv:1.9.3a1pre) Gecko/20091201 Minefield/3.7a1pre

I tried STR from comment 0, and it seems to copy/paste text (CMD-C,CMD-P) as
expected into textEdit without any noticable performance hits.

However, just like Sam noticed, entering the db string from comment 1
beachballs and freezes my firefox and spits an Unresponsive script error:  

Script:
file:///Users/tchung/Desktop/trunk/Minefield.app/Contents/MacOS/modules/PlacesDBUtils.jsm:604

Then clicking "Continue", it returns:

INTEGRITY
ok
- - -
CLEANUP
- - -
VACUUM
places.sqlite: 184115200 byte
- - -
STATS
places.sqlite: 113377280 byte
moz_bookmarks: 120598
moz_bookmarks_roots: 5
moz_keywords: 601
sqlite_sequence: 1
moz_favicons: 7
moz_annos: 0
moz_anno_attributes: 10
moz_items_annos: 32
moz_places: 144690
moz_historyvisits: 723065
moz_inputhistory: 2215
- - -

However, i can still copy and paste text in a noticably performing fashion.

Comment 14

[Shawn Wilsher :sdwilsh]

(In reply to comment #13)
> However, just like Sam noticed, entering the db string from comment 1
> beachballs and freezes my firefox and spits an Unresponsive script error:  
This would be expected.  The database is huge, so the command takes a while to run.

Comment 15

[Sam]

(In reply to comment #13)
> Just started looking into this.  I have a 172 max_places.sqlite file running on
> a new profile, using: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US;
> rv:1.9.3a1pre) Gecko/20091201 Minefield/3.7a1pre

Tony,
I was trying briefly on both 10.5.4 & 3.7a1pre - with no problems.
It is a combo of 3.6.x and a 10.6.x gives me trouble.

Comment 16

[Tony Chung [:tchung]]

(In reply to comment #15)
> Tony,
> I was trying briefly on both 10.5.4 & 3.7a1pre - with no problems.
> It is a combo of 3.6.x and a 10.6.x gives me trouble.

alright, fwiw, i am using OSX 10.5.8 and Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.5; en-US; rv:1.9.2b5pre) Gecko/20091201 Namoroka/3.6b5pre.   Wasn't able to reproduce the copy freeze yet.

if i can get my hands on a 10.6 machine, i'll try your scenario.

(In reply to comment #14)
> This would be expected.  The database is huge, so the command takes a while to
> run.

Good to know this is expected behavior.

Comment 17

[Sam]

I've installed a Mac optimized build of 3.6b4 from <http://www.latko.org/media/namoroka-3.6b4.dmg>

(Fingers crossed) It seems like it stopped freezing on copy/pasting to 3rd party apps.
But it still (occasionally) gives me this in Error Console when I copy stuff.

I list it in order of appearance:

- 15 identical repeating entries: 
Error: gNavToolbox is null
Source File: chrome://browser/content/browser.js
Line: 4342

- 22 of these: 
Error: frameset is null
Source File: chrome://browser/content/browser.js
Line: 5015

- 1440 of these: 
Error: wnd is null
Source File: chrome://browser/content/browser.js
Line: 4952

Comment 18

[Sam]

I've recently re-installed Mac OSX 10.6.2.
Using same user profile, I'm yet to reproduce reported bug.
Fingers crossed - it was only bad OS install (nothing else was wrong!)

P.S. Using latest 3.6b6pre mozilla builds.

Comment 19

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Sam, can you reproduce this with recent trunk build?  (there was recently a places landing)

Comment 20

[Sam]

(In reply to comment #19)
> Sam, can you reproduce this with recent trunk build?  (there was recently a
> places landing)

Hm, not sure what you talking about Wayne...
As I've said a year ago - a clean install helped it.
(Still not sure how OS could've inflicted on browser)

On probably related note I've found that I need to rebuild my main profile from the scratch about twice a year - otherwise it lags a lot, though not to a point of freezing completely.

P.S. I'm still on 3.6.13 - Firefox 4 proves to be too "revolutionary" for me so far )))
(as in: it breaks to many things for me - I only lust for it's speed - so sometime after 4.0.1 I'd think)

Comment 21

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

thanks. WFM. see https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/page.cgi?id=fields.html#status