745948 - Massive increase in memory on ska.ac.za and cookit.e2bn.org, caused by something in the profile (but not add-ons)

Status: RESOLVED INCOMPLETE

(Firefox :: Untriaged, defect)

Description

[Friedel Wolff]

I am using Firefox 12, currently beta. Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:12.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/12.0.

I recently visited a web page that caused Firefox to use enormous amounts of RAM. It would very quickly fill my system's memory and start swapping aggressively, far beyond what is normally used by Firefox. My system has 2GB of RAM, and Firefox usually only uses a few hundred MB of RAM.

This is the site:

http://ska.ac.za/

It is reproducable, even without addons, but not in a clean profile.

Today I experienced the same with another site:
http://cookit.e2bn.org/

The same effect is reproducable here, even without addons, but not in a clean profile. I haven't experienced this on any other sites, even though I use this system most of the day.

I have loads of modified preferences. I can paste it here if it will be helpful.

Comment 1

[Mardeg]

yes, all of about:support would be useful, along with about:memory?verbose

Comment 2

[Friedel Wolff]

I can't reach about:memory while the problem is present (the browser and the whole machine is basically unusable due to massive amounts of IO due to swapping). When I finally manage to close the tab, the memory is freed immediately and returned to the OS.

Here is about:support. It is in Afrikaans, so feel free to ask if that confuses things and I can translate anything.

  Basiese toepassingdetails

        Naam
        Firefox

        Weergawe
        12.0

        Gebruikeragent
        Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:12.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/12.0

        Profielgids

          Open Directory

        Aktiveer inproppe

          about:plugins

        Boukonfigurasie

          about:buildconfig

        Omvalverslae

          about:crashes

        Geheuegebruik

          about:memory

  Uitbreidings

        Naam

        Weergawe

        Geaktiveer

        ID

        Adblock Plus
        2.0.3
        true
        {d10d0bf8-f5b5-c8b4-a8b2-2b9879e08c5d}

        BugzillaJS
        2.0.3
        true
        jid0-NgMDcEu2B88AbzZ6ulHodW9sJzA@jetpack

        Collusion
        0.16.2
        true
        jid1-F9UJ2thwoAm5gQ@jetpack

        DownloadHelper
        4.9.9
        true
        {b9db16a4-6edc-47ec-a1f4-b86292ed211d}

        Firebug
        1.9.2b1
        true
        [e-mail]

        Flashblock
        1.5.15.1
        true
        {3d7eb24f-2740-49df-8937-200b1cc08f8a}

        OptimizeGoogle
        0.79.1
        true
        [e-mail]

        PDF Viewer
        0.2.537
        true
        [e-mail]

        Speltoetser vir Afrikaans
        20110323
        true
        [e-mail]

        Speltoetser vir "English (South Africa)"
        20110323
        true
        [e-mail]

        Tree Style Tab
        0.14.2012021101
        true
        [e-mail]

        Accentuate.us
        0.9.1
        false
        [e-mail]

        Dictionary Switcher
        1.3.2
        false
        [e-mail]

        Page Speed
        1.12.0.3
        false
        {e3f6c2cc-d8db-498c-af6c-499fb211db97}

        Quick Locale Switcher
        1.7.8
        false
        {25A1388B-6B18-46c3-BEBA-A81915D0DE8F}

        Speltoetser vir "Northern Sotho (South Africa)"
        20110323
        false
        [e-mail]

        Speltoetser vir "Zulu (South Africa)"
        20110323
        false
        [e-mail]

        Test Pilot
        1.2.1
        false
        [e-mail]

        Web Developer
        1.1.9
        false
        {c45c406e-ab73-11d8-be73-000a95be3b12}

  Important Modified Preferences

      Naam

      Waarde

        accessibility.typeaheadfind.flashBar
        0

        browser.cache.disk.capacity
        1048576

        browser.cache.disk.smart_size.first_run
        false

        browser.cache.disk.smart_size_cached_value
        235520

        browser.display.screen_resolution
        0

        browser.history_expire_days.mirror
        180

        browser.link.open_newwindow.restriction
        0

        browser.places.importBookmarksHTML
        false

        browser.places.importDefaults
        false

        browser.places.leftPaneFolderId
        -1

        browser.places.migratePostDataAnnotations
        false

        browser.places.smartBookmarksVersion
        2

        browser.places.updateRecentTagsUri
        false

        browser.startup.homepage
        about:blank

        browser.startup.homepage_override.buildID
        20120411064248

        browser.startup.homepage_override.mstone
        rv:12.0

        browser.tabs.insertRelatedAfterCurrent
        false

        browser.tabs.loadFolderAndReplace
        false

        browser.tabs.onTop
        false

        dom.disable_window_move_resize
        true

        extensions.lastAppVersion
        12.0

        font.language.group
        ar

        font.minimum-size.ar
        16

        font.minimum-size.th
        0

        font.minimum-size.x-western
        11

        font.name.monospace.ar
        monospace

        font.name.sans-serif.ar
        Amiri

        font.name.sans-serif.x-unicode
        Code2000

        font.name.serif.ar
        Amiri

        font.name.serif.th
        sans-serif

        font.name.serif.x-western
        sans-serif

        font.size.fixed.x-central-euro
        11

        font.size.variable.x-central-euro
        11

        font.size.variable.x-western
        13

        general.useragent.locale
        af-ZA

        gfx.blacklist.suggested-driver-version
        <Anything with EXT_texture_from_pixmap support>

        javascript.options.strict
        true

        network.cookie.prefsMigrated
        true

        network.http.max-connections
        34

        network.http.spdy.enabled
        true

        places.database.lastMaintenance
        1334514066

        places.history.expiration.transient_current_max_pages
        12176

        places.history.expiration.transient_optimal_database_size
        20283146

        places.last_vacuum
        1304426077



        privacy.donottrackheader.enabled
        true

        privacy.sanitize.migrateFx3Prefs
        true

        security.OCSP.disable_button.managecrl
        false

        security.OCSP.require
        true

        security.warn_viewing_mixed
        false

  Grafika

        Passtukbeskrywing
        GLXtest process failed (exited with status 1): GLX version older than the required 1.3

        WebGL-weergewer
        Geblokkeer op jou grafikakaart vanweë onopgeloste drywerprobleme.

        GPU-versnelde vensters
        0. Geblokkeer op die weergawe van jou grafikadrywer. Werk jou grafikadrywer by na weergawe <Anything with EXT_texture_from_pixmap support> of jonger.

        AzureBackend
        skia

Comment 3

[Nickolay_Ponomarev]

The best way to figure this out is for you to find the way to reproduce this problem. Some things you could check:
- does this occur on other Firefox versions (like release (11)/nightly)?
- it might be useful to check a en-US build to see if it has the same problem
- try copying stuff from the problematic profile to a new profile to see if you can find the specific list of things that cause the problem (e.g. prefs.js, userContent/userChrome.css)

Comment 4

[Wayne Mery (:wsmwk)]

Friedel, does this reproduce with nightly build and clean profile?

I am unable to reproduce with Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:15.0) Gecko/15.0 Firefox/15.0a1. memory use is nominal

Comment 5

[Friedel Wolff]

It didn't happen with a clean profile even on the Beta version I had then (12). I recently experienced this on another site with Beta 13. If I can find extra time I'll try to play around with Reset Firefox or similar.

Comment 6

[Friedel Wolff]

I just used Reset Firefox, and the problem is gone. I experienced this recently on more and more sites, but luckily this is gone. I hope it doesn't affect too many users. Should we close this bug? I guess there is not enough useful information.

Comment 7

[Nickolay_Ponomarev]

Yeah, right now the bug is not actionable, and there's no way to tell what percentage of users the underlying issue affects...

So unless you have a backup of your profile (that reproduces the issue) and have time (or can find someone else) to do what I suggested in the third bullet of comment 3, the bug should be closed.

Please reopen if you figure out the problematic setting.