767203 - Firefox 13 - Constant Lockups In Linux

Status: RESOLVED WORKSFORME

(Firefox :: General, defect)

Description

[20ac93a2]

I'm running the latest Firefox 13.0.1 in Linux Mint 13 x86, on a Dell Laptop N5010
and Slackware 13.37 x86, on a Sony Vaio, both laptops also with completly different hardware and both systems have the exact problem of constant locks up and freezing the entire desktop...

On occassion I'm able to run Ctrl Alt F1 to boot out the desktops to the console to log back in and start over, but many times the entire system is locked up and I have to do a hard shut down, turn the power off and repower on and I'm not enjoying this at all...

I've used Firefox since Firefox came out, and I've been using it that long in Linux and I've never had lockups like this till version 13, but whatever is going on with this version to cause it, it's really bad, this is like every 1-2 hours I encounter this and working all day long needing a browser is a real pain and I hope this issue will be resolved soon.

If I click any section in the toolbar, needing to adjust Preferences, addons, or use the Bookmarks, or add a new tab, Firefox will sooner or later lockup and this is happening on two completely different Linux systems, different kernel versions, different desktops, so the situations between these two systems have nothing in common, except for the fact that this is both Linux, practially all of the system libraries and dependencies are also different versions, there isn't much similarity here  between the two, so that makes me realize this is a Firefox issue, not a system problem.

In Linux Mint I'm using the Cinnamon desktop and in Slackware I use only OpenBox.

Whatever logs or files, information, etc., you'd like from these systems to help resolve this please let me know and I'll submit this, but I hope we can get on this, hopefully since I'm having this on two different systems, I can't believe I'm the only one with this issue...

Also under the Advancved preferences for Browsing I unchecked all these new features, hoping it might help on both systems, but it didn't. 

In Slackware, since I have greater control over it, I've changed two different kernel versions and the Sony has an Nvidia 410M GPU and I've changed three different driver versions and none of this has also helped...

I personally don't know if there is anything I can change, it just feels like a buggy version of Firefox is all...


THANKIS

Comment 1

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

Is that a X freeze or a kernel freeze or a Firefox application freeze ?
The first 2 cases can not be a Firefox bug and Firefox triggers this issue only.

Have you tried to deactivate the hardware acceleration in Firefox under tools/options/general/advanced ?

For a Firefox application freeze we need an GDB stack trace with debug symbols but be sure that the freeze isn't caused by extensions (test without).

For the X or kernel freeze you need to contact your distribution.
This is for example the Ubuntu documentation for a X11 freeze https://wiki.ubuntu.com/X/Troubleshooting/Freeze

Comment 2

[20ac93a2]

This is an application Firefox freeze, I've been running Slackware 12 years and I know it quite well and in that time I've never had any X or kernel freezes in that time...

As I mentioned I deactivated all the options, including the hardware acceleration.

I also didn't have any addons or extensions when this has been happeing...

So I need to run it as;

firefox -g -d gdb

Then it locks up and at the terminal type; 'backtrace'?

THANKS

Comment 3

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

>And both systems have the exact problem of constant locks up and freezing the entire >desktop

>On occassion I'm able to run Ctrl Alt F1 to boot out the desktops to the console to >log back in and start over, but many times the entire system is locked up and I have >to do a hard shut down, turn the power off and repower on and I'm not enjoying this >at all...

That looks like a X freeze to me and not like an application freeze.

Comment 4

[20ac93a2]

We don't have to be technical about this, we can just look at the obivious...

1. Two different Linux distros, different libraries, dependencies and kernel

2. Firefox is the only application on both distros that this problem appears

3. If this was an X freeze then other applications would bring about the same results and they don't


Firefox is causing the whole desktop to lock up, how I don't know, but it's not X, otherwise this would have to occur for other applications and situations and it doesn't...

Comment 5

[20ac93a2]

Actually I should refrain from saying a complete lockup, most of the time I can run ctrl alt f1 to go out to the console or ctrl alt del to bring up a log out restart menu, but that's about it...

Comment 6

[Andre Klapper]

> We don't have to be technical about this, we can just look at the obivious...

I haven't faced any issues in Fedora 16 so far, with kernel-PAE-3.4.2-1.fc16.i686.

> 1. Two different Linux distros, different libraries, dependencies and kernel

Please provide this info per distro (version info of mentioned libraries), otherwise all remains vague.

> 3. If this was an X freeze then other applications would bring about the
> same results and they don't

No, if only Firefox triggers some certain well-hidden bug in X it does not mean that it is necessarily Firefox's fault.

Comment 7

[20ac93a2]

Yes firefox could be triggering something but I find that a  bit odd with 2 different X versions...

Here's the thing, as I mentioned before, this happens when I click a section on the Toolbar, like I on Bookmarks to go to one and when I click on the word Bookmarks Firefox locks up...

I don't see how clicking a name on the toolbar is going to lock up X

And I apologize, I'm not even sure if X is fully locked up, or it's just the DE I'm using that gets frozen, but then if either where fully frozen, X or the DE, then I shouldn't be able to run ctrl alt f1 or ctrl alt del, correct?


THANKS

Comment 8

[20ac93a2]

Forgot to mention, not even sure how I can run a backtrace with it locked up to debug it...

Comment 9

[Matthias Versen [:Matti]]

>Firefox is causing the whole desktop to lock up
Yes that is true on your systems but that doesn't matter. The system and X should never allow that a normal application is causing a freeze.
That is a bug in X, please read http://timeless.justdave.net/blog/143/

>otherwise this would have to occur for other applications
That you didn't get this with other application doesn't mean that this is a Firefox bug.
A stupid example:
Most applications tell X to draw a triangle from Point A to Point B to Point C
Firefox as example tells X to draw the triangle from Point C to Point B to Point A and that triggers a bug in X

I don't want to get rid of your bugreport (you may think that) but this can't be fixed on our side because there is no way for us to debug this issue.
You should ask for example the Slackware support for help but it seems the support is very limited.

We can only try to debug hangs that are occurring in Firefox itself but we have only instructions for a limited number of distributions: https://developer.mozilla.org/en/How_to_get_a_stacktrace_for_a_bug_report#Linux

But one last thing:
What happens if you get the freeze, switch to the console and kill the Firefox process ?
- killall -9 firefox-bin

Comment 10

[20ac93a2]

Most of the time I'm using my kid's box that has Linux Mint 13 on it, this seems like a simpler distro to debug with, any suggestions on Linux Mint?

I actually had it lock up about 20mins ago and had to log out and back in...


THANKS

P.S. I'll also try killall -9 firefox-bin...

Comment 11

[Andre Klapper]

(In reply to dasfox from comment #10)
> Most of the time I'm using my kid's box that has Linux Mint 13 on it, this
> seems like a simpler distro to debug with, any suggestions on Linux Mint?

https://bugs.launchpad.net/linuxmint as a starting point for bug reports.

Comment 12

[20ac93a2]

I figured out what is causing this! :)

The Bookmarks is the only thing I'm constantly using when I'm on Firefox and I wasn't really paying attention to this, but as the lockups continued I noticed one thing that was the same each and every time, both on Linux Mint and in Slackware, it was happening when I click the word 'Bookmarks' to go to my bookmarks, or so I thought was the case.

As it turned out what I've noticed I'm doing many times is not really clicking the word Bookmarks but by mistake sometimes I end up dragging the word Bookmarks with my mouse. What I mean, is I'll click it, but instead of releasing the mouse button quick enough I'm still holding it down by mistake and dragging the word, because when you think about it, you click the word then drag the mouse downwards to click a bookmark and so in this process I've got myself dragging the mouse downward and not letting go and this is what's causing Firefox to lock up.

Every time it locks up, I notice the word Bookmarks floating down then floating back up and going back in place where it should, but this happens very fast and it's not that noticeable.

So I don't know what this fix is for this, but that's the problem and I can't always get it to be reproduced, it's not like I can always drag it down and it locks up, it just happens randomly, but sooner or later when I drag it again by mistake it locks up.

I just had this happen earlier today and I noticed the word bookmark moving off the toolbar slightly when this happened so I was paying attention to it, when I noticed Firefox locked up right afterwards and then I realized it was the problem!

Hope you guys can figure it out!

THANKS

Comment 13

[20ac93a2]

Oh by the way I forgot after I posted this, I've seen this happen another time when I ended up dragging another word by mistake in the toolbar, I forgot what section it was, but now I realize this happens, it seems for other sections too, not just the bookmarks.

But the Bookmarks is what I'm constantly using, so I don't remember how many times it happened on another part of the toolbar but I'm 100% sure it has happened at least once for me as well, I remember it, just don't remember which section...

THANKS

Comment 14

[Ioana (away)]

Can you still reproduce this issue with current OS and Firefox versions?

I only have access to Ubuntu and that works fine.