829563 - Slow/frozen (Live Bookmark) RSS feeds in FF18

Status: VERIFIED DUPLICATE of bug 832641

(Firefox :: Bookmarks & History, defect)

Description

[walter.iandolo]

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; rv:18.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/18.0
Build ID: 20130104151925

Steps to reproduce:

Update from FF17 to FF18


Actual results:

The RSS feed bookmarks ("live bookmarks") load fast the first few seconds and from then start slowing down to a crawl. Other Browsers' function seem unaffected.

The problem does not occur if FF is started in safe mode.
The problem DOES occurr if there are no add-on installer, or if all add-ons are disabled.

I have also performed a reset (which eliminates all add-ons) and the issue persists as long as FF is started in "normal" mode.


Expected results:

No change compared to FF17. This behavior is clearly not intendedd.

Comment 1

[walter.iandolo]

The problem can be reproduced: it happens all the times.
Reboting the PC does not help.

Comment 2

[Loic]

Could you test the basic troubleshooting steps, please:

1) safe mode: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/troubleshoot-firefox-issues-using-safe-mode

2) new profile: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profile-manager-create-and-remove-firefox-profiles

Do you still observe the slow RSS feeds?

Comment 3

[walter.iandolo]

1) Safe mode: no issue

2) New profile: no issue so far (no Add on installed, Sync not yet enabled)

3) Old profile + reset: slow RSS

4) Old profile + all Add on disabled: slow RSS

Do you want me to try more combinations (e.g.: setup sync on the new profile? Install add ons?

Thanks!

Comment 4

[Loic]

If it's normal in safe mode, so the culprit is one of your add-ons or the hardware acceleration.

Try to disable add-ons one by one and test.

For HWA, make a test with HWA disabled (see http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/forum-response-disable-hardware-acceleration)

Comment 5

[Loic]

Any feedback of the culprit add-on, please?

Comment 6

[walter.iandolo]

Hi Loic,

honestly, I don't think it is an add-on issue.
When you do reset a profile, all Add-Ons are removed. The issue persisted.
Also, I created a new profile (no issue) and added the same add-ons, and I still don't have any issue.

It must be something related to sync OR to some of the specific bookmarks that I have. I have not had the chance to setup sync (the Sync config doesn't work between two accounts on the same machine - apparently, which makes it non-trivial).

Comment 7

[walter.iandolo]

Attachment: Bookmarks for test case

Comment 8

[walter.iandolo]

Hi again.
I have been using FF18 for a few more days, switching between a newly created profile WITH add on and a "clean", newly created profile.
I have some observations, which are totally subjective, but -I hope- they help.

1) The "clean" profile is definitely faster, BUT I still see a noticeable delay compared to FF17 (and earlier versions).
I have attached the exported bookmarks. You will see a "live" folder in the bookmarks toolbar ("Barra de herramienta de marcadores" ... in Spanish).
Even after the live bookmarks have been loaded, there's a distinct delay while going through the various folders. It is not huge, but it is noticeable, and -at least for me- bothersome.

2) I have also made a trial with only few RSS folders. The delay is not noticeable. 

Comment regarding 1) and 2): it's as if the RSS process was changes somehow and got much less efficient, although it doesn't seem to be clogging the CPU (as it happened back in the days when FF3.1 was released: see bug 329534). Perhaps it is checking more often for updated RSS and there are more activities/tasks done prior to render the list of existing RSS bookmarks, and this gets worst when you have more bookmarks.

3) In the new profile with add-ons (Ghostery, Adblock Plus, Flashblock) the RSS is even slower. Not as bad as in my original account (which was totally unusable), but definitely bad.
And it does not get better if I disable, or reset the account. It's as if an add-on somehow changes, or affects the way FF handles RSS and slows it down "permanently".

There isn't anything solid here, I realize that, but I hope this helps.
Thanks for the help anyway.

Comment 9

[walter.iandolo]

Attachment: Bookmarks for test case (some removed)

Comment 10

[Manuela Muntean [Away]]

Walter, does your problem reproduce even with the HWA disabled?

Comment 11

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

Could be bug 812904

Comment 12

[walter.iandolo]

Hi Manuela. No, disabling HW Acceleration does not seem to help.
Just to be sure: I have only changed the gfx.direct2d.disabled (set to "True" to disable HWA). If there's something else I should try, just let me know.

I am going to try to do some video grab to show the issue.

Comment 13

[Marco Bonardo [:mak]]

you can disable hwa from Options / Advanced / General

Comment 14

[walter.iandolo]

Hello Marco. Reading the description of bug 812904 it looks possibly the same, except I don't see the high CPU usage. I tried again with the task manager set of Fast refresh and the CPU was never maxed out.

I see on bug 812904 quite a lot of detailed logs and data. I wouldn't know how to generate it myself, but if it would help, and somebody explains me how to do it, I'll be happy to help.

Comment 15

[walter.iandolo]

I have just disabled HWA as indicated by Marco and the problem looks solved (!).
The behavior is the same as FF17 (subjectively).

Comment 16

[walter.iandolo]

Well, thank you all for the help: this was great. My FF is usable again and it seems that a proper patch is on its way. That's just the best support ever: amazing.

Comment 17

[Robert O'Callahan (:roc) (email my personal email if necessary)]

Please retest on nightly to see if bug 794246 fixed this.

Comment 18

[Bogdan Maris, Desktop QA]

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows NT 6.1; Win64; x64; rv:21.0) Gecko/20130109 Firefox/21.0
Build ID: 20130109030942

This is reproduceble with or without Hardware Acceleration on Nightly 21.0a1. 
And if the menu bar is active then when scrolling with the mouse from File, Edit, View, Bookmarks, Tools, Help the pop-ups are slowed.

Comment 19

[Avi Halachmi (:avih)]

Following bug 832641 fixed.

Comment 21

[walter.iandolo]

Hi, I have been using FF19 for a few days now.
I have re-activated the HW acceleration and I no longer see the issue.
Thanks again to everyone who contributed.

I am marking the status as "Verified": I hope it's OK.
If there's anything else I should do, please let me know.