Firefox browsing very slow when cache full

[John Rose]

I was browsing Amazon website using Firefox. It took 1 minute + to do a search in the site. I cleared the cache and it was fine. I have not changed the original cache setting, which is automatic. I noticed that the 'currently using' was 350MB & that 'limit cache to' was grayed out as 350MB. I cleared the cache and it was fine.

This was using Ubuntu 12.04.1 using Firefox 18.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.04.3.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: firefox 18.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.04.3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-35.55-generic 3.2.34
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-35-generic x86_64
AddonCompatCheckDisabled: False
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
AplayDevices:
 **** List of PLAYBACK Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: PCH [HDA Intel PCH], device 0: HDA Generic [HDA Generic]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu17.1
Architecture: amd64
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC1: john 9626 F.... pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: john 9626 F.... pulseaudio
BuildID: 20130107224849
CRDA: Error: command ['iw', 'reg', 'get'] failed with exit code 1: nl80211 not found.
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'PCH'/'HDA Intel PCH at 0xf7d00000 irq 42'
   Mixer name : 'Realtek ID 887'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0887,1458a002,00100302'
   Controls : 5
   Simple ctrls : 4
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'U0x46d0x9a4'/'USB Device 0x46d:0x9a4 at usb-0000:00:1d.0-1.5.7.4, high speed'
   Mixer name : 'USB Mixer'
   Components : 'USB046d:09a4'
   Controls : 2
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card1.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
   Capabilities: cvolume cvolume-joined cswitch cswitch-joined penum
   Capture channels: Mono
   Limits: Capture 0 - 14
   Mono: Capture 14 [100%] [34.25dB] [on]
Channel: Unavailable
Date: Wed Jan 16 17:40:16 2013
ForcedLayersAccel: False
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20120214.2)
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.1.1 dev eth0 proto static
 169.254.0.0/16 dev eth0 scope link metric 1000
 192.168.1.0/24 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.3 metric 1
IwConfig:
 lo no wireless extensions.

 eth0 no wireless extensions.
MarkForUpload: True
MostRecentCrashID: bp-07cee06a-46cb-442c-bf08-576722120424
PrefSources:
 prefs.js
 [Profile]/extensions/{b9db16a4-6edc-47ec-a1f4-b86292ed211d}/defaults/preferences/prefs-dwhelper.js
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
Profiles: Profile0 (Default) - LastVersion=18.0/20130107224849 (In use)
RfKill:
 0: hci0: Bluetooth
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
RunningIncompatibleAddons: False
SourcePackage: firefox
SubmittedCrashIDs: bp-07cee06a-46cb-442c-bf08-576722120424
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to precise on 2012-12-14 (33 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 12/19/2011
dmi.bios.vendor: American Megatrends Inc.
dmi.bios.version: FA
dmi.board.asset.tag: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.board.name: H61M-S2PV
dmi.board.vendor: INTEL Corporation
dmi.board.version: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Gigabyte Tecohnology Co., Ltd.
dmi.chassis.version: To Be Filled By O.E.M.
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnAmericanMegatrendsInc.:bvrFA:bd12/19/2011:svnGigabyteTecohnologyCo.,Ltd.:pnH61M-S2PV:pvrTobefilledbyO.E.M.:rvnINTELCorporation:rnH61M-S2PV:rvrTobefilledbyO.E.M.:cvnGigabyteTecohnologyCo.,Ltd.:ct3:cvrToBeFilledByO.E.M.:
dmi.product.name: H61M-S2PV
dmi.product.version: To be filled by O.E.M.
dmi.sys.vendor: Gigabyte Tecohnology Co., Ltd.

[Rick Reznicsek (rreznicsek11)]

This is a common problem to all browsers so far as I know. This because of the way that the browser uses the cache the more it has to wade thru the slower it is. Setting the auto dump to lower MB might help.
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