Firefox greyed out, even though it's responding

[Brett Alton]

When I visit ubuntuforums.org, they have script that takes a long time to responded. Now in Gusty, instead of simply "freezing" Firefox while waiting to complete the script, the program grays out - this was a familiar feature in Feisty, but now it's happening at different times. Yes, it seems as though Firefox in Gusty is not responding, but as soon as it responded again, the program stayed grayed out.

[Brett Alton (brett-alton-deactivatedaccount)]

Here is a screenshot of me surfing through Launchpad with Firefox grayed out, even though it's responding.

[Wouter Stomp (wouterstomp-deactivatedaccount)]

Happens for me as well, not only when running scripts, but also sometimes when running the livecd and the cd is accessed. Firefox stays gray for a few seconds and the returns to normal colors.

[Brett Alton (brett-alton-deactivatedaccount)]

No no, I mean it stays greyed out even AFTER it starts responding again. Ubuntu has programs grey out now when they're not responding and have them return to normal colour when they are, yes, but this isn't happening with Firefox and when I surf to http://ubuntuforums.org ... It seems it doesn't like their scripts because this is returned:

--------
Error: uncaught exception: [Exception... "Component returned failure code: 0x80520012 (NS_ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND) [nsIStringBundle.GetStringFromName]" nsresult: "0x80520012 (NS_ERROR_FILE_NOT_FOUND)" location: "JS frame :: chrome://browser/content/browser.js :: anonymous :: line 3890" data: no]

Warning: Expected end of value for property but found 'font-weight'. Error in parsing value for property 'background'. Declaration dropped.
Source File: http://ubuntuforums.org/clientscript/vbulletin_css/style-91ffab3b-00074.css
Line: 1961

Error: $ is not defined
Source File: http://ubuntuforums.org/
Line: 1057
--------

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue that you reported is one that should be reproducible with the live environment of the Desktop CD of the development release - Gutsy Gibbon. It would help us greatly if you could test with it so we can work on getting it fixed in the next release of Ubuntu. You can find out more about the development release at [WWW] http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/ . Thanks again and we appreciate your help.

[Brett Alton (brett-alton-deactivatedaccount)]

Excuse me for my ignorance, but I believe this was caused by a Firefox add-on acting haywire.

I was only using: Web Developer, Adblock and Canadian English Dictionary at the time.

The problem appears to have been solved, but at what point, I'm not sure. I am not using Gusty (2007-09-12) and compiz fusion seams to be working perfectly.

[Martin Peeks (martinp23)]

@Travis:

Happening for me in gutsy beta, seemingly after having visited [0]. Screenshot attached.

[0] - http://newdream.net/crash/js2.html

[Martin Peeks (martinp23)]

Note that the offending tab has been closed, and firefox is working correctly, albeit with the grey overlay.

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

Apparently firefox stops responding to ping events.

http://standards.freedesktop.org/wm-spec/1.4/ar01s06.html

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

this seems to happen to me when im using alot of memeory example: building a package but i do see it other times.
I have no addons installed in firefox so this happening due to addons cant be the only time it happens.

[Pierre-Yves (py-bretecher)]

Same issue for me with Gutsy amd64 : firefox freezes (window becomes greyed) very often and for few seconds (3-10s).
I haven't noticed particular conditions/plugins/sites

This issue is quite annoying !

[anonym (launch-mailinator)]

I have this issue too - not terribly often, but it happens. Firefox sometimes greys out for a bit, which is normal, but sometime instead of responding again with color, it responds still greyed out. A temporary fix is to restart firefox.

[Martin Peeks (martinp23)]

Are people still having this issue? I've had no problems recently...

[Brett Alton (brett-alton-deactivatedaccount)]

Well actually, I still have the exact same problem where ubuntuforums.org freezes all Firefox windows and tabs for 5 - 60 seconds but it doesn't "grey-out" anymore.

[Arthur Archnix (arthur-archnix)]

I am experiencing this issue. I was browsing the digg forums when it greyed out. Usually that means its not responding and I need to force quit, but then I was able to browse and click links though firefox remained greyed out.

I'm running Gutsy fully updated with Adblock installed. Desktop effects are enabled.

[brjoon1021 (bauton)]

A lot of people have tis same problem, but FF doesnot always remain operable after it greys out. the whole system usually locks up for me.

I found a fix and what I think is the culprit, and it is not compiz because I don't use it. I uninstalled it. Here is my post in a thread about this issue...

"I found a solution for me.

I installed ubuntuzilla (google for it) which is the standard release of Firefox from Mozilla. I stayed clear of Flash from synaptic or anything that came with ubuntu to handle Flash content. Previously, I had installed Flash from synatpic. This time, I installed Flash from the prompt that you get from the firefox browser when you have navigated to a website that needs Flash. Just to make sure that this was not the version of Flash somehow coming through synaptic / Ubuntu, I have checked synaptic and it does not show Flash or the flash plugin installed.

Let me stress that I have installed & gotten frustrated by the crashes and then reinstalled Gutsy and Mint at least 6 times over the last two weeks. All of the installs crashed like crazy when surfing with Firefox, especially www.yahoo.com, for some reason would crash the system every sngle time. But this time, by avoiding the ubuntu branded andcustomized FF and Flash and Flash plugin, I am rock solid. The ONLY software or hardware changes have been the FF and the Flash. I suppose it is worth it for you to try.

As an aside, I have never used or had the google toolbar, never used or had a proprietary video driver. I uninstalled, reinstalled, compiz. Always crashed anyway.
"

[Jean-Paul (jeanpaul145)]

I am having this problem as well, while surfing various sites (tweakers.net, ubuntuforums.org, sometimes gmail)
I have adblock installed, but don't use it a lot.
I am using Gutsy x86.

[Jean-Paul (jeanpaul145)]

Something I just noticed: sometimes it will do the exact opposite of greying out firefox - I'm browsing (using ff of course), then ff doesn't respond for a while, and as soon as it responds again, it "ungreyes".

[Travis Watkins (amaranth)]

The issue that you reported is one that should be reproducible with the live environment of the Desktop CD of the development release - Hardy Heron. It would help us greatly if you could test with it so we can work on getting it fixed in the actively developed release. You can find out more about the development release at [WWW] http://www.ubuntu.com/testing/

We now have Firefox 3 by default which make help with this.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to "New". Thanks again!.

[Jean-Paul (jeanpaul145)]

Just switched to the Hardy RC, and I haven't seen the issue popping up here yet.

[terrance_teoh (terrance-teoh)]

I just got the problem using Firefox 3.0b5 on Ubuntu 8.04 - the Hardy Heron - released in April 2008.
There was a complaint about script when trying to access this site:

  http://reviews.cnet.com/mp3-players/slacker-portable-player-8gb/4505-6490_7-32745548.html?tag=nl.e723

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Closing this bug due to everyone that commented said it was fixed for them.
terrance_teoh, Please file a new bug as yours isnt the same as this bug.

[Neil Woolford (neil-neilwoolford)]

I'm confused.

I have *exactly* the issue described by the initial poster, it is happening for me with Firefox 3 Beta 5 in a fresh upgrade to Hardy Heron.

Firefox sometimes greys out and then returns to colour to continue, as it should. Sometimes it stays gray but works normally otherwise when it has recovered from a freeze, which is not what it should do.

Does this need to be a new bug? It has the same symptom as the old one.

[Jean-Paul (jeanpaul145)]

Next to that, FF3B5 freezes *a lot* here (Hardy x86), making the rest of the system unresponsive in the process. It will take 2-5 seconds just to switch to another tab.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1

Neil Woolford wrote:
| I'm confused.
|
| I have *exactly* the issue described by the initial poster, it is
| happening for me with Firefox 3 Beta 5 in a fresh upgrade to Hardy
| Heron.
|
| Firefox sometimes greys out and then returns to colour to continue, as
| it should. Sometimes it stays gray but works normally otherwise when
| it has recovered from a freeze, which is not what it should do.
|
| Does this need to be a new bug? It has the same symptom as the old one.
|
Opened a task for Firefox-3.0. Neil and Jean-paul your issue is not
"EXACTLY" the same as it happens on a separeate package. Now the package
has a task although i would perfer it be on a separeate bug i went with
your idea to stay on same. We need to know more about your setup. What
version of Firefox-3.0 are you using are you using compiz? does it get
better without compiz enabled (after restart) once disabled. also output
of lsb_release -a. What video card do you have and what drivers did you
install and how did you install them.

NOTE: Please dont say its the same bug because we havee a few bugs that
this is the symptom but has a very different cause.

- --
Sincerely Yours,
~ John Vivirito

https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito
Linux User# 414246
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[Neil Woolford (neil-neilwoolford)]

Firefox 3 beta 5, as installed by my upgrade to Hardy from Gutsy.

Yes, compiz is in use. Will test with and without.

neilw@neilw-laptop:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 8.04
Release: 8.04
Codename: hardy

I'm using a Lenovo 3000 N100 laptop, which has an integrated Intel graphics system
lspci gives;
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)
00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation Mobile 945GM/GMS/GME, 943/940GML Express Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 03)

Package 915resolution is loaded to give the correct screen resolution.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 08:31:41PM -0000, Neil Woolford wrote:
> Firefox 3 beta 5, as installed by my upgrade to Hardy from Gutsy.
>
> Yes, compiz is in use. Will test with and without.

any results yet? Maybe this is related to extensions? Do the 3.0 RC1
builds help that are currently tested in hardy-proposed archive?

 affects ubuntu/firefox-3.0
 status incomplete

 - Alexander

[Neil Woolford (neil-neilwoolford)]

The problem has been intermittent, and I haven't been able to find a trigger for it, so it is difficult for me to test properly.

However, it hasn't happened to me for the last week or so; I do have hardy-proposed enabled and am therefore now updated to 3.0 rc1. I would cautiously say that, for me, the problem appears to be solved. I shall continue to monitor and will test (with and without Compiz) if symptoms return.

For what it's worth the extensions I'm using are Adblock Plus 0.7.5.4, Download Statusbar 0.9.6.1, Ubuntu Firefox Modifications 0.5 and User Agent Switcher 0.6.11. Adobe Reader 8.0 Plugin is present because the Royal Mail postage label printer refuses to work with Evince... Other Plugins are present of course.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

bretalton,
Do you still see this issue? I have a feeling this is a dup of another bug thatFirefox doesnt support something that compiz uses i have to locate that bug to be sure.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Dup on the greyed out part not so much script part as that would be a website issue AFAICT

[Brett Alton (brett-alton-deactivatedaccount)]

I haven't used Compiz since 7.04 and I think I saw this bug go away in 7.10. I definitely no longer see it in 8.04, but it looks like people above are saying otherwise.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

brettalton wrote:
> I haven't used Compiz since 7.04 and I think I saw this bug go away in
> 7.10. I definitely no longer see it in 8.04, but it looks like people
> above are saying otherwise.
>
They are seeing it due to compiz it is calling for $something but
Firefox doesnt know it (i cant remember what it is exactly but if i run
into the post again ill post it here.

--
Sincerely Yours,
     John Vivirito

https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito
Linux User# 414246

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Tue, Jun 03, 2008 at 02:16:32PM -0000, Neil Woolford wrote:
> The problem has been intermittent, and I haven't been able to find a
> trigger for it, so it is difficult for me to test properly.
>
> However, it hasn't happened to me for the last week or so; I do have
> hardy-proposed enabled and am therefore now updated to 3.0 rc1. I would
> cautiously say that, for me, the problem appears to be solved. I shall
> continue to monitor and will test (with and without Compiz) if symptoms
> return.
>
> For what it's worth the extensions I'm using are Adblock Plus 0.7.5.4,
> Download Statusbar 0.9.6.1, Ubuntu Firefox Modifications 0.5 and User
> Agent Switcher 0.6.11. Adobe Reader 8.0 Plugin is present because the
> Royal Mail postage label printer refuses to work with Evince... Other
> Plugins are present of course.
>

Anyone else sees improvements in this area for RC1 builds?

 - Alexander

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Tue, May 20, 2008 at 08:37:26AM -0000, Jean-Paul wrote:
> Next to that, FF3B5 freezes *a lot* here (Hardy x86), making the rest of
> the system unresponsive in the process. It will take 2-5 seconds just to
> switch to another tab.
>

please test the 3.0 RC1 that will land soon (or get it from
hardy-proposed) now.

 affects ubuntu/firefox
 status invalid

 affects ubuntu/firefox-3.0
 status incomplete

 - Alexander

[Neil Woolford (neil-neilwoolford)]

I downloaded the latest Firefox from the 'proposed' repository today, I assume it would be rc2 now as it is freshly updated. (3.0+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.8.04.1).

I've just seen my first instance of the greyed out but responding symptom for a couple of weeks...

This time I played with it for a minute or two; everything I tried still worked normally in monochrome, an oddity is that RSS feed bookmarks dropped down in colour as normal, over the monochrome Firefox. Going into the System menu and turning off visual effects instantly returned Firefox to full colour. It continued in full colour after restarting visual effects. Firefox was not restarted, the same instance ran through the whole process.

I'm happy to provide log files, run debug versions and the like if I'm told what is needed.

Neil

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 11:17:24AM -0000, Neil Woolford wrote:
> I downloaded the latest Firefox from the 'proposed' repository today, I
> assume it would be rc2 now as it is freshly updated. (3.0+nobinonly-
> 0ubuntu0.8.04.1).
>
> I've just seen my first instance of the greyed out but responding
> symptom for a couple of weeks...
>
> This time I played with it for a minute or two; everything I tried still
> worked normally in monochrome, an oddity is that RSS feed bookmarks
> dropped down in colour as normal, over the monochrome Firefox. Going
> into the System menu and turning off visual effects instantly returned
> Firefox to full colour. It continued in full colour after restarting
> visual effects. Firefox was not restarted, the same instance ran
> through the whole process.
>
> I'm happy to provide log files, run debug versions and the like if I'm
> told what is needed.

Sounds like a compiz issue. keeping ffox 3 task open until we know more.

 affects ubuntu/compiz
 status new

 - Alexander

[Neil Woolford (neil-neilwoolford)]

It's happening again for me right now, so I'm investigating more;

The greyed out characteristic affects just one window in Firefox; if I open a link in another window that is in normal colour. Opening the link in another tab in the greyed out window stays monochrome.

Staying in the monochrome window, all the dropdown menus display in colour. That includes bookmarks, feed bookmarks, smart bookmarks, address bar, google bar, and menu bar items (File, Edit etc.)

Changing the System=>Preferences=>Appearance=>Visual Effects from 'Normal' to 'Extra' instantly restored the window to colour.

Possible trigger for the symptom is heavy activity in Evolution alongside Firefox.

So two workarounds present themselves; reopen everything in a new window and close the old one, or just tweak the Visual Effects settings to a different level.

Will now try to see if I can provoke the symptom by running intensive Evolution activities alongside Firefox.

Neil

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Wed, Jun 11, 2008 at 08:38:29PM -0000, brjoon1021 wrote:
>
>

visit the linked website and unsubscribe.

 - Alexander

[Mike (invisible726)]

Yes, this happens to me a lot. I have a slow laptop hard drive, so when firefox is trying to load something but it has to wait, it sometimes goes grey and gets its color back when it gets what it wants, but sometimes it stays grey.

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. You reported this bug a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering is this still an issue for you? Could you try to reproduce the same with Ubuntu 8.10 or 9.04? Thanks in advance.

[Neil Woolford (neil-neilwoolford)]

Problem not noticed here for quite a while, using 8.10 (Intrepid), compiz and Firefox 3.05. So as far as I'm concerned the bug is no longer present.
I will have a try with 9.04 when it comes into beta testing.

[Jean-Paul (jeanpaul145)]

I haven't experienced this problem for a while, either, whether compiz is turned on or off.
I have to agree with Neil Woolford: fixed in Intrepid, must still be tested on Jaunty.

[Wouter van Wijk (woutervanwijk)]

I haven't either. I think it is fixed.

[Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

 This bug report is being closed due to your last comment regarding this being fixed with an update. For future reference you can manage the status of your own bugs by clicking on the current status in the yellow line and then choosing a new status in the revealed drop down box. You can learn more about bug statuses at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Status . Thank you again for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Feel free to submit any future bugs you may find.