Firefox grabs all the memory and chokes the computer
| Affects | Status | Importance | Assigned to | Milestone | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| firefox (Ubuntu) |
New
|
Undecided
|
Unassigned | ||
Bug Description
I'm running Ubuntu 7.10
uname -a
Linux seamonkey 2.6.22-14-generic #1 SMP Tue Feb 12 02:46:46 UTC 2008 x86_64 GNU/Linux
I have kept the system upgraded at all times - a mistake it now turns out, since this behaviour appeared in a recent upgrade of firefox. I _think_ it was the second most recent upgrade of firefox where this behaviour began. There is a possibility that the behaviour began after I installed a GTK tools package of some sort - it's not possible to tell which it was.
I click `Latest BBC Headlines' button and then go down the list and then right-click on the desired entry and select `Open in new TAB'. What I expect is that a new tab will open up across to the right and it will begin to get the news.
What happens is that if I open a new tab using the `Latest BBC Headines' button then about 1/2 the time the Firefox starts grabbing memory madly and the computer slows rapidly to a near-halt - cursor gets very unresponsive. If I press CTRL+ALT+F1 then I can get to a separate login screen (given time) and log in (sometimes) and then find and kill the rogue process, using `top' (which reports the process as taking up 95% or so of the CPU). The name of the process is `gtk- ' something but I cannot remember its full name. If I wait instead then _eventually_ the computer kills the process itself - after killing a few other processes first and the computer wakes up again. But this takes some minutes. It's quicker just to warm-start the machine.
It happens during the loading of the tab, but not immediately - it takes about 10 seconds before the mouse cursor starts to drag and then I know it's happening again.
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And now I'm bloody angry! This stupid damn error reporting gadget keeps saying:
>> "Firefox version 2.0.0.14" does not exist in Ubuntu. Please choose a different package. If you're unsure, please select "I don't know"
so now I have to click the #*&#$&^#%&^% `I don't know' button. I DO know because I asked the application and that is what it called itself.
