firefox 3 on ubuntu hardy : downloading is impossible

[Jacques]

Binary package hint: firefox-3.0

Hi,

I am experiencing a very annoying bug with firefox 3 on ubuntu Hardy with the latest updates (July 9 2008) :

When downloading any type of file, the download process stops at 129K as if it is at the end (with no warnings or errors, the download manager indicates that the download process has successfully finished with always the same size, i.e. 129K).

I tried to remove the .mozilla directory, then I tried on another user account but with the same result.

Same problem when playing a streaming video : it stops before the end.

So I installed firefox 2.0.0.15 and it works perfectly with this version.

Thanks for yous help,
Jacques

[Marcus Asshauer (mcas)]

Thank you for reporting this bug. I cannot reproduce this on my hardy system with firefox 3 final release. Is your system x86 or x86_64?
Also, please answer these questions:
Is this crash reproducible? If so, which are the steps that lead to it?
Which flash package do you have installed?
Which Java package do you have installed?
Which Firefox extensions do you have installed?

This will greatly aid us in tracking down your problem.

[Jacques (jacques-eavr)]

Hi,

> Is this crash reproducible? If so, which are the steps that lead to it?

It is not a crash. Everything behaves as if the size of the downloaded file would be always 129K, whatever file you download.
It is perfectly reproducible. I did not notice this problem before. It seems to have appeared after some automated updates these last days. Now, almost 100% of the downloads fail. When it works, it is so rare that I was unfortunately not able to find out the reason.

The steps are :
* Download a file by clicking on a downloadable link (7z, zip, tgz, avi, every type of file triggers the bug).
* Choose the directory where you want to save the file (while doing this, firefox starts already to download the file by anticipation according to the blinking of my router leds)
* In the download manager, either the anticipated download already reached 129K and it reports that the file has successfully been downloaded, which is not the case when opening the file (data corruption) or it displays a progress bar and suddenly stops downloading at 129K reporting that everything went flawlessly which is obviously not the case.

I tried "strace -f -o debug.out firefox" with no luck : nothing interesting in the messages.

I suspect something linked with this anticipated download mechanism which seems to be new in firefox 3. Is there a way to disable it ?

> Is your system x86 or x86_64?

x86

> Which flash package do you have installed?
r124

> Which Java package do you have installed?

no java

> Which Firefox extensions do you have installed?

no extension

Thanks,
Jacques

[Jacques (jacques-eavr)]

Hi,

I was able to trigger this bug with firefox-2 (hardy 2.0.0.15 version) :

1. Connect to the hardy machine with ssh
2. launch "firefox-2 --sync"
3. Download something : the download process stops at ~132198 <-> 129K

When launching firefox without the --sync option, everything is ok. The --sync option seems to slow down significantly the GUI (wireless 54Mbps network), maybe this is the cause ?

When launching "firefox --sync" locally, there is no problem (no slow down of the GUI).

Jacques

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

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

Jacques wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I was able to trigger this bug with firefox-2 (hardy 2.0.0.15 version) :
>
> 1. Connect to the hardy machine with ssh
> 2. launch "firefox-2 --sync"
> 3. Download something : the download process stops at ~132198 <-> 129K
>
> When launching firefox without the --sync option, everything is ok. The
> --sync option seems to slow down significantly the GUI (wireless 54Mbps
> network), maybe this is the cause ?
>
> When launching "firefox --sync" locally, there is no problem (no slow
> down of the GUI).
>
> Jacques
>
The slow down is most likely caused by the ssh session as it always is
slow when opening a GUI app. Its been like that for a long time i
think i first saw it on 5.10 or 6.06 but dont remember

- --
Sincerely Yours,
    John Vivirito

https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito
Linux User# 414246
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[Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with the latest Ubuntu release? Thanks in advance.

[Jacques (jacques-eavr)]

Hi,

I did not meet this bug anymore for a while now (with version 2 or 3). I think it can be considered as fixed. Now, I'm not 100% sure it was linked with firefox. I'm using a netgear DG834G modem/router. I did a firmware downgrade since I heard that the latest release (V3.01.32) had a bug in the routing layer. So I downgraded to the unofficial V3.01.31 release. I have the feeling, but It's not a certainty, that since then the bug disappeared. Of course I did also automated software upgrade of ubuntu, including corrections for firefox. This could also have corrected the bug.

Best,
Jacques

[Martin Mai (mrkanister-deactivatedaccount-deactivatedaccount)]

Thank you Jacques. Since we don't know the root cause I am marking this one as "invalid". Feel free to reopen it if the error occurs again.