[Jaunty] Firefox causes system hang on large pages

[adambard]

Binary package hint: firefox

I can cause my entire system to hang on cue if I do the following:

Note: This only happens when I have a bunch of tabs open. I reported it directly after a crash, but attempts to recreate it with only one page open have failed. I'll do more testing and comment below.

1) Find a page with sufficient load time. http://www.dealextreme.com/search.dx/search.usb%20drive works really consistantly for me, but it happens on many pages.

2) Scroll down the page when it's still loading. I do this a lot; I'm an impatient fellow.

3) The system stops accepting keyboard input and hangs. The mouse is still movable, but the system does not recover... at least not within ten minutes or so, I stopped waiting.

The hardinfo-generated system report can be found at: http://www.adambard.com/hardinfo_report.html

apt-cache policy firefox:
firefox:
  Installed: 3.0.8+nobinonly-0ubuntu3
  Candidate: 3.0.8+nobinonly-0ubuntu3
  Version table:
 *** 3.0.8+nobinonly-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://ca.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

What I expected to happen: The system to not crash.
What happened: The system crashed.

[Marcus Asshauer (mcas)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. Could you please try to obtain a backtrace by following the instructions on https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Bugs? 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.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

there are two main reasons for slowness of large pages:

1. your graphics driver isnt perfect. if you are using nvidia or fglrx try the free counterparts: nv or ati

2. even ffox isnt perfect in rendering; could be that its fixed in trunk. consider to check latest firefox-3.6 dailies from https://edge.launchpad.net/~ubuntu-mozilla-daily/+archive/ppa ... you can install them side by side and it shouldnt do harm to your profile because it creates its own copy on first startup.

[Paweł T. Jochym (jochym)]

I have very similar issue. The firefox can hang the system completely (no caps-lock and no sysreq-b). Mouse is usually also frozen (but not allways). It seems that it is triggered by larger pages. I'm using epiphany for now and I have had no hangs for several days. But if I try ff again it hangs as soon as I hit a complex enough page. This is very stable system - after upgrade from intrepid. I'm running free ati drivers. I'll be happy to provide any info which can help - there is nothing in the logs as one expects after such complete hang.

[Micah Gersten (micahg)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. However, according to this report, you are not using the most recent version of Firefox for Jaunty. Please upgrade to the most recent version and let us know if you are still having this issue. Thanks in advance.

[Paweł T. Jochym (jochym)]

I have solved the problem by removing the profile and importing the data back into the new profile (fairly tedious task, it would be nice if there would be some global importer of that kind for the browser). It runs smoothly - no single hang from that point. But. I do consider this still to be a bug - the browser should not be able to *completely* hang the system on cue.
On the other hand I believe this one is not possible to find until it will manifest itself in more "traceable" form.

[Micah Gersten (micahg)]

I am closing this due to you no longer having an issue with a new profile. Mozilla is working on making the tabs run in self-contained processes so that the whole thing doesn't freeze at once. Please feel free to report any other bugs you may find.

[Tim T. (tim-timmerman)]

After upgrading to jaunty this weekend, I'm also hit by this bug, effectively rendering the system unusable.
Tried with a new clean profile, and got locked out when I clicked the back button, on a google search...

The relevant data:
Firefox 3.0.11 Mozilla firefox for ubuntu canonical 1.0

timt@Strider: $ apt-cache policy firefox
firefox:
  Installed: 3.0.11+build2+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.04.1
  Candidate: 3.0.11+build2+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.04.1
  Version table:
 *** 3.0.11+build2+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.04.1 0
        500 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty-updates/main Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com jaunty-security/main Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     3.0.8+nobinonly-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com jaunty/main Packages

Can't get a stacktrace since the system is locked hard.
Graphics card is an nvidia, using version 180 of the accelerated graphics driver.

If you need more info, please email with instructions on how to get the information you require

[Micah Gersten (micahg)]

@Tim T.
Could you please try:
making sure your nvidia drivers are at the latest revision
and/or try the open source nvidia drivers

Is it always the same site that crashes?
Can you reproduce it every time?

[Tim T. (tim-timmerman)]

Currently around 15 miles away from the offending machine, but:
- nvidia drivers are from fresh, up to date jaunty install.
  I'll try removing the accellerated drivers tonight, see if there is
any difference.

- Problem occurs with:
   - google reader especially for large feeds (e.g. the digg or reddit
latest feeds).
   - zorkonline.com (During a battle events are gradually revealed,
this can take a long time.)

 - always happens if I use the scroll wheel to scroll down
  I've also had this happen on a normal forum

I think we'd better move away from the term crash; it's a system
lockup. The system stops responding to any keyboard input, and will
not event toggle the CapsLock light.
-> haven't tried connecting over the network yet; I'll try that
tonight (if the lockup happens again.)

Thanks for your input!

TimT.

On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 09:50, Micah
Gersten<email address hidden> wrote:
> @Tim T.
> Could you please try:
> making sure your nvidia drivers are at the latest revision
> and/or try the open source nvidia drivers
>
> Is it always the same site that crashes?
> Can you reproduce it every time?
>
> ** Changed in: firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu)
>       Status: Invalid => Incomplete
>
> --
> [Jaunty] Firefox causes system hang on large pages
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/362107
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Tim T. (tim-timmerman)]

Did some research over the weekend.
Turning off the nvidia drivers seems to eliminate the problem; haven't
had a hang in the past 48 hours.
Haven't tried the 3.5 or 3.6 with the nvidia drivers yet. Will give it
a try as soon as I get some time

On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 10:11, Tim T.<email address hidden> wrote:
> Currently around 15 miles away from the offending machine, but:
> - nvidia drivers are from fresh, up to date jaunty install.
>  I'll try removing the accellerated drivers tonight, see if there is
> any difference.
>
>
> - Problem occurs with:
>   - google reader especially for large feeds (e.g. the digg or reddit
> latest feeds).
>   - zorkonline.com (During a battle events are gradually revealed,
> this can take a long time.)
>
>  - always happens if I use the scroll wheel to scroll down
>  I've also had this happen on a normal forum
>
> I think we'd better move away from the term crash; it's a system
> lockup. The system stops responding to any keyboard input, and will
> not event toggle the CapsLock light.
> -> haven't tried connecting over the network yet; I'll try that
> tonight (if the lockup happens again.)
>
> Thanks for your input!
>
> TimT.
>
>
> On Tue, Jul 7, 2009 at 09:50, Micah
> Gersten<email address hidden> wrote:
>> @Tim T.
>> Could you please try:
>> making sure your nvidia drivers are at the latest revision
>> and/or try the open source nvidia drivers
>>
>> Is it always the same site that crashes?
>> Can you reproduce it every time?
>>
>> ** Changed in: firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu)
>>       Status: Invalid => Incomplete
>>
>> --
>> [Jaunty] Firefox causes system hang on large pages
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/362107
>> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
>> of the bug.
>>
>

[Micah Gersten (micahg)]

Thank you for the update. Which nvidia drivers are you using? The proprietary ones or the free ones?

[Tim T. (tim-timmerman)]

Sorry for the delay in answering, vacation got in the way.

- Without the Nvidia accelerated graphics driver (version 180),
everything works fine.
   Tested by disabling the driver, running firefox (most recent 3.0):
no problem for two weeks
    enabled driver again (about a week ago), used system lightly ),
just had a new freeze, so it seems to be related to the driver

 - Now trying with firefox 3.5, I'll update if there is news.

On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 07:25, Micah
Gersten<email address hidden> wrote:
> Thank you for the update.  Which nvidia drivers are you using?  The
> proprietary ones or the free ones?
>
> --
> [Jaunty] Firefox causes system hang on large pages
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/362107
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Tim T. (tim-timmerman)]

OK, that didn't take long. With firefox 3.5 (Shiretoko), I've already
had several crashes.
Falling back to version 173 of the Nvidia driver.
(The only other proprietary driver I have active at the moment is the
Alternate Atheros "madwifi" driver.

In the last two crashes, I noticed the capslock and (I think)
scrolllock leds blinking (About once per second)
Also note that at that time I had a spreadsheet open in openoffice,
along with firefox.
Syslog shows
Aug 2 13:00:21 Strider kernel: [ 1015.939269] BUG: unable to handle
kernel NULL pointer dereference at 00000004
Aug 2 13:00:21 Strider kernel: [ 1015.939276] IP: [<c01ec87f>]
aio_setup_iocb+0x10f/0x2a0
Aug 2 13:00:21 Strider kernel: [ 1015.939286] *pde = 00000000
Aug 2 13:00:21 Strider kernel: [ 1015.939291] Oops: 0002 [#1] SMP

uname -a
Linux Strider 2.6.28-14-generic #47-Ubuntu SMP Sat Jul 25 00:28:35 UTC
2009 i686 GNU/Linux

output of hwinfo attached to email

TimT.

On Wed, Jul 29, 2009 at 19:38, Tim T.<email address hidden> wrote:
> Sorry for the delay in answering, vacation got in the way.
>
> - Without the Nvidia accelerated graphics driver (version 180),
> everything works fine.
>   Tested by disabling the driver, running firefox (most recent 3.0):
> no problem for two weeks
>    enabled driver again (about a week ago), used system lightly ),
> just had a new freeze, so it seems to be related to the driver
>
>  - Now trying with firefox 3.5, I'll update if there is news.
>
> On Tue, Jul 14, 2009 at 07:25, Micah
> Gersten<email address hidden> wrote:
>> Thank you for the update.  Which nvidia drivers are you using?  The
>> proprietary ones or the free ones?
>>
>> --
>> [Jaunty] Firefox causes system hang on large pages
>> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/362107
>> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
>> of the bug.
>>
>

[Micah Gersten (micahg)]

@Tim T

I'm closing this bug as it seems like the graphics driver is at fault here and not Firefox. I suggest opening a new bug for the nvidia graphics driver so that they can help you. There are new versions that have been released recently that might help. Please feel free to report any other bugs you may find.