Firefox crashes in Ubuntu 9.04, seemingly at random

[Martin Karpinski]

Binary package hint: firefox-3.0

Sorry for providing very little information, but Firefox is crashing randomly. I've had Firefox crash under the following circumstances:

-- opening a link in a new tab via Firegestures
-- performing a status update on Facebook, and having a second Javascript window open to enable me to find a Youtube video via the Facebook "gui"
-- visiting lifehacker.com (the page was already loaded completely when the browser crashed, and all I did was move the mouse cursor)
-- opening a new tab via CTRL-T (if I remember correctly, these crashes happen without warning)

I'd only been using Ubuntu 8.10 for a few days before 9.04 came out, so I can't provide feedback as to how it performed under 8.10.

It would be very hard to reproduce these types of crashes, since under normal usage they would happen once every several days. I'm a heavy internet user, and so I get a crash about every day or two.

Running:

Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 AMD64
Firefox "3.0.10+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.04.1"

Firefox Extensions (have not tried to disable):

Adblock Plus 1.0.2
DownThemAll 1.1.2
Firegestures 1.1.6.2
FlashGot 1.1.8.6
NoScript 1.9.2.4
Stealther 1.0.6
Tab Mix Plus 0.3.7.3
TabCounter 1.0.3
Ubuntu Firefox Modifications 0.7
Xmarks 3.0.2

I've used most of these extensions together in Vista for quite a while now with no problems whatsoever. Please let me know if I can provide any additional information. I know this isn't much to go on.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: amd64
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: firefox-3.0 3.0.10+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.04.1
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: firefox-3.0
Uname: Linux 2.6.28-11-generic x86_64

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

if this problem goes away by disabling one of your extensions, please report this to the extensions author and not us. fire gestures sounds like a good candidate here ... at least.

[magli (mjmagliana)]

I am having the same problem.

Fresh Ubuntu 9.04 AMD64 install with all updates. Firefox extensions: Web developer, stealther and adblock plus.

Firefox crashes randomly with a segmentation fault. This most recently occurred while scrolling a page that had loaded hours before. As stated in the report, it seams to be at random.

I will try to get a backtrace and report back.

[Martin Karpinski (mkarpinski)]

@magli

If you are just using those three extensions, we can rule out Firegestures, which I never believed to be the problem.

I've had 2 more random crashes since my last comment, one while just moving the cursor, and another when typing a URL.

[Martin Karpinski (mkarpinski)]

Firefox crashed again, this time because I wanted to minimize it by clicking on its window in the panel.

[clickwir (clickwir)]

OK, Ever since updating to 3.0.10 I've been having lots of crashes. Randomly. I assumed it was just firefox. So I didn't disable any extensions. This has been a couple days now and no updates to Firefox so I decided to go looking.

Found this bug report. Read it and thought, damn, I guess I should disable my extensions and try that. So, reluctantly I did. All of them. None are on. I do have the ChromiFox theme on, I didn't disable that. But all the other extensions, off.

So I opened Firefox from a command line and used it for a while. Maybe 30mins goes by, nothing wrong. Then I'm just randomly scrolling down a webpage and it freezes for a second and then crashes. Here's the output from the terminal:

zack@zack-desktop:~$ firefox
ERROR: ld.so: object '/usr/$LIB/libartsdsp.so.0' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.
ERROR: ld.so: object '/usr/$LIB/libartsdsp.so.0' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.
ERROR: ld.so: object '/usr/$LIB/libartsdsp.so.0' from LD_PRELOAD cannot be preloaded: ignored.
QPixmap: Invalid pixmap parameters

(npviewer.bin:31686): Gtk-WARNING **: /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/engines/libqt4engine.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64

(npviewer.bin:31686): Gtk-WARNING **: /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/engines/libqt4engine.so: wrong ELF class: ELFCLASS64
The program 'firefox' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'RenderBadPicture (invalid Picture parameter)'.
  (Details: serial 668320 error_code 182 request_code 156 minor_code 7)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
Locking assertion failure. Backtrace:
#0 /usr/lib/libxcb-xlib.so.0 [0x7f1bdcd7f9fc]
#1 /usr/lib/libxcb-xlib.so.0(xcb_xlib_lock+0x17) [0x7f1bdcd7fb77]
#2 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6 [0x7f1bdf6748c0]
#3 /usr/lib/libXrender.so.1(XRenderFreePicture+0x46) [0x7f1bdf937a26]
#4 /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4 [0x7f1bd4bbfcfb]
#5 /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4 [0x7f1bd4bc0680]
#6 /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4(_ZN7QPixmap5derefEv+0x53) [0x7f1bd4bb5fa3]
#7 /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4(_ZN7QPixmapD2Ev+0x24) [0x7f1bd4bb6334]
#8 /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4 [0x7f1bd4bbb193]
#9 /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4 [0x7f1bd4bbb79f]
#10 /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4 [0x7f1bd4bbae85]
#11 /lib/libc.so.6(exit+0x9d) [0x7f1be3d426ad]
#12 /usr/lib/libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 [0x7f1bde9c5cc1]
#13 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6(_XError+0xf4) [0x7f1bdf66d784]
#14 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6 [0x7f1bdf67520f]
#15 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6(_XReply+0x18a) [0x7f1bdf6755ba]
#16 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6(XGetGeometry+0x8f) [0x7f1bdf650cff]
#17 /usr/lib/libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0(gdk_pixmap_foreign_new_for_display+0xa0) [0x7f1bde9c6ba0]
#18 /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/engines/libqt4engine.so [0x7f1bd58d08b5]
#19 /usr/lib/xulrunner-1.9.0.10/libxul.so [0x7f1be2b9193e]

[clickwir (clickwir)]

Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.0.10) Gecko/2009042523 Ubuntu/8.10 (intrepid) Firefox/3.0.10

zack@zack-desktop:~$ uname -a
Linux zack-desktop 2.6.27-14-generic #1 SMP Fri Mar 13 19:54:51 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Extensions I was using but are currently disabled:
Adblock Plus 1.0.2
Flashblock 1.5.10
Nuke Anything Enhanced 0.68.2
RefControl 0.8.11
TwitterFox 1.7.7.1
Ubuntu Firefox Modifications 0.6

Oh, sorry, this is Intrepid, not Jaunty. My bad. But still so far the same issue. I've never had FireGestures addon. I just did an apt-get update && apt-get upgrade. No updates.

[clickwir (clickwir)]

I don't know if this is good news or bad news... still with all extensions disabled. I had a crash after what I posted. I noticed it mentioned npviewer.bin. I believe that was used for Flash on my 64bit kernel. So I removed the flashplugin-nonfree and installed the Flash 64bit v10 alpha instead. So far, no crashes. Almost 3 hours running, longest yet today.

[clickwir (clickwir)]

Crap, I should have kept my mouth shut. It just crashed 2 mins after posting that.

zack@zack-desktop:~$ firefox
QPixmap: Invalid pixmap parameters
The program 'firefox' received an X Window System error.
This probably reflects a bug in the program.
The error was 'RenderBadPicture (invalid Picture parameter)'.
  (Details: serial 842003 error_code 182 request_code 156 minor_code 7)
  (Note to programmers: normally, X errors are reported asynchronously;
   that is, you will receive the error a while after causing it.
   To debug your program, run it with the --sync command line
   option to change this behavior. You can then get a meaningful
   backtrace from your debugger if you break on the gdk_x_error() function.)
Locking assertion failure. Backtrace:
#0 /usr/lib/libxcb-xlib.so.0 [0x7fa34b3189fc]
#1 /usr/lib/libxcb-xlib.so.0(xcb_xlib_lock+0x17) [0x7fa34b318b77]
#2 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6 [0x7fa34dc0d8c0]
#3 /usr/lib/libXrender.so.1(XRenderFreePicture+0x46) [0x7fa34ded0a26]
#4 /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4 [0x7fa34359acfb]
#5 /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4 [0x7fa34359b680]
#6 /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4(_ZN7QPixmap5derefEv+0x53) [0x7fa343590fa3]
#7 /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4(_ZN7QPixmapD2Ev+0x24) [0x7fa343591334]
#8 /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4 [0x7fa343596193]
#9 /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4 [0x7fa34359679f]
#10 /usr/lib/libQtGui.so.4 [0x7fa343595e85]
#11 /lib/libc.so.6(exit+0x9d) [0x7fa3522db6ad]
#12 /usr/lib/libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0 [0x7fa34cf5ecc1]
#13 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6(_XError+0xf4) [0x7fa34dc06784]
#14 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6 [0x7fa34dc0e20f]
#15 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6(_XReply+0x18a) [0x7fa34dc0e5ba]
#16 /usr/lib/libX11.so.6(XGetGeometry+0x8f) [0x7fa34dbe9cff]
#17 /usr/lib/libgdk-x11-2.0.so.0(gdk_pixmap_foreign_new_for_display+0xa0) [0x7fa34cf5fba0]
#18 /usr/lib/gtk-2.0/2.10.0/engines/libqt4engine.so [0x7fa3442ab8b5]
#19 /usr/lib/xulrunner-1.9.0.10/libxul.so [0x7fa35112a93e]

[magli (mjmagliana)]

@clickwir
I am not sure you are having the same problem as I am. When I run firefox from the command line, it exits with a segmentation fault.

I used gdb to get a backtrace, which I have attached here.

I want to point out that when I am not running firefox via gdb, it crashes suddenly with a segmentation fault. However, whenever I run it via gdb, it freezes (instead of completely crashing). The gdb output shows that a SIGPIPE was raised. When I exit gdb it warns me that the program is still running.

The crashes occur very randomly. Sometimes firefox crashes within seconds, othertimes it runs for 24h+ without crashing. I also noticed that the crash often occurs when I am not infront of my computer.

[Andrey M (andrey.mrt.)]

I'm running into the same problem (9.04, AMD x86_64, nvidia)

Firefox dies and crashes bringing down the whole system (Ctrl-Alt-F[2-6] do not work).

I'm usually running the following when the crash happens
Terminals
Rhythmbox
Pidgin
Firefox
Code::Blocks
Cadence IC 5.1.41

Order of events before the system dies:
1)Terminals gray out, and I try to force close them. (firefox still works at this point)
2)Rhythmbox finishes current song and hangs
3)shortly after the terminals die (1-3mins), firefox hangs
4)the system monitor applet I have in the gnome panel shows the system load rising
5)system completely hangs

I haven't observed any abnormal behavior in pidgin, codeblocks, or cadence

this crash has consistently happened every single time I've started my computer, just at random times since system startup.

I hope this helps, with some more instructions I'd happily provide more information

[Vril-7 (mainframe-onlinehome)]

Hi,

I everybody. I'm having the same problem as mentioned. When i try to enter an URL in firefox, it and the whole system crashes. Everything. I even cant switch to another console.
The interesting thing is, that it only happens when i try to type in the URL. When i write it e.g. in a terminal window an copy/paste it in firefox, everything works just fine.

The same bug appears sometimes when i'm watching a movie with gmaplyer or mplayer. I alter the size of the mplayer window an ubuntu crashes.

It is realy annoying, because it happens nearly everytime...

[here.david (here-david1)]

Same here....except seamonkey seems not to...however, no lastpass nor xmarks add-ons so this is not a work-around either..............guess will have to leave firefox after all these years......

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Testing extensions in other browsers isn't really helpful as they may act differently.

[here.david (here-david1)]

HUH..what are you saying AND why...helpful post not "NO OFFER" of specific
steps........are needed not "Testing extensions in other browsers isn't
really helpful as they may act differently." as one gets to a point of
trying ANYTHING that MIGHT work....

On Sun, May 24, 2009 at 10:06 AM, John Vivirito <email address hidden>wrote:

> Testing extensions in other browsers isn't really helpful as they may
> act differently.
>
> --
> Firefox crashes in Ubuntu 9.04, seemingly at random
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/370603
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “firefox-3.0” source package in Ubuntu: Incomplete
>
> Bug description:
> Binary package hint: firefox-3.0
>
> Sorry for providing very little information, but Firefox is crashing
> randomly. I've had Firefox crash under the following circumstances:
>
> -- opening a link in a new tab via Firegestures
> -- performing a status update on Facebook, and having a second Javascript
> window open to enable me to find a Youtube video via the Facebook "gui"
> -- visiting lifehacker.com (the page was already loaded completely when
> the browser crashed, and all I did was move the mouse cursor)
> -- opening a new tab via CTRL-T (if I remember correctly, these crashes
> happen without warning)
>
> I'd only been using Ubuntu 8.10 for a few days before 9.04 came out, so I
> can't provide feedback as to how it performed under 8.10.
>
> It would be very hard to reproduce these types of crashes, since under
> normal usage they would happen once every several days. I'm a heavy internet
> user, and so I get a crash about every day or two.
>
> Running:
>
> Ubuntu Jaunty 9.04 AMD64
> Firefox "3.0.10+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.04.1"
>
> Firefox Extensions (have not tried to disable):
>
> Adblock Plus 1.0.2
> DownThemAll 1.1.2
> Firegestures 1.1.6.2
> FlashGot 1.1.8.6
> NoScript 1.9.2.4
> Stealther 1.0.6
> Tab Mix Plus 0.3.7.3
> TabCounter 1.0.3
> Ubuntu Firefox Modifications 0.7
> Xmarks 3.0.2
>
> I've used most of these extensions together in Vista for quite a while now
> with no problems whatsoever. Please let me know if I can provide any
> additional information. I know this isn't much to go on.
>
> ProblemType: Bug
> Architecture: amd64
> DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.04
> NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
> Package: firefox-3.0 3.0.10+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.04.1
> ProcEnviron:
> LANG=en_US.UTF-8
> SHELL=/bin/bash
> SourcePackage: firefox-3.0
> Uname: Linux 2.6.28-11-generic x86_64
>

--
Regards,

David

[magli (mjmagliana)]

I just wanted to let everyone know that the problem I was having turned out to be related to my RAM. I started to get segmentation faults in programs other than firefox, which prompted me to remove some of my RAM cards. I am now running with 2GB instead of 4, and all problems have gone away.

So it seems that I was either having a hardware problem, or there is something wrong with the memory management. I suspect a hardware problem, though it is strange that it coincided perfectly with the installation of 9.04: I never had any seg faults before.

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

stealther has been known to have problems

[Mariano Iglesias (mgiglesias)]

http://anirudhs.chaosnet.org/blog/2005.07.27.html

I also found a lot of random firefox crashes lately. First my environment (Jaunty Jackalope, AMD64, Firefox 3.0.10):

$ uname -a
Linux seinfeld 2.6.28-11-generic #42-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 17 01:58:03 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linu

So I decided to debug the issue. I used gdb to debug firefox by using the following commands:

$ cd /usr/lib/firefox-3.0.10
$ /usr/lib/firefox-3.0.10/run-mozilla.sh -g firefox -d gdb

Once inside gdb, I entered the command run to start firefox, and then using FF I accessed a website which I known to have crashed my FF everytime. This is what GDB gave me after doing that:

---------------------------------------------------------
MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME=/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.10
  LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.10:/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.10/plugins:/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.10
DISPLAY=:0.0
DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.10:/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.10
     LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.10:/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.10/components:/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.10
       SHLIB_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.10:/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.10
          LIBPATH=/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.10:/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.10
       ADDON_PATH=/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.10
      MOZ_PROGRAM=firefox
      MOZ_TOOLKIT=
        moz_debug=1
     moz_debugger=
/usr/bin/gdb firefox -x /tmp/mozargs.dyrlOe
GNU gdb 6.8-debian
Copyright (C) 2008 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later <http://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html>
This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it.
There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. Type "show copying"
and "show warranty" for details.
This GDB was configured as "x86_64-linux-gnu"...
(no debugging symbols found)
(gdb) run
Starting program: /usr/lib/firefox-3.0.10/firefox '-d' 'gdb'
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
(no debugging symbols found)
[New Thread 0x7f43ca7b1700 (LWP 14094)]
(no debugging symbols found)
[New Thread 0x7f43ba11f950 (LWP 14097)]
[New Thread 0x7f43b9479950 (LWP 14098)]
[New Thread 0x7f43b8a12950 (LWP 14099)]
[Thread 0x7f43b8a12950 (LWP 14099) exited]
[New Thread 0x7f43b8a12950 (LWP 14100)]
[New Thread 0x7f43b1491950 (LWP 14101)]
[New Thread 0x7f43b0c90950 (LWP 14102)]
[New Thread 0x7f43af00c950 (LWP 14103)]
[New Thread 0x7f43ae7f7950 (LWP 14105)]
[New Thread 0x7f43a7f47950 (LWP 14114)]
[New Thread 0x7f43a7746950 (LWP 14115)]
[New Thread 0x7f43a50e1950 (LWP 14116)]
[New Thread 0x7f43a4888950 (LWP 14117)]
[Thread 0x7f43a50e1950 (LWP 14116) exited]
[Thread 0x7f43a4888950 (LWP 14117) exited]

Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
[Switching to Thread 0x7f43ca7b1700 (LWP 14094)]
0x00007f43a9197702 in ?? () from /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libflashplayer.so
---------------------------------------------------------

From the above output, it was clear that the flash player was making Firefox unstable. I then remembered I had installed the Flash plugin from Adobe website directly. So I removed the plugin:

$ sudo rm /us...

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]