Firefox freezes up and shutdowns when I clear the history

[Marco B.]

Binary package hint: firefox

As the title explains, Firefox freezes up and then immediately shutdowns when I try to clear the history.
It happens whenever I try to clear the history!

== Steps to reproduce the bug ==

1) Select "Clear the recent history" in the Tools (in Italian it's called "Strumenti", I guess it's the "Tools" translation) menu entry
2) Check all the voices
3) Select "Last hour"
4) I guess it will clear your history, but it will exits unexpectedly.
5) Now re-open Firefox, and re-clear history: it works fine.

== System Informations ==
Description: Ubuntu 11.04
Release: 11.04

== Package version ==
firefox:
  Installato: 4.0.1+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.11.04.1
  Candidato: 4.0.1+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.11.04.1
  Tabella versione:
 *** 4.0.1+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.11.04.1 0
        500 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty-updates/main i386 Packages
        500 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty-security/main i386 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
     4.0+nobinonly-0ubuntu3 0
        500 http://nl.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ natty/main i386 Packages

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.04
Package: firefox 4.0.1+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.11.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.38-8.42-generic 2.6.38.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.38-8-generic i686
Architecture: i386
CheckboxSubmission: 61b8efb1d1acd01b48702319930ea620
CheckboxSystem: edda5d4f616ca792bf437989cb597002
Date: Sun May 8 14:17:33 2011
FirefoxPackages:
 firefox 4.0.1+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.11.04.1
 flashplugin-installer 10.2.159.1ubuntu1
 adobe-flashplugin N/A
 icedtea-plugin 1.1~20110420-0ubuntu1
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
ProcEnviron:
 LANGUAGE=it_IT:en
 LANG=it_IT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: firefox
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to natty on 2011-05-01 (7 days ago)

[Marco B. (marcusbu)]

If I close all the tabs and go to my homepage (duckduckgo.com) then it works fine.
But unluckily If I try to clear my history when a different website is open it crashes.

[AlwaysTired (alwaystired)]

This bug affects me too. Although it doesn't happen to me every time I clear the history, it happens quite a lot (with the English version of Firefox 4.0.1 on Ubuntu 11.04).

[AlwaysTired (alwaystired)]

Now it happens with Firefox 5.0 too...

[AlwaysTired (alwaystired)]

This looks like the same bug: http://support.mozilla.com/en-US/questions/802690

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[penalvch (penalvch)]

Marco B., thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. However, your crash report is missing. Please follow these instructions to have apport report a new bug about your crash that can be dealt with by the automatic retracer. First, execute at a terminal:
cd /var/crash && sudo rm * ; sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get -y upgrade && sudo apt-get -y install firefox-dbg && sudo service apport start force_start=1

If you are running the Ubuntu Stable Release you might need to enable apport in /etc/default/apport and restart.

Now reproduce the crash, then open your file manager, navigate to your /var/crash directory and open the crash report you wish to submit.
If this fails you will have to open a terminal and file your report with 'ubuntu-bug /var/crash/_my_crash_report.crash' where _my_crash_report.crash is the crash you would like to report. If you get an error that you aren't allowed to access this report you will have to file it with 'sudo ubuntu-bug /var/crash/_my_crash_report.crash'. If you run the command against the crash report and a window pops up asking you to report this, but then never opens a new report, you would be affected by https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/apport/+bug/994921 . In order to WORKAROUND this, one would need to open the following file via a command line:
gksudo gedit /etc/apport/crashdb.conf

and comment out the line:
'problem_types': ['Bug', 'Package'],

by changing it to:
# 'problem_types': ['Bug', 'Package'],

Save, close, and try to file the crash report again via:
ubuntu-bug /var/crash/_my_crash_report.crash

Please follow https://wiki.ubuntu.com/MozillaTeam/Bugs when you file this crash report so the necessary information is provided.

I'm closing this bug report since the process outlined above will automatically open a new bug report which can then dealt with more efficiently.

Thank you for your understanding.

Helpful bug reporting tips:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/ReportingBugs