Firefox (circle spinning while run program) problem on Ubuntu bionic family - 18.04.5

[Piotr]

Dear Launchpad Team,

I have problem with Firefox on Ubuntu 18.04.5 system. When I run firefox this loading too long (circle spinning - animation of my cursor). I noticed this bug also on Xubuntu 18.04.4 on another computer. On Lubuntu 18.04.5 system on another computer I don't have these kind of bug so it is problem with Ubuntu and Xubuntu system. On Ubuntu 20.04 and Ubuntu 20.04.1 I don't have these bug.

Of course I have updated system.

I noticed also that if I will run firefox for the first time after booting my system this bug is not exist. I have this bug for the second run of the firefox and next.

I have this problem also booting my computer with live USB with clear system image with Ubuntu 18.04.5. Like I earlier said this is problem with the system. When I use Ubuntu 20.04 I don't have this problem.

My system is clean this is fresh install. I don't know what is problem but I am sure that everyone with Ubuntu 18.04.5 have this problem. Firefox is the newest 85.0.1 version. On older vesion I also had this problem in Ubuntu 18.04.5.

Firefox start with no errors. No errors is a shown in terminal.

Problem is with spinning with the cursor. When I run firefox cursor is spinning but firefox normally works. This cursor spinning only when I move this cursor on GNOME environment (top of the screen I don't know what is the name of this. This is graphic bar? When I run firefox in this "graphic bar" are shown name of the program (in my case firefox).

On Ubuntu 20.04 my cursor doesn't spinning. Like I said this is problem only with Ubuntu 18.04.5 and Xubuntu 18.04.4 system. So this is the problem with bionic family but on Lubuntu 18.04.4 and 18.04.5 and doesn't have this problem too.

I tried reinstall firefox but this doesn't help. I also deleted files for firex in /home but this also doesn't help. I think that this problem is more complicated.

Can you fix it? I am sure that everyone have this problem.

Some output from terminal:

uname -a

5.4.0-65-generic #73~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Tue Jan 19 09:02:24 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

lsb_release -crid

Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS
Release: 18.04

UPDATE: Today I updated to the newest version of the firefox - 86.0 and bug still exists.

[walter (waltervalenti)]

Created attachment 704525
example

User Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:18.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/18.0
Build ID: 20130116073211

Steps to reproduce:

On my Linux desktop (KDE4 or Cinnamon) i'm launcing more windows of Firefox from the panel or menù.

Actual results:

The cursor is busy just the timeout, but the new window is already open.
With the first time (first window) works fine, beacaue launch the new process.

Expected results:

When i launch a new window from panel or menù the cursor could be free after the opening.

[Piotr (peterq94)]

Someone can confirm and check it? I very like Ubuntu 18.04.5 but this bug is frustrating me. Please help. For Cannonical I can send more information if it will be necessary.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

Hi Piotr, and thanks for the report.

Fortunately, this bug/regression hasn't been reported separately, so it's unlikely that it affects everyone as you claim. Do you have actual data to back your claim (i.e. do you know of other users who are observing the same problem?).

This is still something that we need to look into, of course.

From your description, it's unclear to me whether the problem is that firefox takes a long time to start up, or whether it starts in a reasonable time frame, but the "busy" cursor remains on even after the app has started?

[Piotr (peterq94)]

Hi Olivier,

I know of other users who are observing the same problem. Like I earlier said on other machine I noticed this same bug also. This is my father machine with Xubuntu 18.04.4. This bug was frustrating my father so I decided to install Lubuntu 18.04.4 and this problem not exist on Lubuntu system.

Firefox start normally. This start in a reasonable time frame but "busy" cursor remains on even after app has started. So like you said.

[Piotr (peterq94)]

The best way to find this bug is.

1) Start firefox
2) Move your cursor to the top of the screen on place with date and time or other place on the top of the screen (on the left or the right from the date and time place).
3) Now you can noticed that your cursor is "busy" but only when you have your cursor on the top of the screen. When you move cursor to the centre of the screen outside top of the screen cursor return to normal animation.

Sorry for my English but I hope that you now understand me.

P.S. I noticed also that if I will start firefox for the first time from the boot my system this bug is not affected but I think that firefox start longer than when I run this for the second and next times so maybe I can't see this bug.

On Ubuntu 20.04 I don't have this bug.

[Piotr (peterq94)]

If this is helpful if I enable safe mode in firefox in this run this bug is not affected. I noticed also that firefox run faster. Like I said my firefox is clean. I don't have any extensions or other software. No cookies also. System is also clean, fresh install. I tried reinstall firefox, delete files at home directory for firefox. This not resolve problem. Like I said on another machine I noticed also this problem. If you don't want fix this bug I must go away from Ubuntu bionic. This system have too much bugs.

[Olivier Tilloy (osomon)]

This is a pretty old bug, but it looks similar to what you're describing: https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=832956.

Can you maybe comment there to explain your problem, and see if it gets some attention upstream?

[Piotr (peterq94)]

I have similar problem on Ubuntu 18.04.5 (standard GNOME environment) I can open new windows and my cursor is not busy. I have only problem when I close firefox and start with new process. My firefox is 85.0.1 (64-bit), kernel release of my system: 5.4.0-65-generic.

Actual results:

The cursor is busy when I start firefox. First run for the firefox looks normally but when I close program or kill process and run my firefox second time this bug is affected. Of course if I want to run my firefox next times this bug also affected. My cursor is busy when I moved my cursor to the top of the screen near date and time place.

Expected results:

When I start firefox my cursor shouldn't be busy when firefox is loaded. I mean that this cursor should be busy only for the few seconds. When firefox are loaded and the start page is also loaded this should end spinning of my cursor.

P.S. On Ubuntu 20.04 I don't have this bug. Only on Bionic family except Lubuntu system which works fine. So it is a question. This is problem with firefox or the system? I wrote on Ubuntu bug report but they suggested to write here so I am.

Can you help me?

[Piotr (peterq94)]

I created account on bugzilla and I added post with description of my problem. I think that this is not the same bug because I can open new windows and my cursor is not busy. I have only problem when I close firefox and start with new process. I tried kill firefox process and run with new process but this don't resolve my problem and my cursor was busy again.

[Piotr (peterq94)]

I reported new bug on bugzilla maybe now someone from Mozilla will be interesting this bug. ID of my bug is 1693825.

What I can do to confirm this bug and that people from Canonical or Mozilla project will fix this issue?

[Piotr (peterq94)]

Today I updated my firefox to the newest version 86.0. Bug still exists.

[Piotr (peterq94)]

Bug still exists in Mozilla Firefox 87.0. Ubuntu 20.04.2.0 don't have this issue. Problem only in Bionic system. When you will fix this issue?

[Piotr (peterq94)]

Bug still exist. I make video to confirm this bug. Is still exist. Can you help me? This is link: https://youtu.be/ZLZ1fxnmq4g

[Piotr (peterq94)]

I think that this is not problem with firefox. I found that on other programs on Ubuntu 18.04.5 sometimes also my cursor is busy. I noticed this when I copied files with nautilus (GUI method). So maybe in different space of the operating system this problem exist. On focal I didn't notice yet this bug so only bionic is affected.

[Piotr (peterq94)]

I am very happy. Today after update (16 packages) I noticed that this bug is gone. So this problem is solved now. This bug now is not exist so I can use bionic and it is useful. Thanks for work for this system.