Firefox hangs on websites when using gecko-mediaplayer plug in/gnome-mediaplayer/mplayer

[tcv]

Binary package hint: firefox

I apologize. This will be a little long.

A couple of weeks back, I compiled and installed the gecko-mediaplyer plugin for firefox along with the gnome-mplayer, which is a GUI for mplayer. The combination allows videos to play nicely within Firefox.

When I intially got it installed I noticed that it didn't work sometimes. I quickly found that if I launched Firefox from within the Gnome desktop (GDM), and attempted to access a page with media on it like the following website (http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/rushhour3/), Firefox would attempt to load the media links on that page but eventually hang with the CPU usage in firefox-bin reaching 80% or more. If I launched firefox from the terminal, however, the page would load fine 100% of the time.

I talked to a lot of people about the problem. Most asked me to check whether the launcher in GDM was loading Firefox the same way as I was in the terminal as the same uesr. It was exactly the same. However, it failed 100% of the time when launched from gdm, and working 100% of the time when I launched from terminal.

I begged the people on the gecko-mediaplayer/gnome-mplayer dev list for assistance. We initially tried new compiles from CVS. No difference.

We then tried a LiveCD install of Ubuntu. No difference.

I tried a Fedora Core 7 LiveCD. That worked fine.

The primarily developer on the list was able to reproduce it when I gave him the steps from the LiveCD and another user on the list tried the same setup with his Feisty install and got the same results.

His comment to the list was:

"Well I did some poking around in the code and for some reason when
running from the menu some of gnome-mplayer instances are getting killed
off and then the plugin hangs waiting to talk to them. The question is
however, why do they only get killed off when running from the menu and
not from the command line."

In later testing, I disabled gdm from starting at bootup. I found that if I start Gnome via 'startx' rather than 'gdm start', then launching Firefox via the icons is fine.

====

Steps to Reproduce:

(You can do this from the LiveCD or a full install of Feisty.)

1. Boot up the LIveCD.

2. Install mplayer and gnome-mplayer from the repositories.

3. Download gecko-mediaplayer from: *
http://dekorte.homeip.net/download/gecko-mediaplayer/

(* This is tough. I THINK you can use the binaries. I compiled from source which requires a lot of development libs and firefox-dev. Is there a way to send my binaries?)

4. Remove the Totem plug-in from Firefox and move (or sym link) the gecko-mediaplayer plugins into /usr/lib/firefox/plugins (the compile puts them in /usr/local/lib/mozilla/plugins/)

5. Launch firefox and navigate to http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/rushhour3/ - Firefox should hang while attempting to load three distinct media on the page, covered by the 480p, 720p, and 1080p logos.

Please contact me for any clarification.

[Corey Burger (corey.burger)]

Thanks for your bug report. This is a report about a piece of software not in Ubuntu. I suggest you talk with the upstream authors on how to fix this problem.

[Kevin DeKorte (kdekorte-gmail)]

I wish you would rethink this response. We have done some extensive testing on this problem (probably over 20 hrs all told) and have found that if we use GDM to start GNOME it causes Firefox to behave erratically when launched from an icon. From the same session but just opening a terminal and launching firefox causes firefox to work with no problems. Also we found that if we don't use GDM to start GNOME but instead use startx we don't see the problem in either case. It seems that something in being set differently when using GDM to start GNOME. Also, there seem to be quite a few bugs that mention Firefox hanging with flash, I'm wondering if these are all related.

[Kevin DeKorte (kdekorte-gmail)]

Ok, I did some additional testing....

Using default login via GDM - launching firefox from icon and then opening rush hour 3 site - firefox hangs
Using GNOME session - same
Using XFCE4 session - same
Using failsafe GNOME - same
Using failsafe terminal, starting metacity and then firefox - it works ok, but anytime firefox is run from a terminal it works

Why would launching a app from a terminal be different than launching an app from an icon. It is supposed to be the same correct?

[Corey Burger (corey.burger)]

Flash has serious known issues on Linux. Adobe declines to put major engineering resources and declines to free the source. As such, we are stuck. As for launching in a terminal vs via the menu, your environment, including various variable, are likely different.\

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

I opened bugs for the missing software, these are likely to success mplayerplugin which already is in the repositories. https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/121302 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+bug/121301
Maybe if those are solved, we may reopen this, unless it starts working in Gutsy which I rather doubt.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Wed, Jun 20, 2007 at 01:23:25AM -0000, Corey Burger wrote:
> Flash has serious known issues on Linux. Adobe declines to put major
> engineering resources and declines to free the source. As such, we are
> stuck. As for launching in a terminal vs via the menu, your environment,
> including various variable, are likely different.\
>

in gutsy there is a new gnash plugin which has done a huge step
forward compared to previous package versions. Its still not perfect,
but the most feasible looking long-term solution on horizon. Use it,
test it and help to make gnash better.

 - Alexander

[tcv (mikew-thecomputervalet)]

Corey,

On 6/19/07, Corey Burger <email address hidden> wrote:
> Flash has serious known issues on Linux. Adobe declines to put major
> engineering resources and declines to free the source. As such, we are
> stuck. As for launching in a terminal vs via the menu, your environment,
> including various variable, are likely different.\

I appreciate your response, but I'm afraid Kevin has already narrowed
out that avenue. Again, I point out that I and others can reproduce
this problem with a Live CD. This means that if there are any
environment differences, they would have had to been committed by
Canonical. All of the things I installed in the Live CD do not change
the environment.

I realize you have a lot of bugs to filter through, but we've narrowed
this down as far as it can go, to my knowledge. It's not a Gnome issue
as the problem occurs in xfce (Xubuntu) as well.

Sorry, I really think this deserves a closer look.

Cheers,

Mike Whalen

[Corey Burger (corey.burger)]

The problem is that we have no idea if the bug was caused by the flash plugin, his own compiled stuff or something in the repositories. Secondly, with a stock Ubuntu (and the shiny new codecs installation stuff) it just works. We can try hard and debug issues, but when our stuff works and custom stuff doesn't, it really isn't an Ubunt bug.

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

Sorry, but this has nothing to do with flash, although the root cause might be related. Kevin just mentioned that Firefox has issues with hanging with flash as well.
As we told you, there is probably nothing wrong with the compiled stuff, three people including the upstream author (that is, Kevin) confirmed this does not work with Ubuntu, but it works with Fedora.

And although video playback might be working with Totem, I think many people prefer other players, namely mplayer (that at least provide seeking) - and this compiled stuff is to replace the mplayerplugin, so this will likely will have to be dealt with anyway.
(although I understand that mplayr is in universe and firefox in main)
regards, Tomas

[tcv (mikew-thecomputervalet)]

Hi Corey,

Please state it plainly: Where do you think the problem lies? What's
your gut instinct here?

On 6/21/07, Corey Burger <email address hidden> wrote:
> The problem is that we have no idea if the bug was caused by the flash
> plugin, his own compiled stuff or something in the repositories.
> Secondly, with a stock Ubuntu (and the shiny new codecs installation
> stuff) it just works. We can try hard and debug issues, but when our
> stuff works and custom stuff doesn't, it really isn't an Ubunt bug.
>
> --
> Firefox hangs on websites when using gecko-mediaplayer plug in/gnome-mediaplayer/mplayer
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/120781
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

i would love to look into this ... but can someone summarize, where this works and where it doesn't. For instance its said to not work when you start your X session from gdm. Is this true? Does it really work otherwise?

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

e.g. does it work with kdm ? or plain xdm?

[tcv (mikew-thecomputervalet)]

Well, that's how it's been for me. However one other person says
they've not been able to reproduce that. So, I can't say with
certainty whether that's the case.

I can say with certainty that loading up Ubuntu normally -- clean
install or Live CD -- and adding the mplayer/gnome
mplayer/gecko-mediaplayer, you can reproduce the problem by loading
the apple webpage listed by running Firefox from the Gnome
environment. If you open a terminal window and fun firefox from there,
the problem goes away.

On 6/21/07, Alexander Sack <email address hidden> wrote:
> i would love to look into this ... but can someone summarize, where this
> works and where it doesn't. For instance its said to not work when you
> start your X session from gdm. Is this true? Does it really work
> otherwise?
>
> --
> Firefox hangs on websites when using gecko-mediaplayer plug in/gnome-mediaplayer/mplayer
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/120781
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[tcv (mikew-thecomputervalet)]

I can try that. I did load up xubuntu and xfce and the problem
happened there as well. Is that sufficient or do you need something
else? I am willing to do whatever test you want.

On 6/21/07, Alexander Sack <email address hidden> wrote:
> e.g. does it work with kdm ? or plain xdm?
>
> ** Changed in: firefox (Ubuntu)
> Assignee: (unassigned) => Mozilla Bugs
> Status: Invalid => Incomplete
>
> ** Tags added: mt-needtestcase
>
> --
> Firefox hangs on websites when using gecko-mediaplayer plug in/gnome-mediaplayer/mplayer
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/120781
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Thu, Jun 21, 2007 at 03:12:29PM -0000, tcv wrote:
> I can try that. I did load up xubuntu and xfce and the problem
> happened there as well. Is that sufficient or do you need something
> else? I am willing to do whatever test you want.
>

If you can test with xdm/kdm that would be great for now.

Probably more to test later ;)

 - Alexander

[Kevin DeKorte (kdekorte-gmail)]

xdm doesn't seem to make a difference.

What appears to be happening is that when run from the icon the second and third video players seem to be crashing. But if you run it from a terminal, they don't. I have no idea why this would happen unless something like STDIN is only allowing one connection when running from the icon. But when run from a terminal, multiple connections can be made.

[tcv (mikew-thecomputervalet)]

> If you can test with xdm/kdm that would be great for now.

Please be kind. I am teh n00b.

I didn't know how to easily, cleanly load kde, so I installed the
kubuntu-desktop through synaptic.

I hope someone can confirm this, but the damn thing works in kdm. I
went back to gdm and it fails. Back to kdm, it works. These tests are
all done loading firefox from the icon.

:-/

m

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

tcv: Are you sure you logged on into GNOME and not KDE from KDM?
Although I have been unable to reproduce you results of different behaviour under XDM/KDM/GDM/plain startx, I am downloading kubuntu-desktop now, so let's see.

[Alexander Sack (asac)]

On Thu, Jun 21, 2007 at 10:01:30PM -0000, Kevin DeKorte wrote:
> xdm doesn't seem to make a difference.

the other reporter found that starting with kdm doesn't crash.

 - Alexander

[tcv (mikew-thecomputervalet)]

Well, what I am doing is starting the environment via gdm start. When
the login screen appears, I am able to change to kde and it works. So,
as a n00b, I'm not sure if I'm doing it right, but when I start the
same way and choose Gnome, then it fails.

Let me know what I've done wrong and, more importantly, how to do it better.

On 6/22/07, TomasHnyk <email address hidden> wrote:
> tcv: Are you sure you logged on into GNOME and not KDE from KDM?
> Although I have been unable to reproduce you results of different behaviour
> under XDM/KDM/GDM/plain startx, I am downloading kubuntu-desktop now, so
> let's see.
>
> --
> Firefox hangs on websites when using gecko-mediaplayer plug
> in/gnome-mediaplayer/mplayer
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/120781
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[TomasHnyk (sup)]

tcv: well, there is a difference between desktop environment such as GNOME, KDE, XFCE, windows managers such as Fluxbox, Metacity or Kwin and login managers such as GDM, KDM and XDM. Last only manages logins and such, second only moves windows around and similar things, the last has got panels, applets, common standards to applications etc. Look it up in wikipedia if you want ot learn more, I am sure there is lots about it.

Alexander: I downloaded kubuntu-desktop and tried it under KDE with KDM. It works (i.e. firefox from GUI does not eat up all the CPU). With KDM and Fluxbox, it does not work (eats up all the CPU). In GNOME, it does not work. For both GNOME and Fluxbox, it also does not work with GDM or running startx from the tty1. I also tried Epiphany and it does not work as well.

Therefore. The bug is present if you run from the gui a gecko based browser (Epiphany and Firefox behave just the same), under Either GNOME and Fluxbox regardles of how you login into the Destkop Environment (or window managewr). It works under KDE.

Someone should test XFCE, I guess.

[goto (gotolaunchpad)]

Have you thought about using Windows? Firefox runs fine on that and so does the Quicktime plugin.

[tcv (mikew-thecomputervalet)]

I had tried XFCE awhile back under GDM and that did not work. I will
endeavor to test it today under KDM.

I have also been reading like crazy on the subjects of display
managers, window managers and desktop environments. I have figured out
how to get KDM on my machine, switch to it, then try the different
desktop environments. I can confirm what you saw, Tomas, in regards to
KDM and Gnome, Fluxbox, and KDE.

On 6/22/07, TomasHnyk <email address hidden> wrote:
> tcv: well, there is a difference between desktop environment such as
> GNOME, KDE, XFCE, windows managers such as Fluxbox, Metacity or Kwin
> and login managers such as GDM, KDM and XDM. Last only manages logins
> and such, second only moves windows around and similar things, the last
> has got panels, applets, common standards to applications etc. Look it
> up in wikipedia if you want ot learn more, I am sure there is lots about
> it.
>
> Alexander: I downloaded kubuntu-desktop and tried it under KDE with KDM.
> It works (i.e. firefox from GUI does not eat up all the CPU). With KDM
> and Fluxbox, it does not work (eats up all the CPU). In GNOME, it does
> not work. For both GNOME and Fluxbox, it also does not work with GDM or
> running startx from the tty1. I also tried Epiphany and it does not work
> as well.
>
> Therefore. The bug is present if you run from the gui a gecko based
> browser (Epiphany and Firefox behave just the same), under Either GNOME
> and Fluxbox regardles of how you login into the Destkop Environment (or
> window managewr). It works under KDE.
>
> Someone should test XFCE, I guess.
>
> --
> Firefox hangs on websites when using gecko-mediaplayer plug in/gnome-mediaplayer/mplayer
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/120781
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>

[Cesare Tirabassi (norsetto)]

I'm testing with this link:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/newline/rushhour3/trailer2c/large.html

With Ubuntu 7.10 beta:

firefox 2.0.0.6
mplayer 2:1.0~rc1-0ubuntu11
gnome-mplayer 0.5.0
gecko-mediaplayer 0.5.0

firefox-bin stays at very reasonable levels on my machine (<2%).

Can any of you confirm or otherwise?

[Kevin DeKorte (kdekorte-gmail)]

Cesare asked me to comment on this so I will...

On Fedora 7 (yeah I know it has worked there in the past) when playing this site everything is nice and smooth,even with using x11 as my vo. I am also using my CVS code which is about to be released as 0.5.1 (waiting for bug reports to die down).

I think this whole issue might be fixed with (0.5.0 or cvs) as I have done 2 releases since this issue was opened and will have a third soon. Also I would expect to see more bug reports on this since about 2000+ installs have be done from getdeb.

top - 16:19:21 up 4:32, 2 users, load average: 0.30, 0.48, 0.41
Tasks: 152 total, 1 running, 150 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
Cpu(s): 31.2%us, 3.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 63.8%id, 0.7%wa, 0.3%hi, 1.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 2074808k total, 1134644k used, 940164k free, 121384k buffers
Swap: 2031608k total, 0k used, 2031608k free, 524220k cached

  PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
18057 kdekorte 20 0 32976 13m 8684 S 16.0 0.7 0:03.95 mplayer
17995 kdekorte 20 0 195m 55m 20m S 7.6 2.8 0:08.92 firefox-bin
 2448 root 20 0 77400 48m 15m S 6.0 2.4 5:32.29 Xorg
18026 kdekorte 20 0 44912 16m 14m S 1.7 0.8 0:00.84 gnome-mplayer
 2983 kdekorte 20 0 78628 27m 22m S 0.3 1.4 0:17.53 nm-applet
 5021 kdekorte 32 12 47524 21m 8656 S 0.3 1.1 0:13.33 beagled-helper
18060 kdekorte 20 0 80204 18m 11m S 0.3 0.9 0:00.26 gnome-terminal
18086 kdekorte 20 0 2236 1040 800 R 0.3 0.1 0:00.06 top

[Cesare Tirabassi (norsetto)]

http://revu.tauware.de/details.py?upid=331

[Cesare Tirabassi (norsetto)]

https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/gecko-mediaplayer/0.5.2-0ubuntu1