Firefox suddenly disappears several times lately - 2

[Scott Cowles Jacobs]

Binary package hint: firefox-3.5

re: bug #592416
I received the following reply to my report:
"drew212 wrote 4 hours ago: #2

Could you please generate an apport crash report for this? A crash report is key for resolving your problem.
You can enable apport for one instance like this in the terminal:
sudo service apport start force_start=1

I am marking this invalid as apport will open a new bug when the crash is generated. Please include any relavant information from this report in the new bug report. If you cannot generate a crash report, you can reset the status of this one to new and we will try something else.
Changed in firefox-3.5 (Ubuntu):
status: New → Invalid "

I started apport, and (miracle of miracles) Firefox later disappeared.
Unfortunately, I am not sure any automatic report was generated, as I received the following in a message window:
"Sorry, the program "firefox" closed unexpectedly

Your computer does not have enough free memory to automatically analyze the problem and send a report to the developers."

When I restarted Firefox, I went to the website indicated in /usr/share/apport, and found that there should be a crash report in /var/crash. There was. I tried to use the default action associated with the file, "Open with Report a Problem", only to be greeted with the same message window. I don't know if it will help (as the lack of enough memory may have prevented enough information being generated), but I am attaching the file, anyway.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
CheckboxSubmission: f5de0c2ab8de9869e4cee1e93ddc381d
CheckboxSystem: daed2f3d6643b4a84b4520a2427f8c2b
Date: Fri Jun 11 11:55:03 2010
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
ExecutablePath: /usr/lib/firefox-3.5.9/firefox
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 9.10 "Karmic Koala" - Release i386 (20091028.5)
Package: firefox-3.5 3.5.9+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.10.1
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-22.60-generic
SourcePackage: firefox-3.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-22-generic i686

[drew212 (mstngdrew212)]

Now that you have a proper crash report we should try a new profile. Sometimes Firefox profiles can become corrupt and/or extensions can conflict. Could you please try this with a new profile and see if the problem still exists? You do not need to delete your old profile to test. If a new profile helps, you might want to try to disable all your extensions and re-enable them one by one until you find the problematic one. To disable extensions, Tools > Add-ons > Find the extension > Highlight and click 'Disable' > Restart Firefox

You can start the profile manager with the following command:
firefox -ProfileManager

[Scott Cowles Jacobs (scott092707)]

Not practical. I have 5 or 6 windows with 10-15 tabs each open all the time. Trying a new profile, and then opening all the windows by hand, trying one extension at a time until maybe Firefox disappears again possibly (when, until recently, it had not done it at all)... Not practical. If I had just added a new add-on, maybe that could have been it. I have added nothing for months.
I strongly suspect that it has something to do with FF running out of memory, feeling cornered, and throwing in the towel.

I have eliminated the grey screens and have had no disappearing FF for over a week now, by using the following technique:

1. plug in internet cable (so computer can grab the time from the internet)
2. Boot computer
3. unplug internet cable
4. start up Firefox, and run it for, say, 5 minutes - until it has put up all windows/tabs, and has stopped futilely trying to load pages without the internet
5. plug in internet cable again
6. load up only those pages I actually need at the moment.
I know by position where most of those are, and the rest I can see by clicking on the tab and looking at the address bar or at the first line of FF's "Problem loading page" sub-window for the tab.
Instead of taking up nearly 100% CPU and 80+% actual memory (1GB), its CPU usage is now about 25%, and its RES mem
usage is about 25% (261M). Much quicker and more managable.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for firefox-3.5 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]