Firefox hogs all memory and swap

[EricDHH]

Ubuntu 12.04 i386 on thinkpad x41

The installed firefox often hang and hog all memory and swap. Most times when a flasvideo is running, the whole computer stopped then. Sometimes it is possible to switch to a console, there after 10 minutes for login (its really that slow) TOP shows that firefox and a plugin-container process eat all ram and then all swap. After 15min or else a dialog "jscript hanging" appears on the desktop, when stopped the memory comes back. Firefox turns to normal operation until next hang.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 12.04
Package: firefox 13.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.04.1
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.2.0-23.36-generic-pae 3.2.14
Uname: Linux 3.2.0-23-generic-pae i686
AddonCompatCheckDisabled: False
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 2.0.1-0ubuntu9
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: eric 2118 F.... pulseaudio
BuildID: 20120601173917
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'ICH6'/'Intel ICH6 with AD1981B at irq 22'
   Mixer name : 'Analog Devices AD1981B'
   Components : 'AC97a:41445374'
   Controls : 26
   Simple ctrls : 18
Card29.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:29 'ThinkPadEC'/'ThinkPad Console Audio Control at EC reg 0x30, fw 74HT26WW-1.01'
   Mixer name : 'ThinkPad EC 74HT26WW-1.01'
   Components : ''
   Controls : 2
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card29.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'Console',0
   Capabilities: pvolume pvolume-joined pswitch pswitch-joined penum
   Playback channels: Mono
   Limits: Playback 0 - 14
   Mono: Playback 6 [43%] [on]
Channel: release
Date: Sun Jun 17 10:40:55 2012
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ForcedLayersAccel: False
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.1.1 dev eth1 proto static
 169.254.0.0/16 dev eth1 scope link metric 1000
 192.168.1.0/24 dev eth1 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.103 metric 2
Plugins:
 Shockwave Flash - /usr/lib/flashplugin-installer/libflashplayer.so
 QuickTime Plug-in 7.6.6 - /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libtotem-narrowspace-plugin.so (totem-mozilla)
 VLC Multimedia Plugin (compatible Totem 3.0.1) - /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libtotem-cone-plugin.so (totem-mozilla)
 DivX® Web Player - /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libtotem-mully-plugin.so (totem-mozilla)
 Windows Media Player Plug-in 10 (compatible; Totem) - /usr/lib/mozilla/plugins/libtotem-gmp-plugin.so (totem-mozilla)
ProcEnviron:
 TERM=xterm
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=de_DE.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
Profiles: Profile0 (Default) - LastVersion=13.0/20120601173917 (In use)
RelatedPackageVersions: totem-mozilla 3.0.1-0ubuntu21
RunningIncompatibleAddons: False
SourcePackage: firefox
UpgradeStatus: No upgrade log present (probably fresh install)
dmi.bios.date: 12/14/2006
dmi.bios.vendor: IBM
dmi.bios.version: 74ET64WW (2.09 )
dmi.board.name: 2526Y8P
dmi.board.vendor: IBM
dmi.board.version: Not Available
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: TRP 05055
dmi.chassis.type: 10
dmi.chassis.vendor: IBM
dmi.chassis.version: Not Available
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnIBM:bvr74ET64WW(2.09):bd12/14/2006:svnIBM:pn2526Y8P:pvrThinkPadX41:rvnIBM:rn2526Y8P:rvrNotAvailable:cvnIBM:ct10:cvrNotAvailable:
dmi.product.name: 2526Y8P
dmi.product.version: ThinkPad X41
dmi.sys.vendor: IBM

[Izzy (izzy-qumran)]

I can confirm this on a fresh install of Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit: this happened to me two times within the last week already. Just before the fox goes nuts, memory usage is about 2-3G (entire system, not firefox only). And then within few seconds all RAM (8GB here) is gone, the system starts swapping, and is entirely unresponsive. It took me almost a minute from pressing Ctrl-Alt-Esc until the cursor changed to kill-mode, and almost another minute until firefox got killed then. After that, the hogged memory of course gets freed again immediately.

The first time this happened, I was just returning to my machine -- so it was idle for a couple of hours before, and I didn't touch anything: I just saw the hdd led flicker like crazy even before I turned on the monitor. The second time it happened when I opened a web page from a google search -- but only after I enabled JavaScript for that site (NoScript had blocked it before). So as the reporter indicated, JavaScript seems very likely to be involved.

One more point *may* be: It never happened to me before Firefox 13.* -- but that may very well be due to the fact that FF 12 was only running for a few days here before getting updated to FF 13 from the repos.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[EricDHH (ericdhh)]

firefox 14.0.1+build1

Same as before, not even root is able to login on tty / ssh when firefox start it's swapping terror.

user: ####
5mins swap swap swap swap........
password: ####
5mins swap swap swap......
prompt. In /proc/memory you can see that all memory and swap is in usage.

Please anyone give me ulimits that can prevent this desktop terror that crash a whole machine to chaos.

[dwan (dwanafite)]

Hi

First computer :
eeebox atom 1,6ghz
Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS (GNU/Linux 3.2.0-29-generic-pae i686)
Mozilla Firefox 14.0.1

From time to time, with firefox launched and only one tab open, even if the computer is not used, it will use the hard drive at full throttle, making the computer unusable. I attach a screen cap of iotop.

Second computer :
HP DV6164ea
Mozilla Firefox 14.0.1
Linux 3.2.0-29-generic #46-Ubuntu SMP x86_64

Same issue. Sometimes, just selecting a text box uses the hard drive full speed for 10-15sec, making the computer unresponsive, laggy, sluggish. iotop shows the same behavior as with the first computer.

I don't remember having the same issues with former firefox versions.

same problem

[EricDHH (ericdhh)]

ii firefox 15.0.1+build1- Safe and easy web browser from Mozilla

Got updates but with same memory problems. Just set limits to prevent firefox from this system kill. It seems that sometimes the flashplayer trigger these events.

[dwan (dwanafite)]

firefox 15.0.1
since a few updates, i don't have this issue no more.

[Harish (wherewherewhere)]

It affects me on a daily basis! And if it hangs it hangs for good, even Alt+SysRes+B does not reboot, I have to hit a hard reset! :(

[Vlatko Basic (vlatko.basic)]

Happens almost every day, but only if comp is left idle for some time (an hour or two).
Ubuntu 12.04, Firefox 28.0 started from a folder (not installed).

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

We are sorry that we do not always have the capacity to review all reported bugs in a timely manner. This bug was reported some time ago and there have been many changes in Ubuntu since that time.

Ubuntu 12.04 (precise) reached end-of-life on April 28, 2017.

Does anyone still see a problem related to the one that was reported when using a currently supported version of Ubuntu? Please let us know if you do otherwise this report can be left to expire in approximately 60 days time.

Thank you for helping make Ubuntu better.

Paul White
[Ubuntu Bug Squad]

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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