Firefox does not react on keyboard input anymore when opening certain pages

[Dirk Bolte]

Binary package hint: firefox

I'm running Kubuntu dapper - packages are kept most recent on a daily base.

When using firefox under KDE opening either www.n-tv.de or www.silicon.de and waiting for about 10 seconds without doing anything on the keyboard, firefox does not react on any keyboard input.
That means after that wait period I'm neither able to type in another URL in the URL bar, nor to open a new tab, nor change the URL in another tab, nor to type 'CTRL-W' for closing the current tab. It goes away after closing the tab with the affected side manually (using the mouse).
This happens both in tabbed as well as in untabbed environment.

When typing continuously instead of waiting, the browser keeps reacting on keyboard input.

according to about:plugins, the following plugins are recognized:
    File name: libflash-mozplugin.so
    Flash Movie player Version 0.4.12 compatible with Shockwave Flash 4.0
    File name: libtotem_mozilla.so
    The Totem 1.4.1 plugin handles video and audio streams.
    File name: npica.so
    Citrix ICA Plugin (Linux) Version 9.15.99603

package information:

Package: firefox
Status: install ok installed
Priority: optional
Section: web
Installed-Size: 22868
Maintainer: Eric Dorland <email address hidden>
Architecture: i386
Version: 1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.3-0ubuntu2
Replaces: mozilla-firefox (<< 1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.3-0ubuntu2)
Provides: www-browser, mozilla-firefox
Depends: fontconfig, psmisc, debianutils (>= 1.16), libatk1.0-0 (>= 1.9.0), libc6 (>= 2.3.4-1), libcairo2 (>= 1.0.2-2), libfontconfig1 (>= 2.3.0), libfreetype6 (>= 2.1.10-1), libgcc1 (>= 1:4.0.2), libglib2.0-0 (>= 2.10.0), libgtk2.0-0 (>= 2.8.0), libidl0, libjpeg62, libpango1.0-0 (>= 1.12.2), libpng12-0 (>= 1.2.8rel), libstdc++6 (>= 4.0.2-4), libx11-6, libxcursor1 (>> 1.1.2), libxext6, libxfixes3, libxft2 (>> 2.1.1), libxi6, libxinerama1, libxrandr2, libxrender1, libxt6, zlib1g (>= 1:1.2.1), libnspr4 (>= 2:1.firefox1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.3-0ubuntu2), libnss3 (>= 2:1.firefox1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.3-0ubuntu2)
Suggests: firefox-gnome-support (= 1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.3-0ubuntu2), latex-xft-fonts, libthai0
Conflicts: mozilla-firefox (<< 1.5.dfsg+1.5.0.3-0ubuntu2)
Conffiles:
 /etc/firefox/profile/bookmarks.html 5a4fbaf732ce80b66b4f05fb5d6cf2a6
 /etc/firefox/profile/localstore.rdf ea03cc19c2a3f622fa557cd8ea9da6eb
 /etc/firefox/profile/search.rdf 939dcfba9fa92f86bcacb487df9dede1
 /etc/firefox/profile/mimeTypes.rdf 69cdcb7e0209f2e9d29000ee1c0ee2f0
 /etc/firefox/profile/chrome/userChrome-example.css 4788fdaa51b0a238cb21f5c2877ef06d
 /etc/firefox/profile/chrome/userContent-example.css d3765c7d2de5626529195007f4b7144a
 /etc/firefox/profile/prefs.js 99940ecd258d83b3355ab06fca0ffddb
 /etc/firefox/firefoxrc 8a85ef440bb82bd19fdea6c15d1b05b8
 /etc/firefox/pref/firefox.js fdab5286f88abaccc3a6fa04ab12ef13
 /etc/gre.d/firefox.conf 78294e50a5a3631c4ce025a226d7b422
Description: lightweight web browser based on Mozilla
 Firefox is a redesign of the Mozilla browser component, similar to
 Galeon, K-Meleon and Camino, but written using the XUL user interface
 language and designed to be lightweight and cross-platform.
 .
 This browser was previously known as Firebird and Phoenix.

[Sitsofe Wheeler (sitsofe)]

Thanks for your bug report.

www.silicon.de is an extremely complicated page. The main HTML of the page is also huge (weighing in at 258,485 bytes) and it triggers quirksmode to boot. During rendering for me firefox uses as much of the CPU as it can get for about 10 seconds. After this period things return to normal. This is under GNOME.

Given that site's size, disregard of standards and complicated layout I'm not surprised the browser became unresponsive. I suspect any request for increased threading to maintain UI resposiveness during page rendering would have to be an upstream feature request though.

[Dirk Bolte (dirk-bolte)]

Just double checked with www.n-tv.de. Keyboard reacts for about 5 - 10 seconds. But then it stops reacting for that page. I waited for several minutes and it still does not react.

[TLE (k-nielsen81)]

It's been a while since there has last been any activity in this bug. And I imagine that there has been some firefox updates in the meantime. So does this bug still exist ?

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Thank you for the bug report. It has not been updated after a request for more information, for this reason we are closing the report. Feel free to reopen it in the future if you have more information and if this is still an issue.