firefox is very slow in Ubuntu 10.10

[HinzundKunz]

Binary package hint: firefox

Since I've updated (actually I did a clean install, but copied my home folder back), firefox is much slower than any other browser I installed (konqueror, rekonq, chromium), which is sad because it's the one displaying most pages best...
I can't give any further information right now but am willing to help if told how.
Cheers,
Martin

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 10.04
Package: firefox 3.6.3+nobinonly-0ubuntu4
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.32-22.33-generic 2.6.32.11+drm33.2
Uname: Linux 2.6.32-22-generic x86_64
Architecture: amd64
Date: Fri May 7 08:06:38 2010
FirefoxPackages:
 firefox 3.6.3+nobinonly-0ubuntu4
 firefox-gnome-support N/A
 firefox-branding 3.6.3+nobinonly-0ubuntu4
 abroswer N/A
 abrowser-branding N/A
InstallationMedia: Kubuntu 10.04 "Lucid Lynx" - Beta amd64 (20100406.1)
ProcEnviron:
 LANG=de_AT.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
SourcePackage: firefox

[Draycen DeCator (ddecator)]

Thank you for reporting this to Ubuntu. Could you provide us with a more detailed explanation of how Firefox is slow? For example, is it the startup, page rendering, menu navigation, etc.?

[HinzundKunz (martin-tlustos)]

It is page rendering which takes much longer than in other browsers and longer than in 9.10.
I added a few plugins like flashblock, all-in-one-sidebar etc., but had the same in 9.10 as well.
Is there a way to get a clean copy of firefox running, so I could look whether it is the baggage from my old home folder? Or do you think that's not the problem?

[Draycen DeCator (ddecator)]

It could be the problem. If you want to test on a fresh Firefox profile, this will let us know whether or not the problem is due to any add-ons or settings. You do not need to delete your old profile to test, just use the profile manager to create a new profile. If this helps, you might want to try to disable all your extensions and re-enable them one by one until you find the problematic one.

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

[HinzundKunz (martin-tlustos)]

I created a new profile, but then firefox crashed every time I tried to open up all-in-one-sidebar, or edit the preferences. I then completely wiped firefox, renamed the .mozilla directory to another name and reinstalled firefox without any extensions. But it is still much slower than e.g. konqueror (Comparison: I opened www.waze.com first in firefox and then in konqueror. By the time konqueror had loaded the page, firefox still looked up the name).
So it doesn't seem to be connected to my personal settings. Any other idea?

[Draycen DeCator (ddecator)]

Thanks for the update. Could you try running Firefox from a terminal (just run 'firefox') and let us know what output you get when you try to load a website?

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

Please run it in a new profile and while it is open disable all the plug-ins except "Ubuntu Modifications" than restart using the default profile and see if it helps

[John Vivirito (gnomefreak)]

does this happen only on certain sites or every site you try?

[HinzundKunz (martin-tlustos)]

Update: I just found out that firefox doesn't have a speed problem under gnome - I installed ubuntu-desktop and now it runs fine under gnome. I will try and report whether the problem has been solved under kde as well...

[HinzundKunz (martin-tlustos)]

update: now that I installed ubuntu-desktop, firefox works well even unde kde (not as fast as chromium, but it has better rendering on some pages...)

[Micah Gersten (micahg)]

In Lucid, there is some KDE integration with Firefox through the
kmozillahelper package.

On 05/27/2010 10:26 AM, AlmaTlust wrote:
> update: now that I installed ubuntu-desktop, firefox works well even
> unde kde (not as fast as chromium, but it has better rendering on some
> pages...)
>

[Antonio J. de Oliveira (ajoliveira)]

Hello

Giving up supporting firefox/thunderbird because of extreme slowness and searching for alternatives.

Best regards

Antonio

[Eugene Crosser (crosser)]

Since upgrade to maverick beta I noticed that Firefix became *very* slow on rendering images. Currenty, it's firefix 3.6.9+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu1, xserver-xorg 2:1.9.0-0ubuntu5, xorg-driver-fglrx 1:7.5+6ubuntu3, ATI Technologies Inc M56GL [Mobility FireGL V5200], using compiz with "maximum" effects.

First time open of the bookmarks menu with many icons is noticabley slow, but the worst are photo galleries that use transition effects. While an effect is running the whole Xserver freezes for a few moments.

Other browsers (chrome, epiphany) are not affected.

[Eugene Crosser (crosser)]

I cannot beleive this problem is going to be in the release the day after tomorrow! (Well, I can...). This is for example a testcase:

http://www.electricprism.com/aeron/slideshow/example1.html

It displays just fine in other browsers, and in Firefox on lucid. In firefox on maverick, it is unusably slow, and all X server updates (but not mouse) are freezing for several seconds while the picture changes.

[Eugene Crosser (crosser)]

And this is apparently not related to any installed plugins, or compiz, because disabling that does not change things.

[Eugene Crosser (crosser)]

In my particular case, the problem turned to be this:

https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=30872

and is (at least in the meanwhile) fixed by adding "radeon.modeset=0" to the kernel command line.

[Paul White (paulw2u)]

Ubuntu 10.10 (maverick) reached end-of-life on April 10, 2012
Bug did not expire due to bug watch
Comments stopped after Maverick's release so issue must have been fixed