Firefox freezes when I right click or try to open up bookmarks.

[David Groves]

Ubuntu 11.10
Unity 2D
Firefox 7.0.1
When I right click on a link firefox freezes for a short period of time, and then when it un-freezes, the link I clicked on, never opens. It also freezes when I try to click on a bookmark on my bookmark bar, then it never opens it.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: firefox 7.0.1+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu2
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-12.20-generic 3.0.4
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-12-generic i686
AddonCompatCheckDisabled: False
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu3
Architecture: i386
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/pcmC1D0c: david 1327 F...m pulseaudio
 /dev/snd/controlC0: david 1327 F.... pulseaudio
BuildID: 20111008085056
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'ICH5'/'Intel ICH5 with AD1981B at irq 17'
   Mixer name : 'Analog Devices AD1981B'
   Components : 'AC97a:41445374'
   Controls : 28
   Simple ctrls : 20
Card1.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:1 'U0x46d0x9a4'/'USB Device 0x46d:0x9a4 at usb-0000:00:1d.7-1, high speed'
   Mixer name : 'USB Mixer'
   Components : 'USB046d:09a4'
   Controls : 2
   Simple ctrls : 1
Card1.Amixer.values:
 Simple mixer control 'Mic',0
   Capabilities: cvolume cvolume-joined cswitch cswitch-joined penum
   Capture channels: Mono
   Limits: Capture 0 - 3072
   Mono: Capture 1 [0%] [23.00dB] [on]
Channel: release
Date: Fri Oct 14 10:03:17 2011
ForcedLayersAccel: False
IfupdownConfig:
 auto lo
 iface lo inet loopback
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 11.04 "Natty Narwhal" - Release i386 (20110427.1)
IpRoute:
 default via 24.29.24.1 dev eth0 proto static
 24.29.24.0/23 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 24.29.25.237 metric 1
 169.254.0.0/16 dev eth0 scope link metric 1000
IwConfig:
 lo no wireless extensions.

 eth0 no wireless extensions.
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/bash
Profiles: Profile0 (Default) - LastVersion=7.0.1/20111008085056 (Running)
PulseSinks: Error: command ['pacmd', 'list-sinks'] failed with exit code 1: Daemon not responding.
PulseSources: Error: command ['pacmd', 'list-sources'] failed with exit code 1: Daemon not responding.
RfKill:

RunningIncompatibleAddons: False
SourcePackage: firefox
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-10-13 (0 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 08/01/2003
dmi.bios.vendor: Intel Corp.
dmi.bios.version: BF86510A.15A.0043.P07.0308011434
dmi.board.name: D865GLC
dmi.board.vendor: Intel Corporation
dmi.board.version: AAC28705-404
dmi.chassis.asset.tag: none
dmi.chassis.type: 3
dmi.chassis.vendor: Gateway
dmi.chassis.version: NSC45A07
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnIntelCorp.:bvrBF86510A.15A.0043.P07.0308011434:bd08/01/2003:svnGateway:pnMIDWAY:pvr4000824:rvnIntelCorporation:rnD865GLC:rvrAAC28705-404:cvnGateway:ct3:cvrNSC45A07:
dmi.product.name: MIDWAY
dmi.product.version: 4000824
dmi.sys.vendor: Gateway

[jpfle (jpfle)]

May be related to the following:

- http://blog.bonardo.net/2011/09/30/is-your-firefor-freezing-at-regular-intervals
- https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=686025

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Bèr Kessels (berkes) (ber)]

Here is a screencast of how this affects me. At least in my occasion, it seems obviously caused by many (many!) bookmarks in my menu.

Note that this is a blazingly fast machine, with lots of memory and only SSDdrives; so the problem solves itself fast. When my bookmarks were imported on an old/thin machine, FF halted for over 20 minutes before becoming responsive again.

In this case, the solution clearly lies in "less bookmarks". But AFAIK that should either be enforced by firefox not allowing more then X bookmarks in a menu. Or firefox/unity-menu only loading a subset into the menu.

[iiss (shohami)]

I had the same issue. When I ran strace on it, it looked like it was timing out waiting for a socket it had opened to talk to pulse audio. I had pulse issues on my ubuntu machine.

Anyways, I found another suggestion about disabling esound in pulseaudio. That enabled pulseaudio to start, and then all the FF issues disappeared.

In my case, I got things working by commenting out these lines in /etc/pulse/default.pa:
## .ifexists module-esound-protocol-unix.so
## load-module module-esound-protocol-unix
## .endif
load-module module-native-protocol-unix

My suggestion to the FF team would be to "remember" that opening the audio subsystem failed and not try to do it again. That would make the first right-click or audio-linked action fail, but not subsequent attempts.

[Bèr Kessels (berkes) (ber)]

@iiss: Why would Firefix try to open the audio-subsystem on opening the "bookmarks" menu?

[madbiologist (me-again)]

Official support for Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneiric Ocelot" has ended. If this issue is still occurring on Ubuntu 15.04 "Vivid Vervet", please run ubuntu-bug to file a new bug report so that we can get a fresh set of log files and system info.