plugin-container keeps running

[Oscar Tiderman]

plugin-container is running constantly after beeing used even though not needed any more, wasting resources.

To reproduce:
1. Start Firefox with one tab on a page without flash content (blocked with noscript in my case), run ps -e | grep plugin, no plugin-container is running. Fine.
2. Open a new tab with a site that has flash video and let it play, run ps -e | grep plugin, plugin-container is running.
3. Close the tab that has flash video on it and make sure there is no flash on the only active tab (all scripts blocked with noscript)
4. Run top and watch plugin-container continue to run with 1-5% CPU usage
5. Wait, wait and wait for 5 hours, run ps -e | grep plugin, plugin-container is still running with 1-5% CPU usage.

Expected:
When there is no flash to play, quit plugin-container and let Firefox start it next time it is needed.

This is a very unnecessary battery drain and resource hog, it's fine that it is using CPU when it has work to do but make sure it quits afterwards.

ProblemType: Bug
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 11.10
Package: firefox 8.0+build1-0ubuntu0.11.10.3
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 3.0.0-14.23-generic 3.0.9
Uname: Linux 3.0.0-14-generic x86_64
NonfreeKernelModules: wl
AddonCompatCheckDisabled: False
AlsaVersion: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture Driver Version 1.0.24.
ApportVersion: 1.23-0ubuntu4
Architecture: amd64
ArecordDevices:
 **** List of CAPTURE Hardware Devices ****
 card 0: Intel [HDA Intel], device 0: ALC271X Analog [ALC271X Analog]
   Subdevices: 1/1
   Subdevice #0: subdevice #0
AudioDevicesInUse:
 USER PID ACCESS COMMAND
 /dev/snd/controlC0: oscar 2159 F.... pulseaudio
AuditLog:

BuildID: 20111115183813
CRDA: Error: [Errno 2] No such file or directory
Card0.Amixer.info:
 Card hw:0 'Intel'/'HDA Intel at 0xd4400000 irq 42'
   Mixer name : 'Intel IbexPeak HDMI'
   Components : 'HDA:10ec0269,1025040e,00100100 HDA:80862804,104d4b00,00100000'
   Controls : 24
   Simple ctrls : 13
Channel: release
Date: Sat Nov 26 17:00:45 2011
EcryptfsInUse: Yes
ForcedLayersAccel: False
IncompatibleExtensions: NoScript - ID={73a6fe31-595d-460b-a920-fcc0f8843232}, Version=2.2, minVersion=1.9a2, maxVersion=1.9.6, Location=app-profile, Type=extension, Active=Yes
InstallationMedia: Ubuntu 10.04.1 LTS "Lucid Lynx" - Release amd64 (20100816.1)
IpRoute:
 default via 192.168.1.1 dev eth0 proto static
 169.254.0.0/16 dev eth0 scope link metric 1000
 192.168.1.0/24 dev eth0 proto kernel scope link src 192.168.1.3 metric 2
Profiles: Profile0 (Default) - LastVersion=8.0/20111115183813 (Running)
RfKill:
 0: brcmwl-0: Wireless LAN
  Soft blocked: no
  Hard blocked: no
RunningIncompatibleAddons: True
SourcePackage: firefox
UpgradeStatus: Upgraded to oneiric on 2011-11-01 (25 days ago)
dmi.bios.date: 06/04/2010
dmi.bios.vendor: INSYDE
dmi.bios.version: V1.11
dmi.board.asset.tag: Base Board Asset Tag
dmi.board.name: Base Board Product Name
dmi.board.vendor: Intel Corp.
dmi.board.version: Base Board Version
dmi.chassis.type: 1
dmi.chassis.vendor: Chassis Manufacturer
dmi.chassis.version: Chassis Version
dmi.modalias: dmi:bvnINSYDE:bvrV1.11:bd06/04/2010:svnAcer:pnAspire1830T:pvrV1.11:rvnIntelCorp.:rnBaseBoardProductName:rvrBaseBoardVersion:cvnChassisManufacturer:ct1:cvrChassisVersion:
dmi.product.name: Aspire 1830T
dmi.product.version: V1.11
dmi.sys.vendor: Acer

[Rolf Leggewie (r0lf)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. The issue you are reporting is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug to the developers of the software by following the instructions at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/Mozilla. If you have done so, please tell us the number of the upstream bug (or the link), so we can add a bugwatch that will inform us about its status. Thanks in advance.

I'd say this bug is even more serious than what you described because as you can see from bug 635023 that left-over process quite often consumes considerable resources.