Hi all,

Lately I have been using Firefox like i normally do on a day to day basis, however, it has been freezing to the point that if I want to use firefox again I have to restart my system. This mostly after I view a video. When I do finally get FF off my screen, the PIDs are still in place and cannot be killed. i.e. kill <firefox PID> does nothing.

Here is some info:
FF 3.0.8
Adblock+
NoScript
Linkification
Java 6_11
Flash 10 (or whatever the latest one is)
firebug
Download Status Bar

And i think that is all. This just started happening about 1-2 weeks ago when 3.0.7 went to 3.0.8 and I changed some hardware in my system.

Hardware changed
Motherboard, CPU, PSU

I went from an AMD X2 6000+, DFI 790FX/SB600 to a C2D E5200 and DFI DK X48-T2RS Plus. I recompiled my kernel for everything to make sure it runs correctly.

So what do you think the problem is?

not something silly like a massive cache bloating it up is it?
try setting a smaller one.

Try doing

or

I have that sort of lockups when I close a tab that has been used to view a long video file (say, an hour long or more). Maybe there's a problem with cleaning the cache file, I don't know. But it has been bothering me, too, i have to do 'kill -9' each time.

Doesn't Firefox 3 have a db style cache that it purges in the background after you close it?

As odd as this may sound, try updating your video driver.

Ok ,suggestions are now being taken in order as they were delivered, please grab a number

@Bigearsbilly, Not quite sure what you mean regarding the cache getting used up. Is this memory Cache or a app specific cache?

@Ilgar, I will try that next time it happens

@Suncoast, no clue

@em21701, Nvidia driver is already up to date.

How long have you waited to see if it settles down?

To give you an idea of what I'm thinking; If FireFox is caching a large video, which can be 4 to 6 gigs, it would take 10 to 20 minutes in just raw disk I/O time to purge a cache database. I can tell you the XP version of FF does this purging after close, but it closes the GUI and does it completely as a low priority background task.

Since SeaMonkey is very similar, you might want to try that browser and see if it does the same thing.

I should also point out that Firefox has their own excellent support forums. From Firefox click help, release notes. I think you'll see the various options from there. Or just click on this -


http://support.mozilla.com/tiki-view...n-US&forumId=1

Steve

So, you mean it freezes like this after a flash video ? If so, then it's obviously flash that causes it. If you use mplayer-plugin that could also cause it.

In my case it freezes after closing tabs with large video files cached (actually it sometimes freezes, sometimes not, happens about 50% of the time). I'm sure I've waited long enough to conclude that it is a freeze. It should delete the file /tmp/FlashXXXXX after closing the tab with the player. When there's a freeze the file is not deleted.

What is a reasonable sized cache for firefox to have?

I have this same problem and can't even kill it with a kill -9...

I also have a similar problem...not sure if it is related where flash videos won't play if the firefox application has been running for a while. If I want to watch youtube or something, I have to restart firefox. Does this sound more and more like a cache problem?

1) This is a known Flash player issue. https://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FP-1626
(There are more....)

2) Note: A better link to FireFox to look for and report bugs,

https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/

3)A kill -9 PidNumber is the strongest kill possible. What happens if you exit X back to the CLI, then restart X?


Steve

Appears the 32bit version has the same problem. All of the following from the following url. Strongly motivated individuals may want to register on the adobe site to enter your comments regarding the bug, as they seem to look at that information.

https://bugs.adobe.com/jira/browse/FP-1721

libflashplayer.so 10.0.22.87 immediately crashes browser on opening most flash sites

Found in Version: Flash Player 10 - 10_0_22_87

Steps to reproduce:
1. Install 32 bit libflashplayer from Flash-plugin-10.0.22.87-release.i386.rpm
2. Visit www.adobe.com or www.youtube.com
3. Poof !

openSUSE 10.3 (X86-64)
Firefox 3.07 (32-bit)
NVIDIA-Linux-x86_64-100.14.19

Actual Results: Poof !

Expected Results: Show the site

Workaround (if any): Uninstall flash or use outdated version which poses security risk

Or use grash...