Technically, the current 32.0.3 build of Firefox is unusable in my system(s, because I talk about two). So I have to choose to regress to previous version or to change the browser. Even IF the 32.0.3 version is secure like Fort Knox, I can't afford to use it, from clear reasons.

I had the same extremely slow mozilla-firefox 32.0.3 from the slackware-current repository (32-bit). Thanks to an earlier comment, I removed it; downloaded the binary file from mozilla and bunzipped and untarred it in /usr/local/ and it is running normally. So it is not necessary to build, if you just want a working firefox.

If you use the browser for general browsing and reading, it may not be such a problem but I would not use it for anything secure, like banking or shopping. If this is a problem, install another browser instead (or at least alongside) until Mozilla fixes the issue. If you are a Firefox fan perhaps you should consider Firefox ESR 31.1.1, which also has the fix. The preferences format used for ESR will probably not be compatible with 32, so move it out of the way and start clean. You can move your current preferences back when Mozilla have fixed the performance problem in the 32.0.x (or 33) series.

Another option would be to check if the pre-compiled binary of 32.0.3 that Mozilla provide exhibit the same issue. You can use my latest-firefox script to quickly convert the Mozilla binary into Slackware package format.

Just fetch the script, read through it (to satisfy yourself that it does nothing crazy) and then execute it as follows:

This will find the latest build for your architecture, download and repackage it automatically into Slackware format (it does not require root access to do this).

If you want to create a package for Firefox ESR instead, issue:


If you decide to continue to use 32.0 for unsecured browsing, you can also use the script to repackage the older version for you, e.g.:

Just make a real package, its easy. This script will do all the work for you:

This is much better than running an older 32.0 package.

If anyone gets this again, check the processes... look for a firefox process with plugins as the possible issue.

For some reason I have yet to quite figure out, the previous few releases of firefox have on occasion had their plugin process get out of hand and take one of my processor cores and just thrash it until i killed the offending process. Just shutting down firefox didn't do it, I had to hunt it down and kill -9 to get it to stop.

Oddly for me, I have yet to have the issue return with the latest -current firefox, but the symptoms were too close to not comment.

I didn't send a bug report to Pat as it seemed to be something in plugins, possibly google-talk or flash, which frankly are not his issue.

Do you have any add-on/extensions installed in firefox? They can cause slowdowns after upgrading .

I can confirm this issue. It doesn't matter if firefox extensions are present or not.
Performance is terrible on firefox 32.0.3: when i start FF i have to wait 10-15 seconds or so to let it do what it wants to do, pages load much slower (even if i have only one website on one tab). On SeaMonkey, which is also bundled in Slackware, everything is fine (smooth and fast).

EDIT:
I downloaded Firefox 32.0.3 from mozilla's site and it works flawlessly.
Looks like something's wrong with the Slackware's x32 package.

Just in case (it is firefox 32.0.3 32-bit from latest Slackware's update):
$ md5sum `which firefox`
57f9dcc112896978359fdfab64996cc8 /usr/bin/firefox

This is now fixed in latest -current update:

3 members found this post helpful.

Nice! Thanks. Works like a charm.

Much much better. Thank you.