Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

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Hypex
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Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by Hypex »

Hi guys.

I've had an issue with Mint I've only seen when using Firefox. Essentially all is fine up until a point where suddenly it locks up and I can hear the HD go into a spin and thrash about. Sometimes the computer just slows down and sometimes it comes back fine. Most of the time I need to restart it. If I have a terminal open and get to it in time I can usually locate Firefox from "top' and "kill" it.

A lot of the time it will suddenly lock the mouse as well and lately it has been giving me no chance and totally locking up. Sometimes I can Ctrl-Alt-F1 to a terminal and when I do the system is very slow. If I'm lucky it will only take a few minutes to come up. But there is another few minutes to log in and execute commands. It really kills off the the multitasking. In this case if I'm really lucky I can shut it down with a reset combo that takes a few minutes to react.

I've searched on the net for similar issues and found some but they are a little old with different hardware and software. Well older Linux Mint for one thing in the least. I thought it may be my hardware setup. A friend donated this laptop to me. A Compaq Presario V6500. It had 80GB with Windows and 40GB with Mint. I ended up fresh installing Mint. For some reason it wasn't setup with a swap partition and for some other reason I hadn't noticed this when I installed it. I thought this may be affecting it. Doesn't Linux need swap to survive? On top of that I'm running it on 64-bit but it has only 2GB RAM. How a 64-bit computer was sold with less than 32-bit RAM I don't know. Unless it was removed.

I want to shrink the NTFS volume down to give room for swap and Mint. Mint only has 1GB on disk free and it keeps complaining. LOL. But in Mint Disks doesn't offer any tools to do so and I'm not aware of other apps to do it with. I tried Windows but it won't let me shrink it down enough. Under a gig it offered IIRC. But that's another problem.

I can't see anything stand out in the syslog except failed GTK messaages. I managed to get it shut down in time. So any problems should be there. The faillog is always empty which annoys me on all distros. And the lastlog contains garbage. Is it compressed or something? It's not in ASCII.

There is this a lot and I mean a lot:

Code: Select all

Jul  8 14:59:48 damien-Presario-V6500-Notebook-PC cinnamon-session[1433]: Gtk-CRITICAL: t+385.53683s: gtk_widget_get_window: assertion 'GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)
' failed
Jul  8 14:59:48 damien-Presario-V6500-Notebook-PC cinnamon-session[1433]: Gdk-CRITICAL: t+385.84745s: gdk_keyboard_grab: assertion 'GDK_IS_WINDOW (window)' fa
iled
Jul  8 14:59:48 damien-Presario-V6500-Notebook-PC cinnamon-session[1433]: Gtk-CRITICAL: t+385.84779s: gtk_widget_get_window: assertion 'GTK_IS_WIDGET (widget)
' failed
These are my specs from inxi:

Code: Select all

System:    Host: damien-Presario-V6500-Notebook-PC Kernel: 4.4.0-62-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.0.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3) Distro: Linux Mint 18 Sarah
Machine:   System: Hewlett-Packard (portable) product: Presario V6500 Notebook PC v: Rev 1
           Mobo: Quanta model: 30CC v: 79.13 Bios: Hewlett-Packard v: F.09 date: 06/11/2007
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core2 Duo T7100 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3 vmx) bmips: 7183
           clock speeds: max: 1801 MHz 1: 1801 MHz 2: 1801 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary) bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.3 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa) Resolution: 1280x800@59.97hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 965GM GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 11.2.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-62-generic
Network:   Card-1: Intel PRO/Wireless 3945ABG [Golan] Network Connection
           driver: iwl3945 v: in-tree:s bus-ID: 02:00.0
           IF: wlp2s0 state: up mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Realtek RTL8101/2/6E PCI Express Fast/Gigabit Ethernet controller
           driver: r8169 v: 2.3LK-NAPI port: 3000 bus-ID: 06:00.0
           IF: enp6s0 state: down mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 120.0GB (85.8% used) ID-1: /dev/sda model: FUJITSU_MHW2120B size: 120.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 37G used: 34G (98%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 51.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A
Info:      Processes: 177 Uptime: 2:02 Memory: 1123.6/1991.1MB Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.1
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35 
What other logs or information can I provide? Thanks. :-)
Last edited by LockBot on Wed Dec 28, 2022 7:16 am, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: Topic automatically closed 6 months after creation. New replies are no longer allowed.
Cosmo.
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Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by Cosmo. »

Your computer is missing on resources: As well on disk space for your system and the missing swap. If a Linux system needs more RAM, than there is physically available, it will swap. If it cannot swap it will simply stall. There is no way around than providing more disk space.
LloydHayes

Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by LloydHayes »

I had Mint burn out an external hard drive a few months ago. Since then, I make sure to allow plenty of space on my drives. My main drive is a 1TB drive. I also have a 2nd internal 2 TB drive. But I have roughly 20 TB of external storage. And I have found that 20 TB of space is not enough.

Do I really have a solution to the computer freezing up, no.

But I have found that the best solution is to back every hard drive up.

Mint will sometimes go into an unending and unyielding fit which can last for hours. My computer is supposed to have 1 TB of memory. I just looked and it has 8 GB of memory. It simply uses swap space on the drive. Computers use the memory stack until they run out of memory. Then they start using swap space on the drive to swap information in / out of. It is very slow. It also slows down every function of the computer. But the drive is speed up.

The old C-64's and C-128's lived on this idea. Internal processors regulated the Commodore drives. They had nearly as much computer memory and power in their drives as the main computer had. PC computers didn't have processors regulating their drives. They were controlled only by the main processor. And this idea has not improved much since the 1980's. It causes drives to heat up too much. When drives heat up too much, they can fail.

A good solution is to increase memory and increase storage space.
Hypex
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Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by Hypex »

Cosmo. wrote:Your computer is missing on resources:
That's what I thought thanks. I've already started looking up resources. :-)
Hypex
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Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by Hypex »

LloydHayes wrote: And I have found that 20 TB of space is not enough.
We're gonna need a bigger boat. To put all these hard-disks into. :-)
LloydHayes wrote:But I have found that the best solution is to back every hard drive up.
And then I find the problem becomes circular as you try and back up every thing to something else and then something bigger until there is this cascading back up effect before you. :-D
LloydHayes wrote:My computer is supposed to have 1 TB of memory. I just looked and it has 8 GB of memory.
That's a big difference. 1 TB storage makes sense. But it won't be long before we need 1 TB to look at a "Hello world" HTML example website. :-)
LloydHayes wrote:The old C-64's and C-128's lived on this idea. Internal processors regulated the Commodore drives.
And you could upload and run programs on the drive. Primitive form of dual core. As well as upload a faster loader.
LloydHayes wrote:PC computers didn't have processors regulating their drives. They were controlled only by the main processor. And this idea has not improved much since the 1980's
They should have had processors. Because this is exactly what IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) implies. Also heard it called Intelligent Drive Electronics. Where the drive has all the electronics to run the drive and communicates with a standard command set to the computer. So if there isn't a computer on each HD they've been pulling a shifty for years. :-)
Last edited by Hypex on Tue Oct 17, 2017 4:44 am, edited 1 time in total.
LloydHayes

Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by LloydHayes »

I had forgotten all about this post. But the old Commodore C-64 and C-128 disk drives had their own internal computer processors. The computer simply sent the drives the information, and the processors in the drives handled it separately from the computer. The Commodore 64 actually had about 80 K of memory. The drives had another 60 K of memory. And yes, you could access that disk drive memory. People used to use that memory to emulate the dumb IBM drives. Anything written on a PC disc could be read, and re-written with the Commodore 64.

Tidits of useless information....
Hypex
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Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by Hypex »

Too many forums. So little time...

Without expansion, the C64 had 64K internally, hence the 64, with 38K available for user use left over from system overhead. The C128 had double that, minus what overhead BASIC 7.0 took.

But that's what I meant with IDE. IDE is supposed to be the same idea, with a micro controller or CPU/computer controlling the drive. That took commands from the host, did the dirty work, then sent the data back. Just like a 1541. After all, every HD has to have some kind of micro controller, to operate the internal mechanisms. Just like every printer needs a CPU on board and ROM/OS to drive the electronics and print heads. Even a "Windows" printer needs a driver. For the host computer to drive motors, read/write heads and other mechanics with only a few data lines in the cable would be too much. Unless the device had internally advanced electronics, but in that case, it would really need a CPU. I used to think the VCR was a very sophisticated form of electronic gear, being able to display a recording list on screen and control the tape deck, until one day I realised it would be through a CPU. :-D

The only problem I saw with IDE was that it held up the bus and the CPU had to poll for data, unlike SCSI which was a well designed protocol with DMA. Until IDE got UDMA SCSI could lord over IDE. Of course SCSI can have 8 devices on one bus, including controller, where as IDE only provides two devices per bus. In the end, IDE won, which become the SATA we have today. :-)

As a side note, despite my Amiga A1200 only having the "cheap" IDE interface running at PIO 0, I could get up to 2MB/s sustained throughput. And this was without any noticeable effect to multitasking. Back then they knew how to use the hardware to provide good performance, despite limitations. Unlike this laptop, where I upgraded it to 4GB, free 11GB of HD space, think it's going well, until it locks up again. Unless you have a new computer, it's a waste of time. :-)
Hypex
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Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by Hypex »

Well I maxed out the RAM to 4GB and also set aside 4GB on the HDD for swap. But it didin't help anything. In fact it's almost gone worse. Suddenly the HDD light comes on and FireFox takes no prisoners in taking the system down. Sometimes I can get lucky and kill the X server. But mostly the cursor stutters and even if I can open up a console screen it tends to time out before I can fully log in. Otherwise I can kill it. I've even given up on the REISUB combo. FireFox does a good job of being a multitasking killer. :-)
kukamuumuka

Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by kukamuumuka »

Hypex wrote: Tue Mar 13, 2018 8:44 am Well I maxed out the RAM to 4GB and also set aside 4GB on the HDD for swap. But it didin't help anything. In fact it's almost gone worse. Suddenly the HDD light comes on and FireFox takes no prisoners in taking the system down. Sometimes I can get lucky and kill the X server. But mostly the cursor stutters and even if I can open up a console screen it tends to time out before I can fully log in. Otherwise I can kill it. I've even given up on the REISUB combo. FireFox does a good job of being a multitasking killer. :-)
No chance for working: hard drive is full, so settings and cache folders cannot work.
Partition: ID-1: / size: 37G used: 34G (98%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
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Flemur
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Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by Flemur »

Also your "/" partition is too small (or too full of junk):

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ID-1: / size: 37G used: 34G (98%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
Please edit your original post title to include [SOLVED] if/when it is solved!
Your data and OS are backed up....right?
kukamuumuka

Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by kukamuumuka »

Flemur wrote: Tue Mar 13, 2018 4:52 pm Also your "/" partition is too small (or too full of junk):

Code: Select all

ID-1: / size: 37G used: 34G (98%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
I suppose that is the only linux-partition. In /dev/sda1 is XP or Vista?

Code: Select all

inxi -po | grep sda
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jimbobs
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Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by jimbobs »

I have the same problem and IIRC posted about it as well. At that point, I only had 2GB RAM installed. Since then I added another 2GB. The increase in RAM reduced my issue somewhat but it still happens (HD light comes on, system doesn't respond to any key input and either restarts or has to be restarted) when I have a large number of tabs open.

For comparison, I have another Dell running Win 10 with 2GB RAM. I run Chrome on that as the default browser and have never had a problem like this.

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System:    Host: Inspiron-1525 Kernel: 4.13.0-36-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.6.7 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.3)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.3 Sylvia
Machine:   System: Dell (portable) product: Inspiron 1525
           Mobo: Dell model: 0U990C Bios: Dell v: A17 date: 10/27/2009
CPU:       Dual core Intel Core2 Duo T5850 (-MCP-) cache: 2048 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 ssse3) bmips: 8645
           clock speeds: max: 2167 MHz 1: 1667 MHz 2: 1333 MHz
Graphics:  Card: Intel Mobile GM965/GL960 Integrated Graphics Controller (primary)
           bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: intel (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1280x800@60.02hz
           GLX Renderer: Mesa DRI Intel 965GM
           GLX Version: 2.1 Mesa 17.2.8 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 82801H (ICH8 Family) HD Audio Controller
           driver: snd_hda_intel bus-ID: 00:1b.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.13.0-36-generic
Network:   Card-1: Marvell 88E8040 PCI-E Fast Ethernet Controller
           driver: sky2 v: 1.30 port: de00 bus-ID: 09:00.0
           IF: enp9s0 state: down mac: <filter>
           Card-2: Broadcom BCM4312 802.11b/g LP-PHY
           driver: wl bus-ID: 0b:00.0
           IF: wlp11s0 state: up mac: <filter>
Drives:    HDD Total Size: 160.0GB (28.1% used)
           ID-1: /dev/sda model: Hitachi_HTS72501 size: 160.0GB
Partition: ID-1: / size: 145G used: 40G (30%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda1
           ID-2: swap-1 size: 2.14GB used: 0.03GB (2%) fs: swap dev: /dev/sda5
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   System Temperatures: cpu: 51.0C mobo: N/A
           Fan Speeds (in rpm): cpu: N/A fan-2: 0 fan-3: 0
Info:      Processes: 183 Uptime: 12 days Memory: 1220.7/3936.1MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.481) inxi: 2.2.35 
Dell Inspiron 1525 Core 2 Duo T5850 4GB Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia Cinnamon 6.0.4
kukamuumuka

Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by kukamuumuka »

jimbobs wrote: Wed Mar 14, 2018 1:02 am (HD light comes on, system doesn't respond to any key input and either restarts or has to be restarted) when I have a large number of tabs open.
Diminish browser.sessionstore.interval in Firefox.

Code: Select all

about:config -> browser.sessionstore.interval -> change value
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.sessionstore.interval
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jimbobs
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Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by jimbobs »

administrollaattori wrote: Wed Mar 14, 2018 2:53 am
jimbobs wrote: Wed Mar 14, 2018 1:02 am (HD light comes on, system doesn't respond to any key input and either restarts or has to be restarted) when I have a large number of tabs open.
Diminish browser.sessionstore.interval in Firefox.

Code: Select all

about:config -> browser.sessionstore.interval -> change value
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.sessionstore.interval
Thanks.
I see this recommended primarily to reduce "wear" on SSD's. I'm using a regular (magnetic) HDD. However, I have changed the setting from 15000 (15 seconds) to 1500000 (25 minutes) and will monitor browser behaviour.

Update: running FF with 10 tabs, VLC, System Monitor, Terminal. System seems much faster and snappier! Both CPU's running up to 50%, memory 2.2GB and no swap in use.
Dell Inspiron 1525 Core 2 Duo T5850 4GB Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia Cinnamon 6.0.4
Hypex
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Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by Hypex »

Flemur wrote: Tue Mar 13, 2018 4:52 pm Also your "/" partition is too small (or too full of junk):

Code: Select all

ID-1: / size: 37G used: 34G (98%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
LOL. It got worse after that. Actually, would you believe I found 10GB taken up by some videos and a Wine PC game, backed up wanted files and then freed all that space only to find it's filed up again? I don't know where it's gone! I download some stuff, use it, then backup the files and wipe them. Right now I've got just over a GB fee.
Hypex
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Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by Hypex »

administrollaattori wrote: Tue Mar 13, 2018 5:04 pm No chance for working: hard drive is full, so settings and cache folders cannot work.
Where is the disk is full error?

There usually is some space left when it happens.
I suppose that is the only linux-partition. In /dev/sda1 is XP or Vista?
Yes, Vista, for when I need a Windows. :-)

Code: Select all

inxi -po | grep sda

Code: Select all

Partition: ID-1: / size: 33G used: 30G (97%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-17: /dev/sda1 size: 80.10G label: N/A uuid: BEA293EDA293A883
           ID-18: /dev/sda3 size: 4.29G
Last edited by Hypex on Thu Mar 15, 2018 10:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
Hypex
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Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by Hypex »

jimbobs wrote: Wed Mar 14, 2018 1:02 am I have the same problem and IIRC posted about it as well. At that point, I only had 2GB RAM installed. Since then I added another 2GB. The increase in RAM reduced my issue somewhat but it still happens (HD light comes on, system doesn't respond to any key input and either restarts or has to be restarted) when I have a large number of tabs open.
Sounds just like my situation.
For comparison, I have another Dell running Win 10 with 2GB RAM. I run Chrome on that as the default browser and have never had a problem like this.
I also installed Chromium but stopped using it. Windows x64?
Hypex
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Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by Hypex »

administrollaattori wrote: Wed Mar 14, 2018 2:53 am Diminish browser.sessionstore.interval in Firefox.

Code: Select all

about:config -> browser.sessionstore.interval -> change value
http://kb.mozillazine.org/Browser.sessionstore.interval
Thanks. I'll give this a shot. It could void my warranty. LOL. Didn't know I had one. :-)
kukamuumuka

Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by kukamuumuka »

Hypex wrote: Thu Mar 15, 2018 9:48 am
I suppose that is the only linux-partition. In /dev/sda1 is XP or Vista?
Yes, Vista, for when I need a Windows. :-)

Code: Select all

inxi -po | grep sda

Code: Select all

Partition: ID-1: / size: 33G used: 30G (97%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/sda2
           ID-17: /dev/sda1 size: 80.10G label: N/A uuid: BEA293EDA293A883
           ID-18: /dev/sda3 size: 4.29G
Your main-problem is Vista. For better performance you need to do some things in Vista.
1. Disable hiberfile via admin CMD

Code: Select all

powercfg /h off
2. Remove pagefile
https://www.vistax64.com/threads/virtua ... ge.132201/
3. Disable System Restore for getting more space
https://www.howtogeek.com/howto/3187/di ... windows-7/
4. Download and run BleachBit and add C:\ to the cleaning path, and choose all but not slow operations.
https://www.bleachbit.org/download/windows
5. Boot into Mint and install GParted and shrink /dev/sda1 (Vista) to the minimum size.
6. Boot using liveDVD or USB and increase /dev/sda2 to the maximum size.

PS. the better option would be remove Vista. :wink:
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jimbobs
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Re: Firefox freezing and causing HD to go in a spin

Post by jimbobs »

administrollaattori wrote: Thu Mar 15, 2018 12:00 pm ....
PS. the better option would be remove Vista. :wink:
This was always the better option - even when Vista was the latest and greatest version of Winows :)
Dell Inspiron 1525 Core 2 Duo T5850 4GB Linux Mint 21.3 Virginia Cinnamon 6.0.4
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