[SOLVED] Firefox freezes/hangs

[Slowpoke47]

I now understand that my previous posts and screenshot of the System Reports function were not helpful. Now that I know how that works, I can report that when I selected the one remaining item then shown in the upper panel, SR reported that an element of firefox software was missing- "firefox-dbg". Installed this element using Synaptic in both the Mate 19.2 and 20.3 OS. Too soon to say whether that will have any effect on the freeze issue, but it wouldn't hurt for others who have the freeze issue to check Synaptic and install it if missing.

EDIT- FF still freezes. Started new thread with system info. viewtopic.php?f=47&t=379404

[bmbguy]

I have been seeing this FF hang issue as well, generally 1-2 times per day (on Mate 20.2). Currently on FF 103.0.2, but have seen it on all versions of 103 (I don't think I ever ran any versions of 102, but 101 was working fine).

The one thing that I've noticed is that FF is not completely frozen/dead. When it 'hangs', it's obvious that things aren't working right. When I go to click the 'X' in the upper right window to close it, nothing happens - I don't get the usual popup asking if I want to close all tabs. But, if I go to the lower left and click the 'LM' button, as though I was going to open another program (like, say, System Monitor or something to kill the dead Firefox!), THEN Firefox immediately displays the popup to close all tabs. That close button works, I restart FF, and go on to the next session.

Though whatever the issue is is a problem and a pain in the butt, at least FF isn't too difficult to kill and restart. But I still haven't detected much of a pattern as to what's actually causing the freeze.

[SMG]

The one thing that I've noticed is that FF is not completely frozen/dead. When it 'hangs', it's obvious that things aren't working right. When I go to click the 'X' in the upper right window to close it, nothing happens - I don't get the usual popup asking if I want to close all tabs. But, if I go to the lower left and click the 'LM' button, as though I was going to open another program (like, say, System Monitor or something to kill the dead Firefox!), THEN Firefox immediately displays the popup to close all tabs. That close button works, I restart FF, and go on to the next session.

Welcome to the forum, bmbguy.

I disabled the option to have that verification box pop up, so mine does close immediately when I click the x, but my ability to switch tabs and see the tabs change (even if the page does not) does indicate Firefox is not completely frozen.

[Cosmo.]

As I do not have the problem: A shot in the dark:
Does it help anyhow, if you open the system monitor, select the process firefox-bin and (via context menu) try to change the priority or to stop and afterwards to continue it?

[Slowpoke47]

As I do not have the problem: A shot in the dark:
Does it help anyhow, if you open the system monitor, select the process firefox-bin and (via context menu) try to change the priority or to stop and afterwards to continue it?

Thank you for your continuing interest with this issue. Attached s/shot of System Monitor, Mate 19.2 OS in machine w/ FF problem. Looks like the processes are listed alphabetically. All show "Normal" priority except, further down, pulseaudio which shows "Very High." Just checked our other machine, also Mate 19.2, processes list and priorities match. Should I attempt to manipulate them?

Being mindful that the freeze problem occurs in both Mint OS on this machine, and also occurred at least once in Opera (which I seldom use), it may be a local OS fault rather than FF. As far as I can tell, the freezes began at the time FF was updated to v.102.0 but there were other updates installed at the same time, see history s/shot. . Could one of those be the cause?

[Cosmo.]

Regarding the process monitor: I use Cinnamon, so there might exist differences. Here I can right click a process and I get in a sub menu the options, which I mentioned. Do you find them in Mate?
BTW: You can change the sort order by clicking the header bar.

Being mindful that the freeze problem occurs in both Mint OS on this machine, and also occurred at least once in Opera (which I seldom use), it may be a local OS fault rather than FF.

The fact, that 2 quite different browsers are affected, makes it likely, that this is an OS problem, but this is not yet a proof.
I wonder, why only browsers? Did you test it with another complex program like LibreOffice? Or a multimedia player (celluloid, hypnotix)?

I know this problem since FF 102, but I cannot reproduce it. I have (from FF 102 until the current 103.0.2) never encountered the problem (lucky me), so I have very limited possibilities for investigation myself.

[Slowpoke47]

The fact, that 2 quite different browsers are affected, makes it likely, that this is an OS problem, but this is not yet a proof.
I wonder, why only browsers? Did you test it with another complex program like LibreOffice?

Yes, it happens only with the browsers. I hesitate to change anything in that System Monitor because (1) With my level of experience I may go from bad to worse, and (2) our unaffected computer shows the same elements as the one with the freeze problem.

Another head scratcher- the second Mint OS, 20.3, was installed a month after the freezes began in 19.2, but 20.3 freezes randomly also.

[ThaCrip]

The one thing that I've noticed is that FF is not completely frozen/dead. When it 'hangs', it's obvious that things aren't working right. When I go to click the 'X' in the upper right window to close it, nothing happens - I don't get the usual popup asking if I want to close all tabs. But, if I go to the lower left and click the 'LM' button, as though I was going to open another program (like, say, System Monitor or something to kill the dead Firefox!), THEN Firefox immediately displays the popup to close all tabs. That close button works, I restart FF, and go on to the next session.

Yeah, I just noticed similar on my backup computer yesterday (thankfully my primary PC does not have the issue so far) with a AMD Athlon X2 3600+ CPU with 4GB of RAM and Radeon 5670 512MB GPU with Mint v21.0-Xfce (which was clean installed not all that long ago now) as the browser is largely shot but Mint in general still functions like expected.

because you can see when the issue occurs on Firefox, that Firefox is not totally unresponsive but it's largely unresponsive as when it occurs you can still see it responds to mouse input a bit but it's very delayed. like when it happens, say I click another open tab, it will eventually switch to that tab but it takes a while to respond etc. then I basically have to close out of the browser.

[bmbguy]

because you can see when the issue occurs on Firefox, that Firefox is not totally unresponsive but it's largely unresponsive as when it occurs you can still see it responds to mouse input a bit but it's very delayed. like when it happens, say I click another open tab, it will eventually switch to that tab but it takes a while to respond etc. then I basically have to close out of the browser.

I don't think I've waited long enough to see if FF will actually switch the content window to that of another tab, but (at least, in my case) the window title changes immediately to any other tab as you click them. Obviously, some messaging is getting through, but FF isn't doing everything it's supposed to do. The vertical scrollbar on the right side doesn't respond when you mouse over there, etc.

[SMG]

I don't think I've waited long enough to see if FF will actually switch the content window to that of another tab, but (at least, in my case) the window title changes immediately to any other tab as you click them.

I stopped to make lunch and just let it sit for 15-20 minutes. The content page did not change. Only the top tab parts did.

[AZgl1800]

the only real problem I have with Firefox, is when watching a lot of YouTube videos.

it seems like if I watch 4 or 5 of them, it will just lock up the entire desktop, no mouse, no kybd, no nothing.

Long Press Power Button is required to regain control.
Fortunately, this has never, ever, caused a loss of the OS features or crash.

BUT, if I make a point of exiting FF after the 3rd Video, and restart it, it works just fine.

it is a bit irksome that I have to continually remember is this YT #2 or #3 ??

if it is #3, I hit ALT-Home to go back to my Home page, and exit FF, then restart it....
doing that, prevents it from locking up.

[SMG]

the only real problem I have with Firefox, is when watching a lot of YouTube videos.

it seems like if I watch 4 or 5 of them, it will just lock up the entire desktop, no mouse, no kybd, no nothing.

This issue in this topic is only with Firefox locking up (part of it is locking up). The desktop works just fine. I can go do anything else without a problem and come back to Firefox and it is still not doing anything.

[Slowpoke47]

OP here- the basic question in my case seems to be whether the freeze/hang issue is oldish hardware or within FF. When this first began FF had other errors, previously listed, but since the most recent FF and kernel updates, the only remaining FF issues are the freezing (a biggie) and the fact that FF no longer loads tabbed pages when starting- i.e. now have to click on them to load. Interested to hear from others- do they preload or do you have to click them?

[SMG]

the only remaining FF issues are the freezing (a biggie) and the fact that FF no longer loads tabbed pages when starting- i.e. now have to click on them to load. Interested to hear from others- do they preload or do you have to click them?

I have never used that feature. I start with a blank page each time I open Firefox. I do not have it retain pages from a previous session.

[Slowpoke47]

the only remaining FF issues are the freezing (a biggie) and the fact that FF no longer loads tabbed pages when starting- i.e. now have to click on them to load. Interested to hear from others- do they preload or do you have to click them?

I have never used that feature. I start with a blank page each time I open Firefox. I do not have it retain pages from a previous session.

So when you open FF, you get just the active tab?

[bmbguy]

Like SMG, I have FF set to start on my 'home' page, which is the new tab page - so it's blank. Every now and then, if I have to reboot the OS for some reason (rare) when FF is open, it will try to reload the previously open tabs. But that is very much the exception.

[SMG]

So when you open FF, you get just the active tab?

Yes.
If you go to Settings > Home. I have the two options under "New Windows and Tabs" set to "Blank Page" and everything under "Firefox Home Content" is unchecked.

[Slowpoke47]

If you go to Settings > Home. I have the two options under "New Windows and Tabs" set to "Blank Page" and everything under "Firefox Home Content" is unchecked.

My long-standing preference is to have the same four tabs pinned to FF, they used to preload but now they just show as tabs and have to be clicked to open. I can live with that either way, but the freeze issue is not acceptable.

[AZgl1800]

OP here- the basic question in my case seems to be whether the freeze/hang issue is oldish hardware or within FF. When this first began FF had other errors, previously listed, but since the most recent FF and kernel updates, the only remaining FF issues are the freezing (a biggie) and the fact that FF no longer loads tabbed pages when starting- i.e. now have to click on them to load. Interested to hear from others- do they preload or do you have to click them?

it has been my experience, that the remaining tabs do not load until you click on them.
to me, that is normal, and as I desire, as it decreases the loading time for the active tab.

I can't recall that FF ever has, in the past, loaded all of the other tabs, in addition to the main active tab.

I do NOT use the "open home page" option, to me that is a deterrent, as I only want the tabs that were open when FF exits.

[Slowpoke47]

it has been my experience, that the remaining tabs do not load until you click on them.
to me, that is normal, and as I desire, as it decreases the loading time for the active tab.

I can't recall that FF ever has, in the past, loaded all of the other tabs, in addition to the main active tab.

I do NOT use the "open home page" option, to me that is a deterrent, as I only want the tabs that were open when FF exits.

This is interesting- tabs on FF home page have always loaded by default on both of our machines. The Dell desktop stopped doing that, not sure exactly when, but within the time frame since the 6/29 updates were installed. Our other computer, newer HP laptop, has exactly the same OS and FF, all settings the same, and continues to preload those tabs on opening FF. The older laptop that was replaced by the current HP did the same. Always thought that behavior was normal.

Currently FF remembers which pages were open on exiting and reopens those tabs when starting FF- but those pages are no longer preloaded in the desktop.