Firefox on Linux sometimes freezes until mouse moves
I'm having an odd problem with Firefox 40 on Linux: Sometimes (not very predictably), it freezes while loading a page, and stays frozen until the mouse is moved or a key is pressed. It seems to happen most often (but not exclusively) on pages that include animated GIFs. The bigger the page is, or the more graphics it has on it, the more likely it is to freeze. A page with lots of animated GIFs on it may require almost constant mouse motion to load the entire page.
Once the page is loaded, I can often make any animated GIFs on it freeze again by moving the mouse over a link (when this happens, the popup in the corner that shows link's URL often doesn't draw fully...it freezes in a semi-transparent state). Moving the mouse again unfreezes everything.
Restarting in safe mode doesn't make any difference. Restarting with a fresh profile doesn't make any difference.
It began with Firefox 40. Downgrading to 39.0.3 fixes the problem, but I'd prefer not to browse with the bugs that were fixed in 40 unfixed.
I see other reports of similar problems with older Firefox versions, but all those reports were for Windows. I haven't been able to duplicate this problem on Windows.
All Replies (8)
Near-identical problem.
Upgraded to 40. Now, intermittently, when I load a page, the page load freezes until I press a key.
Unlike the OP, I see no correlation to gifs. In fact, this happens frequently with google.
Sorry I do not have time to try to research or reproduce. Just adding some quick, but unfortunately rather rambling, comments. Hopefully someone else will be along later with a more focused reply. Please post back to bump the thread in say three days if no one else has replied.
Rather surprised Firefox's safe mode does not prevent the problem, because one of the things safe mode does is disable hardware acceleration and that could be involved here. I know you have tried a new profile. Can you try that in Firefox's safemode and with all plugins disabled please. Does that help ? (I won't suggest fiddling with prefs at the moment, as I am not sure which prefs are related to which Fx versions)
From the User Agent String I guess you are using a distro build of Firefox.
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:40.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/40.0
There are also official Mozilla builds. Ubuntu Linux has its own canonical builds with Aurora and Release channels. Debian has Iceweasel, that is based on Mozilla's ESR channel and currently on Fx31.8 so about to transition to Fx38.x series. (I note my Iceweasel crashes on You Tube)
There have been major changes to Firefox graphics handling and there will be known (and no doubt unknown) bugs relating to graphics and video.
The bugs are tracked on bugzilla. We usually advise endusers not to comment within bugs as they are a workplace not a discussion forum; however as a technically aware user experiencing issues feel free to add comments if you think you have: vital information, answers to questions raised in bugs, Steps To Reproduce; or possibly file a bug yourself if you find a new issue. One quirk you need to be aware of is that bugzilla bugs are in relation to Mozilla Nightly builds, so things marked fixed may not work through to the Release for months, and some Bugs may not even be seen on the Release, especially if an ESR based release.
Some background info on recent changes. Firefox Graphics Changes (OMTC) This article explains the background of the recent relevant Firefox changes
- Mozilla Gfx Team Blog https://mozillagfx.wordpress.com/2015/05/19/off-main-thread-compositing-on-linux/
Off-main-thread compositing on Linux
... OMTC on Linux, in its current state is still pretty new and comes with some improvements and regressions we are confident that we will be able to catch up with all of the regressions eventually but, as usual, don’t hesitate to file bugs at bugzilla.mozilla.org. ...
These are some of the potentially related bugs
- Bug 1193520 - Linux Flash videos stop playing without mouse move
- This lists many related bugs Bug 1195607 - (asyncplugininit-compat) Async Plugin Init compatibility issues found on release channel
- Crash. Fixed in point release fx40.0.3
Bug 981869 - crash in liboil-0.3.so.0.3.0@0x14e28
John99 said
Rather surprised Firefox's safe mode does not prevent the problem, because one of the things safe mode does is disable hardware acceleration and that could be involved here. I know you have tried a new profile. Can you try that in Firefox's safemode and with all plugins disabled please. Does that help ?
Actually, I did use safe mode on my abortive refresh; it didn't help. I also explicitly disabled hardware acceleration. I spent a pretty significant chunk of time trying to get around the problem.
(I won't suggest fiddling with prefs at the moment, as I am not sure which prefs are related to which Fx versions)
My #1 suspect culprit is some change in about:$whatever. Tangentially, the main reason I hesitate to upgrade is that changing those defaults is a terrible thing to do to me as a user. That's a whole other conversation though.
From the User Agent String I guess you are using a distro build of Firefox. Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:40.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/40.0 There are also official Mozilla builds...
Actually I use Slackware; the version that was breaking was the binary build tarball straight off of mozilla's site.
There have been major changes to Firefox graphics handling and there will be known (and no doubt unknown) bugs relating to graphics and video.
Yeah, and the OP was suspicious of .gif handling. But I experienced breakage with google, so it feels more likely to me that it's maybe a .js thing. Or about:config as noted above.
The bugs are tracked on bugzilla. We usually advise endusers not to...
I'll go do a bug report in a few days.
Thanks again. Also, you deserve a special "attaboy" for how you handled me. I was pretty ticked off, barely keeping it cordial. Now you've got me engaged and I might even do something helpful here.
Keep up the good work!
John99 said
Can you try that in Firefox's safemode and with all plugins disabled please. Does that help ?
Actually getting rid of all plugins isn't easy, because some of them are installed systemwide by my distro, but I do have them set to "Ask to activate". Even so, the problem happens on pages that don't use any plugins, and starting in safe mode still doesn't make any difference.
From the User Agent String I guess you are using a distro build of Firefox. Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686; rv:40.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/40.0
Nope...it's the .tar.bz2 straight from the official Firefox download page. (Well...actually, the download was several versions ago, and I've kept it up to date through the Help > About Firefox window.)
oldn00b said
Yeah, and the OP was suspicious of .gif handling. But I experienced breakage with google, so it feels more likely to me that it's maybe a .js thing. Or about:config as noted above.
I've seen some hints that Javascript might be involved too. Maybe it's ANY active content, not just animated GIFs that encourage it.
Here's a URL that's especially bad for me...it's a big page that loads slowly, and freezes many times during the load unless the mouse is in almost constant motion:
http://www.techsupportforum.com/forums/f131/pages-stop-loading-until-mouse-is-moved-740497.html
(Ironically, it's a thread about almost the same problem in an old version of Firefox.)
I've also occasionally had the problem on Mozilla.org home page.
Just upgraded to 40.0.3. Nothing has changed...I still get freezes, even in safe mode, with plugins gone, and hardware acceleration disabled.
you can say i'm an expertin linux i found someone in here
https://support.mozilla.org/questions/1080835
missing one lib in debian 8.1 i was using nigtly but john99 told me to use
https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/38.2.0esr/
and i found that is the fastest and more stable version, trust him he is the best.
Modified by user1241316
I keep having the same problem over and over again on Ubuntu. It keeps Freezing most of the time. I cannot get things done on my computer. The mouse just freezing so does Firefox. It's very fustratng. i
Ubuntu distro build? Or a Mozilla .tar.bz2 build that you extracted? Have you tried the Firefox 38.4.0 ESR version?