Fix for Firefox freezing

[J_D_]

Just posting to maybe help someone. Ive been having problems with Firefox freezing up for quite a while now. Finally went into settings and found something. This extension was installed but not by me. OpenH264 Video Codec provided by Cisco Systems, Inc. I guess Firefox did it with an update. Anyway I turned it off and the problems went away.

[Flash]

From what I can tell it's just for sending video directly from browser to browser. Are you still able to watch YouTube videos in Firefox?

[J_D_]

Yes Youtube was the worst offender. Just did this a couple days ago. and it stopped freezing. Until just now. Yahoo mail just froze. I thought I found something but I guess not. Maybe I need to do a fresh Fosapup install.

[Flash]

No, this Firefox freezing problem has been going on for years, with different versions of Puppy and different versions of Firefox. SeaMonkey does something similar: it gradually becomes slower to respond. To fix it, I restart the X server, restart SeaMonkey and restore the tabs I had open. This only takes a few seconds and I don't lose anything. YouTube videos even take up playing where they left off.

[bigpup]

Firefox help:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/fi ... responding
Firefox hangs or is not responding - How to fix

[J_D_]

Well, a few days after posting this thread, I reinstalled my puppies and firefox. I have not updated firefox since. I have had maybe 4 freezes since June. No more updates for me.

[Flash]

I'm running the version of Firefox that comes with Slacko64 8.0.1. That would be Firefox 78.8.0esr. I haven't done anything to update it.

I booted Slacko from a DVD 44 days ago according to HTOP and haven't shut down the computer since then. Firefox has not frozen once since I started it about 44 days ago.

Firefox has frozen repeatedly in every previous version of Puppy where I've tried it. Typically I'd have to kill Firefox (by restarting the X server) and restart it at least once a day.

[xenial]

https://forums.informaction.com/viewtopic.php?t=26365

The above link is to a site containing some about:config settings for firefox which may help.

security.tls.enable_0rtt_data -> False. Setting this might help with some freezing issues.

Hope it helps someone.

[mimine]

I got exaclty the same problem with FIREFOX 107.0.1 64 bit on bionicpup64 , it freeezes sometimes and randomly....
Need to kill and restart the program sometimes.

[rockedge]

I've had Firefox freeze to dead stop on Windows as well as different Linux distro's. This has been happening for years and many versions. One reason is possibly kernel related. Another is the web site's themselves. Many many web sites are coded like garbage by dev's that have no idea that pages packed full of code blocks of javascript,PERL,Python, and all those other network languages and frameworks that link in data from other fully over packed web sites and web applications with javascript and other languages that are supposed to run on the client side in the browser usually on home computers, bring them to a stand still and crash because of runaway processes, stuck in pulling advertisement that is pure bloat fat media.

Summary: most websites are badly designed for any system then add on heavy HD video-audio media advertisement linked from other servers and insane tracking routines and cookie retrievers. Bloat by terrible engineering.

Get a swap partition/file/zram. It might help. Other option is install a super computer on fiber optic only.

Chrome and Chromium have also often depleted RAM to the point of complete system halt and crash. And this has happened while doing nothing but letting the machine idle.

[mikewalsh]

@rockedge :-

Heh. You've only got to look at AdGuard's extension icon, for those of us that run it. Not uncommon to see 3-figure numbers listed on the icon. How the hell do devs think any sane system is going to cope with much of that? Still, they're probably just meekly following instructions from an overbearing 'non-techie' webmaster....

I came across summat I'd not seen for a long while, yesterday. A site with an auto-playing video that had absolutely NO way of turning it off. 'Twas one of the new breed of news sites; needless to say, I shan't be visiting THAT one again!

As for the browsers themselves, my favourite for some time now has been Opera. On my daily driver, jrb's 'lite' spin on BK's old Quirky 'April', I leave it open all the time.....suspending at night, then simply recovering straight into it the next morning with a tap of the space bar. I can't remember when I last actually launched Opera from scratch, though it must have been several weeks at least.

Never gives the slightest bit of aggravation at all. It's always rock-solid.......and utterly predictable. Which is what you need from a browser.

Mike.

[williwaw]

similar concurrent thread viewtopic.php?t=7522

needless to say, I shan't be visiting THAT one again!

best workaround I have found also.

@mikewalsh
do you have an opera portable that will work on later pups?

[mimine]

I've had Firefox freeze to dead stop on Windows as well as different Linux distro's. This has been happening for years and many versions. One reason is possibly kernel related. Another is the web site's themselves. Many many web sites are coded like garbage by dev's that have no idea that pages packed full of code blocks of javascript,PERL,Python, and all those other network languages and frameworks that link in data from other fully over packed web sites and web applications with javascript and other languages that are supposed to run on the client side in the browser usually on home computers, bring them to a stand still and crash because of runaway processes, stuck in pulling advertisement that is pure bloat fat media.

Summary: most websites are badly designed for any system then add on heavy HD video-audio media advertisement linked from other servers and insane tracking routines and cookie retrievers. Bloat by terrible engineering.

Get a swap partition/file/zram. It might help. Other option is install a super computer on fiber optic only.

Chrome and Chromium have also often depleted RAM to the point of complete system halt and crash. And this has happened while doing nothing but letting the machine idle.

I tried everything : fast internet, much RAM , few pages open...
Nothing has worked LOL.
Firefox freezes for an unknown reason.
I been investigating this but this bug is extremely hard to reproduce and find and pinpoint.

If you find out how to reproduce it with the exact steps, the firefox developpers would be extremly happy, cause it's a very annoying bug.

[backi]

Hi @mimine !

I am not sure if this is related to the freezing of Firefox that you mentioned.

But i stopped using Firefox for freezing Problems which started recently for unknown Reasons......never had Problems before.

What i did was...... i just switched to Firefox-Nightly (just to test it) ......and much to my Surprise...
i never encountered any Problems with "Nightly" so far uptil now.
Firefox-Nightly is now my daily Driver.....satisfied.

It is possible to disable daily Updates easy if you want. (Preferences)

Firefox Nightly download:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/1 ... easenotes/
and extract it (UExtract)

You will probably need some Extra Libs ......if you don`t have any Sound.
viewtopic.php?t=4552

Extract it....place the "extralibs" folder in your new extracted "Firefox Nightly" Folder if you don`t have any working Sound.

The extra " ff " Script which it also contains (make it executable) .....place it in your newly extracted "Firefox Nightly" Folder and execute it there (by just clicking it) and it will make your Firefox Nightly "portable" automatically...... if desired....

......it also will create a new "profile" Folder automatically inside your new "Firefox Nightly" Folder....
....the new "profile" Folder can be replaced with your old "profile" Folder from your last "Firefox" to keep your "profile".

To start your "portable" Firefox Nightly Version execute the "ff" Script.... click it inside the new" Firefox Nightly " Folder...or make a symlink to a Place from where you like to start it.

Or maybe give "Waterfox" a Test :
https://www.waterfox.net/

[mimine]

Hi @mimine !

I am not sure if this is related to the freezing of Firefox that you mentioned.

But i stopped using Firefox for freezing Problems which started recently for unknown Reasons......never had Problems before.

What i did was...... i just switched to Firefox-Nightly (just to test it) ......and much to my Surprise...
i never encountered any Problems with "Nightly" so far uptil now.
Firefox-Nightly is now my daily Driver.....satisfied.

It is possible to disable daily Updates easy if you want. (Preferences)

Firefox Nightly download:
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/1 ... easenotes/
and extract it (UExtract)

You will probably need some Extra Libs ......if you don`t have any Sound.
viewtopic.php?t=4552

Extract it....place the "extralibs" folder in your new extracted "Firefox Nightly" Folder if you don`t have any working Sound.

The extra " ff " Script which it also contains (make it executable) .....place it in your newly extracted "Firefox Nightly" Folder and execute it there (by just clicking it) and it will make your Firefox Nightly "portable" automatically...... if desired....

......it also will create a new "profile" Folder automatically inside your new "Firefox Nightly" Folder....
....the new "profile" Folder can be replaced with your old "profile" Folder from your last "Firefox" to keep your "profile".

To start your "portable" Firefox Nightly Version execute the "ff" Script.... click it inside the new" Firefox Nightly " Folder...or make a symlink to a Place from where you like to start it.

Or maybe give "Waterfox" a Test :
https://www.waterfox.net/

firefox nightly is 109.0a1.
You mean the Freezing bug is fixed with that version ? Are you sure ?

[backi]

@mimine

firefox nightly is 109.0: fixed with that version ? Are you sure ?

I run it on a daily Base........never encountered any freezing nor any other Problems.That`s my Experience.
Also Waterfox probably will run fine .
Why not just test it........what have you got to loose?

[wizard]

Firefox has been my browser of choice for many years and have not had freezing issues. I run Ublock Origin on all my browsers which stops a lot of streaming traffic. I also close the browser before suspending the system.

Maybe not related to freezing, but many years ago I had problems with both Firefox and Chromium spontaneously crashing. This was back in the days when 512mb of ram was considered adequate. I ran test on multiple computers with 512mb to 2gb of ram, browsers all would crash without warning. The fix turned out to be creating a small swap file, in my case a 100mb. Crashes stopped. Since then I always create at least a small swap file on all my Puppy computers.

wizard

[mimine]

Firefox has been my browser of choice for many years and have not had freezing issues. I run Ublock Origin on all my browsers which stops a lot of streaming traffic. I also close the browser before suspending the system.

Maybe not related to freezing, but many years ago I had problems with both Firefox and Chromium spontaneously crashing. This was back in the days when 512mb of ram was considered adequate. I ran test on multiple computers with 512mb to 2gb of ram, browsers all would crash without warning. The fix turned out to be creating a small swap file, in my case a 100mb. Crashes stopped. Since then I always create at least a small swap file on all my Puppy computers.

wizard

My PC has 6Gb RAM, that's not the problem.
Actually many people have had random freezing problems with Firefox. Dunno where it comes from and if it is solved or will be.
Other than that, Firefox would be excellent, as it is very stable and fast.