Firefox Stops and Locks Computer

[CaptGeorge]

I did a search on firefox here, but didn't find any help. Computer is Dell Vostro 1400. I have similar problem on daughter's Dell Vostro 1500. Any ideas? Both are running Bionic Puppy 32.

[Feek]

Hello,

here is a discussion about problems with Firefox:
viewtopic.php?f=159&t=1936&i=1

Read especially the bigpup's post with the link to mozilla's support. Sometimes the settings of the browser may solve the problems (e.g. turning off of the hardware acceleration)

[Clarity]

Hello @CaptGeorge

Are you running a SWAP, partition or file, when running your Puppy Linux? If not, you should!

If you are, try this in a terminal BEFORE Firefox attempt(s);

1. run "free" command and record what it says

2. Then on desktop start Firefox

3. Back in terminal after Firefox starts run free command again and record

4. Track the behavior of the system thru monitoring the free command

My past occurrences of a "lock" problem points to "out-of-RAM" situation and may be the same for you.

To ANYONE else,

• does anyone know of a logging routine for monitoring RAM?

• AND maybe with a feature to report dangerous rise in RAM utilitzation to the desktop user, too?

[williams2]

does anyone know of a logging routine for monitoring RAM?
AND maybe with a feature to report dangerous rise in RAM utilitzation to the desktop user, too?

Yes, earlyOOM works well. See viewtopic.php?f=105&t=2980

From the readme file:

earlyoom checks the amount of available memory and free swap up to 10
times a second (less often if there is a lot of free memory).
By default if both are below 10%, it will kill the largest process (highest `oom_score`).
The percentage value is configurable via command line arguments.

Code: Select all

./earlyoom
earlyoom v1.4-6-ga4021ae
mem total: 9823 MiB, swap total: 9823 MiB
sending SIGTERM when mem <= 10 % and swap <= 10 %,
         SIGKILL when mem <=  5 % and swap <=  5 %
mem avail:  5091 of  9823 MiB (51 %), swap free: 9823 of 9823 MiB (100 %)
mem avail:  5084 of  9823 MiB (51 %), swap free: 9823 of 9823 MiB (100 %)
mem avail:  5086 of  9823 MiB (51 %), swap free: 9823 of 9823 MiB (100 %)

[CaptGeorge]

Thanks for everyone's help. It appears my 2G memory is tight for streaming video. So I ordered 4G upgrade. Using free in terminal indicates that hardware acceleration saves memory usage so I don't think turning that off helps, but I'm still looking at it.

I ran into problems when I was streaming. Using free shows that memory usage increases over time while streaming although I don't understand why. I'll followup next week when I upgrade memory.

[boof]

thx for earlyoom. might be my salvation too. we'll see. i should know by tonight.

[CaptGeorge]

My memory upgrade won't be here for 4 or 5 days. However, I have continued testing memory usage in Firefox. I continued trying various "fixes" found on the internet.Here are some fixes I gathered from various sources which seem to have fixed the streaming problem.

Reduce Browser Cashe Memory
Type about:config in the Firefox address bar.
Right click on the windows and select New ► Integer.
Enter the Preference name as browser.cache.memory.capacity
Set maximum RAM that you allow Firefox to use in KB.
(I changed integer from -1 to 100000)

Delete content-prefs.sqlite file
Step 1: Click the menu icon on Mozilla Firefox enter the drop-down menu,
and select Help > More Troubleshooting Information.
Step 2: On the Application Basics page, click on Open Folder.
It will open a folder on your local device.
Step 3: Locate Content-prefs-SQLite and delete it

Enable Memory Minimization
Step 1: Write, About: Memory in the URL Address Bar
Step 2: You will see four boxes; click on “Minimize memory usage”.
Step 3:Once done, you will be informed that memory minimization is complete.

Content Process Limit Value
Step 1: Enter “About:Preferences” in the URL address
Step 2:Scroll down to “Performance” at the bottom and unselect “Use recommended performance Settings”
Step 3:Change the “Content Process Limits” to 1. The default is normally 8.

[mikeslr]

If you are not running portable-firefox, https://oldforum.puppylinux.com/viewtopic.php?t=112376 from /mnt/home do the following:

1. Open two file-manager Windows, one to /root the second to /mnt/home (or better yet a folder perhaps named 'mozilla-cache' on /mnt/home.
2. Left-Click Rox's "Eye" --or otherwise 'show hidden files' on both windows.
3. You will now see a folder named '.cache' in /root. Left-Click to enter it and you'll see a folder named '.mozilla'. Note the './dots' indicating hidden files, hence the reason for Left-Clicking Rox's Eye.
4. Left-PRESS, hold then drag the .mozilla folder from /root into /FOLDER/mnt/home and select MOVE from the popup menu.
5. Left-PRESS, hold then drag the .mozilla folder back into /root/.cache and select Link(relative) from the popup menu.
Don't forget to SAVE this change to your system.

cache is what websites install on your computer for their benefit, not yours, so that they don't have to transmit the same information again. It can quickly accumulate. It's default location on Puppys is in /root, which occupies memory; thus, reducing the amount of memory available to accomplish anything. The above procedure moves it out of RAM, but the symbolic link created enables firefox to write-to/read-from cache's location on /mnt/home.

Web-browsing portables such as firefox are configured to store cache in their own folder. So, if that folder is already on /mnt/home you don't have to do anything.

It still pays to manage cache such as by having firefox automatically delete it on shutdown and/or install the 'Clear Cache' addon and from time to time use it. Otherwise useless cache just keeps taking up space on your storage medium.

[CaptGeorge]

Thanks, Mike, that's good stuff to know. One good thing about Puppy Linux is I'm learning more about Puppy and Linux every day thanks to all you great people here!

I ran streaming news all day long and still had plenty of memory left late evening. That's good enough to watch streaming baseball games until I get my memory upgrade in a few days.

[CaptGeorge]

Installed extra memory and now have 4G in my old Dell Vostro 1400. Everything looks good and Fire Fox is working well.