Weeks of Firefox crashes, this morning Jammy "freezes" while in browser?

Folks:

Been running Jammy for awhile and it gets booted up once a week, and for weeks when I would launch FF it would open and then “crash” and the “crash report” window would open and I would “send the report” . . . and then it would ask, “Open FF?” or “quit FF?” and I would select “press play” and on relaunch FF would then behave normally.

This morning I booted FF . . . system did not respond very quickly . . . clicked it again and then I had two FF windows, closed the second one . . . was checking emails, tried to click on a link and nothing . . . I tried clicking around on other tabs . . . FF was “frozen” . . . . I had mouse function but the GUI was unresponsive . . . . In the past there would have been a FQ window that opened, saying “FF appears unresponsive would you like to FQ out of it?” . . . but today, nothing.

Menu would “highlight” when I moused over it but would not drop down or function . . . had to hit the power button to shut the machine down . . . .

I’d say that “Jammy doesn’t play well with FF” . . . and I have at least 8 other llnux OSs to compare it to . . . this “crashy Firefox” issue is “exclusive” to Lu Jammy.

BTW is “Kalamity Klam” . . . edition of Lubuntu available yet???

firefox - which package?

firefox is no longer a maintained deb package in jammy, with only the snap package getting security fixes & updates.

An rmadison firefox enquiry output will include

firefox | 98.0.1+build2-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 | focal-security | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, s390x
firefox | 98.0.1+build2-0ubuntu0.20.04.1 | focal-updates | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, s390x
firefox | 98.0.1+build2-0ubuntu0.21.10.1 | impish-security | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, s390x
firefox | 98.0.1+build2-0ubuntu0.21.10.1 | impish-updates | source, amd64, arm64, armhf, ppc64el, s390x
firefox | 1:1snap1-0ubuntu1 | jammy | source, amd64, arm64, armhf

where you’ll note the snap exchange package is the option now available.

The last deb package created for jammy was 97.0.1+build1-0ubuntu1 which you’ll note is outdated.

You didn’t say which package you’re using; if it’s a deb package it’s behind on security fixes and you should have converted to snap I’d suggest.

As for Ubuntu kk - the codename isn’t currently known, the release schedule has just gone up however the archive for it can’t get created until codename is known & launchpad bug is created announcing the code name & requesting archive be created. This normally occurs just after release of the current development release, ie. after jammy has become Ubuntu 22.04 LTS.

Note: I’m using Lubuntu/Ubuntu as equals; as they’re identical in regards the base system & codename/archives etc.

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Alrighty . . . thanks for the reply. I’m at work away from that machine right now, I’ll check that “rmadison firefox” command when I get back to it. W/o running that command, I’d say it is whatever “apt” has done, this install of Lubuntu goes back quite a ways and it’s been upgraded via sources.list edit. I’ve never specifically installed or messed with FF; it was the OEM browser and remains so . . . .

But it has been riven with “crashes” since we have hit “Jammy” . . . .

Thanks for the response on the KK . . . I just wanted to get my KK codename offering in on it . . . as part of my contribution to the system.

rmadison is a command I use primarily in support; letting me see what packages are available for different releases. My usage of it was intended to show the jammy release doesn’t have an up-to-date firefox package.

The command to see what you’re actually using will likely be


guiverc@d960-ubu2:~/uwn/issues/727$   apt-cache policy firefox
firefox:
  Installed: 1:1snap1-0ubuntu1
  Candidate: 1:1snap1-0ubuntu1
  Version table:
 *** 1:1snap1-0ubuntu1 500
        500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

though to view snap packages installed you can use

guiverc@d960-ubu2:~/uwn/issues/727$   snap list |grep firefox
firefox              98.0.1-2                    1115   latest/stable  mozilla*          -

FYI: I only used the grep to limit the output to what was useful here… I’d normally just snap list

I’ve not noticed any real changes; however the deb to snap transition has only just occurred for me (for you too, maybe I’ll return here with more in time #1), PLUS I’m using English only… and I’m aware some non-english language speakers/readers experience issues I don’t.

#1 I added this bit later; I remembered “Time to unblock the migration and deal with the fallout.” comment [on a bug report], and wonder if you’re experiencing an issue, but it’s still early & I maybe mixing two different issues

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OK, precerate the details on the commands to run . . . I’ll check it, prolly tomorrow.

I guess my question is “why isn’t FF up to date in Jammy?” . . . . But, in any event, this isn’t a “recent” problem, it’s a Jammy time-frame thing. I think I upgraded to Jammy as soon as it was ready to go.

English is the prime language for me as well . . . and FF is my prime browser across a bunch of linux installs.

After my last reply I remembered a quote from a Ubuntu dev so I’ve amended my prior reply to include that.

The largest change I’ve noticed with jammy with my browsers (my primary browser is firefox but for anything google related I only use chromium) seem to get regularly closed… I wrote about it here ie. the only change I’ve noticed is systemd-oomd shuts them down due for out of memory reasons…

It seemed to impact chromium more, which I gather was because it was snap… but I’ll have to wait and see if firefox is impacted equally again now given it’s snap package too.

FYI: A OOMd shutdown can cause it to freeze whilst the systemd-oomd decides what to kill, then it’ll kill the browser, with it disappearing off screen only late in the work… I’m using a 2009 dell desktop, thus it’s not exactly fast & I can get to see some of this occur in what is somewhat slow motion compared to a fast machine where it may appear as a single event. View your systemd journal (journalctl) to see if this is your issue…

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I checked your link over to the U-MATE forum . . . pretty sure it’s not a RAM thing . . . . In Lu, since it’s been around for a number of years I have a fair number of tabs open in FF, but that machine is '12 that has 16GB of RAM installed. In looking at various apps over the years I haven’t seen even OSX using over 4GB of RAM, even with the many open browser tabs . . . so there should be “plenty of RAM.”

I’ll look over the journalctl thingie as well, I have complained over on the list-serve about slow boot times for Lubuntu compared to my other linux installs and got replies that said, “that’s because we use systemd” . . . so far I can’t say I’m a “fan” of how that plays out on the system . . . .

So I ran the commands to check the FF version, saw that “snapd” wasn’t mentioned. Then I ran an apt dist-upgrade for “404 packages” rebooted and ran the checks again, and now it seems like “snapd” is mentioned?? After that upgrade I had to reboot out to Tumbleweed to update the bootloader and there I could use FF to check the Discourse post . . . . Back in Lubuntu and FF didn’t “crash” but the Discourse link just loaded a blank page??? So, Lu isn’t letting people get to the forum??? Also there was some issue with “copy/paste” function that wasn’t working in Jammy to get the data copied out of the terminal to email to be able to paste it here, etc. After the 404 package upgrade there was a crash report generated on “list-oem-metapackages” app . . . I added myself onto another bug that had “76 people affected” on it . . . .

I’m back now in TW and I’m making the post here in FF . . . .

$ apt-cache policy firefox
firefox:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 97.0.1+build1-0ubuntu1
Version table:
97.0.1+build1-0ubuntu1 500
500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
93.0+build1-0ubuntu3 -1
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

-pc:~$ snap list |grep firefox
firefox 98.0.1-2 1115 latest/stable/… mozilla* -

After 404 package upgrade, but still Lubuntu Discourse window will not load:


apt-cache policy firefox
firefox:
Installed: (none)
Candidate: 1:1snap1-0ubuntu1
Version table:
1:1snap1-0ubuntu1 500
500 http://archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu jammy/main amd64 Packages
93.0+build1-0ubuntu3 -1
100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

-pc:~$ snap list |grep firefox
firefox 98.0.1-2 1115 latest/stable/… mozilla*
```
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