Running Firefox v. 102.0 on Mint Mate 19.2. Last week or so F/F has been freezing up, more frequently last day or so, several times today. No response to input. Anyone else seeing this?
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Firefox
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I’m running 20.3 now (Cinnamon) and haven’t noticed anything. How’s the computer running otherwise – any non-browser related anomalies? Was there a 4.15 kernel update about a week ago? IIRC you also have Opera. If so, how’s that working?
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Everything offline looks to be okey-jake. Just now FF froze again, tried a known good mouse, no difference. Response seems to be erratic- cursor moves as directed, but clicks produce no response or the wrong response, hovering over an icon produces no action but the cursor arrow changes to the “hand” even when it shouldn’t. Haven’t tried Opera, but whenever FF freezes and I restart it, it functions normally. Next freeze, I’ll try Opera.
Just checked- yes that kernel update is installed.
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Just looked at the FF help site and there are 600-some hits for this issue. The first suggestion is settings>general>startup>check “open previous windows and tabs” which is not really a solution, but an interim strategy.
20 minutes later- froze again. Tried to open a second FF window, opened only partially, could not do anything with that window either.
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Hi @Slowpoke47 !
I’m using Windows, not Linux, BUT have been experiencing crashes on shutdown from FF 102 ever since upgrading to it last Wednesday or Thursday on one of my machines. The other machine with FF 102 doesn’t crash on shutdown, but it does hog up to 40% of CPU clock cycles while it shuts down and takes about 30 seconds to do so. This is not normal behavior.
On the machine that FF crashed on shutdown on, I wound up doing a refresh instead of an uninstall, and that took care of it for me, BUT I had to go in and reconfigure the about:config preferences I’d customized over the years. I got prompted for the refresh by the FF uninstall routine when I selected the uninstall option in Windows’ Control Panel.
Before doing the refresh, I was letting FF’s crash reporter gather the needed data and submit it to Mozilla, in the hopes they’d look at it and figure out a fix for it soon. I did this about 10 or 12 times, enough that I hope I got their attention.
SO, although I am not using Linux, and my copies of FF 102 aren’t freezing, I feel that your problem and mine may be somehow related, since they’re both FF 102.release versions.
Since your copy of FF is freezing, perhaps a refresh would help. BUT before proceeding, find a way to backup things like your bookmarks and your settings within the settings menus.
Why not backup your whole profile? Because, it could be very possible that your freezing problem with FF may be the result of a new behavior that’s programmed into FF that’s conflicting with one of the myriad of policies/settings in about:config. If that’s the case, trying to find the errant setting could be like looking for a needle in a haystack.
I know, that’s what I’ve been up to since Friday evening, and I still haven’t figured out which one it might have been, but as of now I’ve got a stable and secure version of FF 102 up and running as I type this.
As part of the refresh, FF’s installer DID save a copy of the old profile I was using at the time on my desktop. I plan to use that profile on the next version of FF that’s released to see if maybe something was fixed by Mozilla. If that turns out to be true, then I’ll be grateful to them and will continue using that profile again.
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I use FF only for financial stuff which means I don’t use it heavily and may not be seeing a problem because of that. I have noticed that FF will gum up and display erratic mouse behavior if Update Manager is checking for updates or if System Snapshots is making a scheduled snapshot. If I wait a couple minutes FF reverts to its normal behavior. That’s been happening before 102.0, though.
Do you see erratic behavior on any specific site or is it really random?
Change anything on your firewall lately?
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Freezes have been random. Only change is that Firewall is now enabled. Frequency of freezes is increasing, several over the course of today. Tomorrow I’ll be able to experiment, first run awhile with Firewall disabled and if FF still acts up, I’ll uninstall FF v.102 to see what might happen then.
Since Bob99 is seeing something similar, I’m comfortable that there isn’t a local hardware issue.
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I’m finding that there are widespread issues with FF v.102. My update history shows 2 FF entries from last week. I can highlight an entry in the history list, but can’t do anything with it
. Can I uninstall it and revert to the previous version?
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I don’t think you can remove any update from the history that shows in Update Manager. I just tried it and I can’t do anything with any of the history items.
FWIW I have the same 2 FF entries in history as you do (mine says Una instead of tricia but that’s just because I’m running 20.3 instead of 19.2)
You can delete FF by going to Software Manager and searching for Firefox. The first entry you see should have a check mark next to it (maybe not the first but up near the top of the list). Click on that and you should get a window with “Launch” and “Remove” button at the upper right.
Before you do this save you bookmarks, history, make note of extensions you have/want, etc.
Or, you could wait to see if FF issues an update like 102.0.1 in the near future and see if that fixes things.
Working from a probably hazy memory here, but you seem to have had issues with a few software installations in the last year(?) or so. Are the issues always on the same computer (are both your computers afflicted with the current FF issues?)? Maybe you are just having a string of bad computer luck, but it happens enough that it seems as though there might be something wrong with your hardware that may be causing dodgy installations. Flaky HDD/SSD, loose connection somewhere, etc. ?
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Or, you could wait to see if FF issues an update like 102.0.1 in the near future and see if that fixes things.
This is my first inclination. From elsewhere I have the idea that I’m not the only one with this problem. If I restart FF, the freeze problem is temporarily in abeyance. Also I do have Opera to fall back on. FF is the only place this glitch has appeared.
Working from a probably hazy memory here, but you seem to have had issues with a few software installations in the last year(?) or so.
Any issues such as you mention were most likely due to what some call “operator headspace.” Our other machine is a fairly new laptop, and I haven’t seen any freeze issue there.
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That would be my first inclination also.
I’m speculating here, but I wonder if the age of the computer has anything to do with it. My daily driver is a Dell Inspiron 3558 laptop with 4 GB RAM, 500 GB HDD, and 5th generation core i3 processor, purchased new in April 2016. It dual boots into Win 7. It’s getting a bit long in the tooth for Win 7, but Mint 19.2 and now 20.3, both with Cinnamon, have run almost flawlessly since Jan 2020 the only glitch being a kernel update about 2 years ago.
I also have 3 computers that are running 20.3 after running 19.2 after running some version of Ubuntu that I’ve now forgotten, going back to August of 2017. Every one of them shows some kind of minor irregularity. Could be a missing icon – a missing wifi icon even though wifi is functioning- a finicky touchpad, or even a flickering display when I scroll through a web page or document too quickly. The computers all were new in 2009. Two have 4 GB RAM, HDDs, one a Celeron procesor, one an old AMD Athlon, etc. They all tell me I don’t need any drivers and all tell me they are up to date. Every once in a while the logs show a core dump and tell me something has crashed, even though nothing seems to have crashed. I’ve reinstalled Mint on a couple of them to no avail. I’ve opened them up and checked some of the connections. I haven’t pursued it any further since I use them just for test machines and computers of last resort.
I realize these are just observations, but the old machines were heavily used for 8 or 9 years and went through a lot of on/off thermal expansion/contraction cycles so it’s possible something is a bit loose somewhere.
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I’m speculating here, but I wonder if the age of the computer has anything to do with it.
This thought has crossed my mind as well. This machine originally ran Vista and was new just as W7 was released. It’s a Dell Inspiron 1519 with pretty decent specs, for years sporadically used, as opposed to recent years when usage has been much increased. Early on, I bought and installed a second disk with 7 and abandoned Vista. And when 7 went under the bus, I replaced the old Vista HD with a new 1tb disk and installed Mint, which is now all we use. The W7 OS has no Internet access (disabled for security), and we haven’t opened it in years. There was recently a piece on the Ask Woody newsletter on the topic of when to replace a computer, and I concluded from that that the old horse still has some life in it. IIRC some time back I replaced the screen and the current, second keyboard is now somewhat long in the tooth. The cooling fan has also been replaced. The only (minor) thing that doesn’t work is the “on” pilot light for the display. All that said, I’m convinced that the freeze issue on FF is a FF problem, as it doesn’t occur offline or on Opera (seldom used). The onset corresponds to those FF updates.
There is another recent issue, though- the file-faxing operation that everyone helped me to deploy has started acting weirdly. I was about to reinstall the driver software using a fresh download, when I found that HP has updated it. This was just as the freeze issue began last week so I held off. I think this faxing operation is a complicated chore for the computer, and it’s possible that the newly odd behavior is an internal problem.
Bottom line- seems my best strategy is to get past the “freeze” problem if possible, then update the HP software. If there is still a problem with that operation, it may well be time for a new computer.
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FWIW, that’s probably what I would do, too, unless I was bored and just felt like tinkering. (But I’m not and I don’t.)
If you decide to go for a new computer, check out http://www.dellrefurbished.com. The deals are usually pretty good and if you’re patient sometimes you can get some exceptional buys. Even better for Linux users is that the Clearance section often has computers with no operating system on them. All the machines are refurbished to Dell Standards. I’ve purchased 2 Latitude e5450 laptops over the past couple years and they have performed flawlessly. Even the “B” grade cosmetic models show hardly any signs of wear.
Dell also has an outlet site that seems to offer a wider selection but offers mostly new (maybe very slightly used returns as well) machines, and so is more expensive. I’ve never purchased from them.
And no, I don’t own Dell stock.
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I was advised on the Mint forum to disable “use recommended performance settings” and “use hardware acceleration when available” as a workaround until the issue is resolved. Having done that, there have not as yet today been any freezes.
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Mozilla FTP releases have a downloadable full working package (not only the source) for Linux users. You may be able to troubleshoot — and even reinforce your conviction — by downloading some working older version of Firefox and running it. If you are willing to take this approach, this is the link for Mozilla FTP release repository (you can reach it by searching “firefox releases” as well):
https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/
Choose the version you were using before the upgrade. Then, choose system architecture (linux-i686 or linux-x86_64). After that, the language desired, and, finally, the tarball. This tarball has a working Firefox out of the box if system package requirements are already met.
If you already uninstalled any Firefox package from your system, reinstall it in order to make sure you will be able to run the tarball version provided.
Hope this helps.
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FF 102.0.1 is out, or is about to be released. Right on schedule. Sorry I couldn’t be of any help Slowpoke, but I usually wait about a week or more before I update it. I’m still using Mint 19.1. Alex has a report on FF 102.0.1. Hopefully it will fix the problems you’re experiencing.
Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's2 users thanked author for this post.
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Alex5723 over in the Firefox and Firefox ESR Updates topic has just posted that FF 102.0.1 is out. So it should be offered to Mint users in the next day or so.
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I usually wait about a week or more before I update it. I’m still using Mint 19.1.
I use that strategy as well, in case there are repercussions.
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I’ll keep an eye out for 102.0.1 and install it on one of test machines, run it a bit, and let you guys know if I notice anything odd.
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I saw this comment on Ghacks Tech News. This is why I wait at least a week before installing Firefox updates. Just thought I’d pass it on for what it may be worth.
“Has something changed from version 101 to Firefox 102, 102 seems to take almost the majority of the computers ram. Up to 80 to 90 percent when streaming or watching video. The computer starts lagging and becoming almost unresponsive. And restart is required relinquish the high memory usage. I don’t know if 102.0.1 fill fix it.”
Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's2 users thanked author for this post.
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Wow! Looks like a major stumble for FF. Glad I didn’t stand on my head trying to correct my freeze problem. I was advised on the Mint forum as follows: In the hamburger menu>settings>performance, uncheck “use recommended performance settings” and “use hardware acceleration when available” as an interim workaround. Did that yesterday and the computer has behaved all day today.
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I was advised on the Mint forum as follows: In the hamburger menu>settings>performance, uncheck “use recommended performance settings” and “use hardware acceleration when available” as an interim workaround. Did that yesterday and the computer has behaved all day today.
GREAT to hear that!! I tried earlier today to see if 102.0.1 solved my problem with the crash on shutdown, and it didn’t. BUT, I didn’t try the thing you were told on the Mint forum. I’ve read about that workaround helping with other snafus with FF in the somewhat distant past, so I’m going to try it myself to see if it works for me.
I’ll post back really soon with the results.
And I’m back! Well, IT WORKS, IT WORKS!!!
A note of the particulars is in order:
I went into my profile’s folder and removed the known good but new profile that I’d been modifying since last Friday the 1st, putting it in a separate folder just for it. With my profile’s folder now empty, I then filled it with the profile that had been giving me fits with the shutdown crashes. In other words, I swapped one set of profile folders, files and settings for another by simply swapping a set of files and folders out.
I then proceeded to start FF and go into the Settings>Performance and as indicated above by @Slowpoke47, I removed the check marks from the “use recommended performance settings” AND the “use hardware acceleration when available” boxes. I then went to about:blank to get a blank page in the browser and proceeded to clear the history by clicking on History>Clear Recent History and selecting all of the check boxes except “Site settings”; I also set the timeline in the drop-down box at the top of that little window to “Everything” which will bring up a warning about doing so. I ignored it because I wanted a clean start with NO “left-overs”.
Since I’d made the change to the performance settings while FF was running, it crashed as soon as I closed it. (I closed it by way of the “Exit” command on the browser’s “hamburger” menu). I allowed it to finish the crash and also allowed the crash reporter to do its job of collecting data about the crash and send the data to Mozilla. Why did it crash after I’d changed the settings…read on to find out just why!
I then restarted FF and after it had been up and running for about a minute, I repeated the sequence of going to a blank page and dumping the entire history. I checked to make sure the performance settings were still as I’d just set them, and they were. I then cleared the history one final time and closed the browser by using the “hamburger” menu’s item labeled, simply, “Exit”. This time, Firefox didn’t crash, but exited very quietly as it should. I repeated the process again just to make sure, and it closed gracefully once again with no crash.
So, just why did FF crash the first time I closed it after changing the performance settings, you ask? Well, I personally think that it’s because I changed the performance settings while FF was running, and it only reads those settings when it initially starts, so it was still using the hardware acceleration after I’d cleared the check box for it. It didn’t “know” not to use the recommended settings or not to use hardware acceleration until it started up the next time.
I’ll edit this post with final results of whether or not FF crashes when I close it after submitting this post.
One final edit: I did as I described above, closing FF after posting the revision above, and it didn’t crash, so the fix definitely works! Now, let’s see how long it takes Mozilla to fess up and fix it yet again.
How long until we see release 102.0.2 with a fix, or will it be incorporated into 103??
A big
to @Slowpoke47 for finding the fix on the Mint support forums!!3 users thanked author for this post.
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That was some nice sleuthing there.
Still running 102.0 and seeing various random quirks on some sites. In some cases, settings made on a site revert to default when FF is closed and reopened. Some familiar site configs are now “off.” On some sites, including this one, the page widths are truncated with no scroll bar to display the hidden content. Timing of these quirks seems to coincide with the 102.0 install.
I’m in no rush to install 102.0.1 if/when offered to Mint users.
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102.0.1 is being offered to me. I’ll try to get it installed tonight on one of my test machines, and see what happens – although I’m running Mint 20.3 and didn’t notice any problems with 102.0.
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I’ll let you know if my test machine blows up. But if you hear any unexpected explosions that may be it. :-))
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Just a minor update for you both @Slowpoke47 and @DrBonzo . As mentioned above in my first post, I have FF on two machines, and on one of them FF 102 wasn’t crashing at the close, but it WAS hogging CPU resources for a bit. Well, after changing the settings on that machine to not use recommended settings and not use hardware acceleration if available, it still hogs resources after shutting down, but for a shorter period of time.
That machine has another “problem” of sorts, in that the check box for “Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed” is currently greyed out and has been for some time. The box is also unchecked, BTW. Being greyed out prevents me from putting a check mark in the box. I have a feeling that being greyed out is due to a minuscule setting buried deep within the about:config file. BUT, this entire concept is a question for another forum/thread, NOT this one.
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The Firefox 102.0.1 update report says it has five bug fixes that it explains. Then it says that it has “Various Stability Fixes” too. Your guess is as good as mine on what they are. I’m still holding off and am still using FF 101.0.1.
Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's2 users thanked author for this post.
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@Charlie –
Yehbut there are several security bugs that are rated as “High” by Mozilla that are squashed in FF 102. You are right, though on just what those “various stability fixes” are in 102.0.1…nobody knows and no one is talking. Too bad, because it would be nice to know!
If you’re worried about crashes at shutdown or random freezes, you can grab a portable version of FF102.0.1 from portableapps.com or from sourceforge.net (go to the Portable Apps project page and click on the “Files” tab to see FF listed).
Once downloaded, it installs into its own completely separate directory so as not to disturb your existing installation of FF…it doesn’t even use your profile, it uses its own that you can customize to your own liking all the way up to and including tweaking the about:config settings!
The portable version would be a good way to test drive FF 102 before making the jump to it with your regular installation. One question, though, @Charlie : Do you run Windows or Linux? I don’t remember, so I’m asking. If you run Linux, then the portable apps thing is a complete non-starter, and I’ll be having the egg that I get off my face for dinner.
OK, enough of this as it doesn’t do much to address @Slowpoke47 ‘s concerns about FF 102.
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That portable version sounds like a good answer if Mozilla keeps messing up the regular Firefox! I’ve been hoping that maybe some others might have had problems with FF 102.
I mainly use Linux Mint 19.1 on an old Sony Vaio laptop. I also have and sometimes use Win 7, and I keep it updated so I can still go online on occasion. So the answer to your question is both Linux and Win 7.
Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's -
I mainly use Linux Mint 19.1 on an old Sony Vaio laptop. I also have and sometimes use Win 7, and I keep it updated so I can still go online on occasion. So the answer to your question is both Linux and Win 7.
Good, because I wound up having chicken for dinner cooked in an air fryer with no egg needed.
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Last night I installed 102.0.1 on my 3 old laptop test machines. I haven’t detected anything abnormal and the Logs show no crashes or other flaky behavior.
This was not what I would call heavy duty testing. On 2 machines I went to about 10 sites, quit, shut down the computer, started back up, started FF and went to another 10 sites. On the third machine I did that and also left FF open overnight. Came back to it a few minutes ago, and it everything was still fine went to a few more sites and left it open (as it is now and probably will be for another indeterminate number of hours).
So, no crashes, freeze-ups, snarky mouse/touchpad behavior, nothing odd or annoying (well they’re old so they’re always a bit annoying ’cause they’re just not as fast as I’m used to on my daily driver); all is well so far.
They’re all running Mint 20.3.
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Thanks for leading the charge. Sounds encouraging. Still, like Charlie, think I’ll hold off a few days. At least I’m starting to recognize some of the quirks. Other quirks affect only minor display aspects of a couple of sites (unfortunately, including my email) but I hope they will clear up when I finally go for 102.0.1.
Too late for me to follow Microfix’ advice below- but next time, hopefully I’ll remember.
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If you’d like to change to the ESR channel from the Release channel, I’m sure there’s a right way to do it and a wrong way to do it.
I’m fairly confident that the right way can be found out by asking right here in this thread just how to do it, and you’ll get responses from @Microfix et. al. about the ins and outs of doing the conversion from Release to ESR the right way. It might not even take that long!
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The computer with FF 102.0.1 running overnight is still fine after FF being open for about 20 straight hours with intermittent surfing. I just closed it, shut down the computer, started it, and opened FF again. Still not seeing anything unusual.
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That’s encouraging. Interesting that our other computer, with the same v.102.0 installed, has never acted up. FWIW, that machine, a relatively new HP laptop, has almost no added programs or saved files, just a handful of bookmarks, and is used mostly as a portable tv or for surfing online.
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Hard to know – at least for me – why software glitches on some computers but not others. I have 2 Dell Latitude e5450 computers that as far as I can tell have identical hardware, and were set up by me in exactly the same way. They both run Win 8.1 and each has been updated exactly the same way by me. And yet last night when I updated FF to 102.0.1, the update process was slightly different in that one of them showed an installation progress bar and the other didn’t. This has always been the case, BTW. But both are working fine with no hint of any glitches. There must be some difference(s) between the 2 computers either in hardware or software but I sure don’t know what those differences are.
On my 3 Linux test machines the only difference I noticed during the FF upgrade was in the amount of time required. But that always happens due to hardware differences.
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New releases of Firefox mainstream have always been plagued with something or other due to added functionality or bloat at .0 release. I usually skip new mainstream versions and hold off for a while.
Still using FF 91.11esr here and it works like a charm on both linux and windows.
At least by 2022-09-20 FF 102.3esr will be comfortable to use.
My test device seems ok on mainstream FF 102.01 so far..Windows - commercial by definition and now function...3 users thanked author for this post.
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Well, I took the bull by the horns and ran the 102.0.1 update on my Win 7 computer. I’ve gone on various websites, picked up and sent some email, and had no problems. Nothing is out of place and it looks and functions exactly the same. I haven’t done my Linux laptop yet, but am planning to, mainly because of the security updates. Will let you know how it goes with Linux.
Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's4 users thanked author for this post.
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I did the Linux Mint 19.1 Cinnamon Firefox 102.0.1 update today and it appears to be running okay. I’m hoping all stays good. I’ve got another SSD with Linux Mint 20 that I’ve still got to update too. Good luck Slowpoke, hopefully you’ll be able figure out what’s wrong with your setup.
Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's2 users thanked author for this post.
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Many thanks for your assistance and for sharing your wisdom and experience. Weekly backup just completed, so today seems like a good day to try the patch, since, at worst, I could revert to the previous config if all goes south. Grisly details to follow.
Edit: There are some reports on the Mint forum, where I also posted this issue, that v.102.0.1 is also causing problems. https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?p=2196882#p2196882
There is a suggestion for troubleshooting, but my confidence in my ability to follow that advice without shooting myself in the foot has as yet kept me from trying it.
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One thing I forgot to mention (because I do it almost automatically) is that I made a Timeshift restore point before updating to the latest FF 102. I saw on the Linux forum where someone had told you that was the only way to get back to FF 101.0.1. I’ve never had to use a restore point but nice to know it’s there.
Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's1 user thanked author for this post.
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I’ve never had to use a restore point but nice to know it’s there.
How do you know Timeshift actually works on your system then if you haven’t restored?
Windows - commercial by definition and now function...1 user thanked author for this post.
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Also I would try to save 200+ bookmarks, now organized into folders, but that might turn into another chore if I have to set those folders up again.
I’m not sure about the files, but I’ve never had any problem backing up (saving) all my bookmarks and the folders they’re in. Click Bookmarks – Manage Bookmarks – Import & Backup – Backup. Take careful note of where it saves the bookmarks.json file.
Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's1 user thanked author for this post.
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You can probably get a lot of opinions on what to do, but FWIW, this is what I’d do.
Hamburger/bookmarks/manage bookmarks/Import and Backup. At this point you have 2 options: 1) Backup, which will save bookmarks to a .json file that you can put on your desktop (or anywhere else you want), 2) Export bookmarks to html, a file you can also put on your desktop. With FF I usually use option 2) and it works well when it comes time to import them back into FF. I don’t usually care about history, so haven’t paid much attention to it, but history might be saved along with your bookmarks; just try it and see – you’ll be able to open the bookmarks html file in any browser.
Regarding FF itself, your problem is either Mozilla’s fault or it’s something going on with the FF installation on your computer. You only have control over the latter. I would want 102.0.1 on my machine. Otherwise you’ve got some security holes (well you always have security holes, but at least FF will be patched as much as possible). Go to Software Manager and search for Firefox. Probably the first entry will have a check mark next to it. Click it and you should see a window with the option to launch and remove. Click Remove and see if it will uninstall. Might take a while. If it does uninstall go to the FF site with another browser, download and install the latest offered version. You could also probably install it from Software Manager unless Software Manager is linked to FF. Hopefully the fresh installation will work – I’m thinking that somewhere along the line your current installation went funky. Then import your bookmarks from the html file you created earlier. You may have to set up whatever extensions you had.
I don’t have any experience with VeeAm, but if you go that route, still backup your bookmarks. Before you restore, note the date of your restore and then copy any files modified or created from that point forward to a stick. If you do it manually make folders on the stick that have the same names as the folders containing the files you’re copying to the stick, so you know where to put the files after your restoration. I don’t generally create or modify too many files so this fairly crude approach works for me. There is something called Backup Tool that you get to from the start menu, but I’ve never used it. VeeAm might also let you copy files created or modified since the date of the last VeeAm backup, thereby having the VeeAm backup HDD take the place of the stick.
There are probably more elegant ways to do all this using profile folders, etc. but I haven’t tried them.
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Thanks for the write-up, in terms I understand. Poking around further since my last post has shown that the situation now is the same as before I installed v.102.0.1 and coincides with the update to v.102.0. Starting over with a new download and installation of 102.0.1 does look like a good strategy.
One question re the bookmarks exported to html- Current config is a row of folders with sub-folders across the bookmarks toolbar, and the overflow in a column down the right side of the screen, displayed using the double > icon, far right on that toolbar. Do you know what config the imported bookmarks will have?
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I’ve imported bookmarks into FF a handful of times and when I have the bookmarks have looked exactly the same. So I’ll guess that the new FF installation will look the same as the old one. You may still need to redo any extensions you had. Of course, as they say, YMMV.
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If you go the VeeAm route, it’s probably best to save your bookmarks to a stick.
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Used Opera to download FF v.102.0.1. Shows in Downloads folder as 77.3 MB Tar archive. Used Backup Tool from main menu to save files and list of installed apps to a stick. Backed up bookmarks to html. Used Software Manager to remove FF and then to install. Also made a Libreoffice doc with the four site addresses that have been set to open when FF opens.
Software Manager operation, both remove and install took only a minute or less each to complete. Does that seem right? Launched FF from Software Manager and FF opened with all previous bookmarks, settings, add-ons in place, the only entries needed were the four site addresses mentioned above. Those four tabs are now divided between two open instances of FF.
Seems so far that the same irregularities as before are still there. I don’t think the FF download was used. Could the current FF installation actually be a clone of the old one?
Perhaps I should have restarted the computer before running the new install?
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Hey Slowpoke, sorry to hear that. I’m probably not the best one to be giving advice on this but I’m apparently the first one to see this post. This is what I would have done (which is just a variation on what you did): Once I backed up or exported all the bookmark and prefs. to files saved in download, I would have deleted the old Firefox completely. I have and use Bleachbit to clean out all FF crap but that’s probably not essential. Then I’d have re-booted.
Then I would have used Software Manager to download the correct new FF for your Linux Mate 19.2 system and let it install the new FF it had gotten. Then, before putting your prefs. and bookmarks back in, I’d check out a few websites just to see how things are. Like I said, I’m not the most knowledgeable person on troubleshooting Linux, but just thought I’d try to help as best I know. Good luck.
Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's2 users thanked author for this post.
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The Software Manager Remove and Install times of less than a minute seems fast to me. Did you get any message that the removal was completed successfully?
Right now I would trash the FF tarball, empty the trash and restart your computer. The restart may not be required but I know on a MAC, which runs an OS similar to Linux in some ways, the best way to make sure something is trashed is to move the item to Trash, remove that item from Trash, and restart the computer.
It sounds as though some version of FF is still installed. I’d try to get rid of it. I haven’t used Bleachbit, but it’s a viable option, and Charlie has just become our resident expert on it’s use. :-)). Otherwise try the Software Manager Remove option again and just let it sit there for 5 or 10 minutes after clicking on Remove. Grab a cup of coffee and watch the computer screen, any computer indicator lights you might have, and listen for variations in fan noise. Sounds silly/stupid, but you’re just trying to determine if your computer is actually doing anything. Sometimes it takes a while and sometimes it’s hard to tell. I was installing a kernel and firmware update yesterday and for a minute or so thought the computer had frozen, because the progress bar showed no progress. It finally kicked in and all was well. Do the stuff in this paragraph without any FF tarballs; i.e., do the first paragraph first.
When you’re convinced the Removal is done, restart the computer, then go back to Software Manager get to FF and click the install button, and grab another cup of coffee and watch.
Hopefully that will get you a good installation of FF. If it doesn’t, get rid of FF again, shutdown and restart, Go to the FF site and download the latest version and install it.
If none of that works, at least you’ll be wide awake for the rest of the day.
Seriously, if that doesn’t work, you can troubleshoot from the Synaptic Package Manager. Seems like you did this sort of thing once before fairly recently when you were having trouble getting a particular up date installed. Firefox shows as installed when I search for it in Synaptic Package Manager, and there are options to fix broken packages, remove, reinstall, etc. And actually, if you’re comfortable doing this again you could do this before all the stuff above.
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When I instructed Software Manager to remove the installed FF, FF was open to this thread. Upon that removal, it was still showing, and clicking the circular refresh icon, upper left, did in fact refresh that page. If FF were removed, I would have thought that could not happen. (This was before the attempted new install).
Any speculation on what would happen if I closed FF, removed the current FF install via Terminal, then installed the new file currently in the Downloads folder via Terminal?
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Exit FF, then Remove in Software Manager; Software Manager might not be able to remove an open program. And make sure you Exit, not just minimize a window.
Edit add: Terminal should work, just make sure FF is not running
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One thought that came to my mind when I noticed that you said that the same ol’ same ol’ was going on after allegedly removing and reinstalling FF, was that perhaps during the removal process (IF it indeed removed FF) was that your profile wasn’t removed at all but just left in place.
That scenario is indeed possible on a Windows box, so maybe it’s also possible on your Mint 19.2 box.
For now, I’d follow what @DrBonzo says in post 2461939 above, and completely wipe the installation by making sure FF isn’t running when you go to uninstall it and then making sure all directories where it’s been are either completely empty or not on your hard drive/SSD.
@DrBonzo – can you please refresh folks here with just where the FF profile is supposed to “hide” so that Slowpoke can go get it and hide it for now, and so that @Charlie can do the same if the need arises in the future?
@Slowpoke47 , the reason I said “hide” above is that I realize that you may wish to keep certain settings within your stored profile for future use, should the bug you’re currently experiencing get fixed in, say, FF103 or 104.1 user thanked author for this post.
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Here’s a link with profile info including how to find the profile:
The instructions work for finding your profile if you have Firefox open. I just tried them.
The instructions for finding your profile if you can’t open FF are for Ubuntu and need to be changed just a bit for Mint. Click the LM start icon (lower left corner), then click Places, and Home. In the new window select View and then check View Hidden Files (it might already be checked). Then look for the .mozilla folder and open it. Then open the firefox folder. My profile folder is called x56r0d95.default-release. I have another folder with an extension of .default, but that’s not my profile. That’s one way to get to the profile on Mint 20.3 Cinnamon. Things might be a bit different on 19.2 Mate. You might also have a file folder icon a few icons to the right of the LM start icon. Click that and you should also get to the Home folder.
The profile folder has a ton of mostly useful info in it, although I’m no expert on it; probably don’t know as much about it as I should.
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Wouldn’t be a bad idea to do 2 quick things. Run System Reports (LM start icon then System Reports). Could take a minute or 2, hopefully you’ll get a nice big checkmark, but if not you’ll know something is amiss with your system – and probably also what is amiss.
Also Run Driver Manager (LM start icon then Driver Manager). That’ll tell you if you need any drivers and which one or ones. This could also take a minute or 2. But for both you should see a spinning circle while it’s checking and a message when it’s done
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The Software Manager Remove and Install times of less than a minute seems fast to me. Did you get any message that the removal was completed successfully? Right now I would trash the FF tarball, empty the trash and restart your computer. The restart may not be required but I know on a MAC, which runs an OS similar to Linux in some ways, the best way to make sure something is trashed is to move the item to Trash, remove that item from Trash, and restart the computer.
Deleted (not trashed) the tarball, restarted computer. In Software Mgr, clicked “remove” button for FF. Again, less than 1 minute run time. Waited 10 min, Software Mgr offered “install.” FF tray icon still displayed. Restarted again, FF icon not shown in tray, FF not included in main menu. Software Mgr no longer had green check mark on FF entry and offers “install” button. Hovering cursor on button generated pop-up “not installed.”
Clicked “install”, ran about 2 minutes, then offered “launch” button.” Clicked launch, FF opened with same 4 tabs on home screen and all bookmarks showing as before. In Hamburger menu, all preferences unchanged. FF now added back into main menu and icon shows in tray, different location.
I think the system retained my (also, the only) profile. As for irregularities, those I can readily check seem to be unchanged. Font size in email app reverts to default (tiny) on restart, font size in hamburger>settings is much enlarged, as before. In FF versions before 102.0, the 4 tabs pinned to the home page loaded automatically when opening FF. Both before and after this latest effort with 102.0, only the leftmost tab loads and opens, the other 3 do not open unless selected. As for the freeze/hang problem, since it has been random, current status unknown.
AFAIK, others are having similar issues with 102.0 and 102.0.1. Could be my best move is to wait for yet another update from FF.
EDIT- freeze/hang issue still present. Hamburger>home>performance, both boxes to remain unchecked for now.
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Wouldn’t be a bad idea to do 2 quick things.
Our posts crossed. Will look at this right now.
EDIT- both System Reports and Driver Mgr reported back no problems.
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This is looking more and more like an issue on FF’s end (IMHO). But it might be worth a shot to do some troubleshooting from the Synaptic Package Manager I mentioned a few posts up, and IIRC you did when you had trouble getting an update to install a couple(?) months ago. Options like “Repair Selected Packages” (not sure that’s exactly the right phrase). You could also try removing and the installing FF, and there’s another option to just reinstall.
You could also try either removing your profile by saving it to a stick and then trashing it from your computer or by just renaming it. Either way should leave you with no effective profile and then see how FF behaves when you start it. If it works correctly, that would tell you there’s something wrong with your profile; then you’d just have to figure out what that something is. I think FF will generate a new profile but it won’t have much in it after only one start. If you want to get your old profile back just trash or rename the new profile and then name your old profile back to it’s original name (or copy it back to it’s proper folder from the stick if you had done that). Full disclosure: I’ve never done what I’ve just described with the profile. I can try it on one of my test machines probably later tonight. I’ll at least be able to tell you whether or not doing it totally or partially blows FF out of the water.
Third option, wait for the next FF update.
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I’ll take door #3. Since FF went screwy on updating to v.102.0, I’m of the opinion that it’s not a local issue. The screen hang has happened twice today since reinstalling FF, doesn’t matter whether those “performance” boxes mentioned above are checked or not.
IMHO chasing this further at this point will not bear fruit.
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Can’t argue with that. You shouldn’t have to wait too long. I think 103 should be out in early August and there might even be another smaller update before then.
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Well, in case you change your mind, don’t remove or rename your profile folder. I tried doing both and FF just gives you a message that your profile is missing and then won’t load. I had thought that maybe FF would generate a profile – after all it has to generate one the first time you use it, doesn’t it? Putting the profile folder back to its original place, or restoring the name back to its original, resulted in FF working as usual.
(I didn’t try any of my other brilliant ideas.)
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(I didn’t try any of my other brilliant ideas.)
Most scary indeed- maybe you should be adorned with a warning label!
Yeah, just kidding. Remember- Columbus took a chance too. Seriously, I plan to do basically nothing further on this issue yet, as unlike you, I don’t have a test machine. I’m not inclined to try anything more unless 1. it’s foolproof (hah!), or 2. I know how to reverse it. Yesterday FWIW I posted the sordid details of my problem on the Mozilla/Firefox forum. If it bears any fruit, I’ll post it here.
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There are some who say I am adorned with such a label.
I might try a couple other things. I have one test machine that I’m expecting to die any day; the display is fogged around the edges, the battery is dead (only runs when the charger is plugged in), the bottom gets almost too hot to touch, and the topmost layer on the touchpad is flaking off. And the thing is only 13 years old. But if it heads south permanently, it will have lived a productive life.
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After checking the warranty – it was for only a year, if you can believe that ;-)) – I fooled around a bit more and discovered something that might be useful.
I removed my profile folder from the .mozilla folder by dragging it to the desktop. Then I created a new folder in the .mozilla folder and gave the new folder the same name as my original profile folder that I had just dragged to the desktop. I left this new folder empty and then started Firefox. It took a bit longer than normal but it opened and gave me a screen welcoming me to FF. I looked in the new profile folder I had just made before starting FF and discovered that FF had basically made a new profile that appeared to be based on just this one start of FF. The new profile didn’t have any extensions , bookmarks, etc – basically just a fresh profile.
This was what I was hoping to accomplish with my previous attempt at removing the profile. This could be useful because if the next FF update fails to fix your issues, you will be able to rebuild a profile, by adding one extension, etc. at a time, and see where things head south. You’ll be able to import saved bookmarks from a stick, so if you don’t have too many extensions/add-ons, etc. you ought to be able to pretty much get back to your original FF set up. It will be a bit tedious but doable. If you need to do this make sure you’ve saved your bookmarks and write down what extension/add-ons/other settings you currently have so you can get it back the way you want it.
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Your “fooling around” much appreciated! In the meantime, I’m learning a little more about the “freeze” episodes- quitting and restarting FF when it freezes seems to reset functionality until the next freeze and picks up where it left off. Of course, any unsaved work- e.g. an email draft or unfinished forum post- is lost. The freezes typically happen after the browser’s being open for some time, so a defense strategy is to occasionally restart FF, especially just before that email draft.
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It sounds like that’s a workable situation, at least. You’ve probably mentioned this before, but FF is the only program that freezes, right?
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Yes, AFAIK. Local programs/files are not affected. No problem with Opera, but i hardly ever use it and never for any length of time.
EDIT- FF just froze twice within 10 min. Currently on Opera.
EDIT #2- turns out another problem with FF is that some sites do not display correctly. Found out by opening the same site on Opera.
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If you’re not comfortable using Opera and/or need FF to be stable, I’d be pretty tempted to try what I did last night. I would exit FF before dragging the profile folder to the Desktop. Then after making the new folder and leaving it empty, start FF. It will probably take longer than usual, but just see how it runs with the fresh new profile. Try going to a site that previously didn’t display correctly and leave FF running and see what happens. Just remember you won’t have any of your previous bookmarks, add-ons, extensions, etc., and I probably wouldn’t go to any mission critical websites. If it runs without issues, then something in your previous profile is not playing nice. If it still messes up, I’d think Mozilla needs to fix something.
And of course you can always put your old profile back (after removing the new one) if you want/need to.
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@slowpoke47, do you have extensions added to FF?
If so, try disabling them, it could possibly be an extension corruption.
If not, as you were. I need to have a look on a linux device with FFyour post indicating: EDIT #2- turns out another problem with FF is that some sites do not display correctly. Found out by opening the same site on Opera.
That’s because blink (opera) renders site differently to webkit (FF) don’t get drawn into it.
Windows - commercial by definition and now function...1 user thanked author for this post.
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The difference is that FF did not display the complete page. I was completing an order form which required scrolling down the page, FF cropped the scrolled section, omitting some data fields as well as the “submit” button. On Opera, everything was complete and I was able to submit the form.
EDIT- extensions disabled, restarted FF, no change in FF issues.
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If you’re not comfortable using Opera and/or need FF to be stable, I’d be pretty tempted to try what I did last night. I would exit FF before dragging the profile folder to the Desktop. Then after making the new folder and leaving it empty, start FF.
Not sure what you’re telling me to do here. Where (or what) is the profile folder?
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You can find your profile folder from this:
Here’s a link with profile info including how to find the profile:
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user-
data#w_how-do-i-find-my-profileThe instructions work for finding your profile if you have Firefox open. I
just tried them.The instructions for finding your profile if you can’t open FF are for
Ubuntu and need to be changed just a bit for Mint. Click the LM start icon
(lower left corner), then click Places, and Home. In the new window select
View and then check View Hidden Files (it might already be checked). Then
look for the .mozilla folder and open it. Then open the firefox folder. My
profile folder is called x56r0d95.default-release. I have another folder
with an extension of .default, but that’s not my profile. That’s one way
to get to the profile on Mint 20.3 Cinnamon. Things might be a bit
different on 19.2 Mate. You might also have a file folder icon a few icons
to the right of the LM start icon. Click that and you should also get to
the Home folder.So I find my profile folder from the above instructions, exit FF, drag the profile folder to my desktop, create a new folder in the same place my profile was before I moved it to the desktop, leave the new folder empty and then start FF. FF will create a new profile with no bookmarks, add-ons, extensions, etc. If FF runs correctly , you can start adding back in extensions, add-ons, etc.; this is kind of the opposite of what Microfix just suggested of deleting extensions one by one. Either way should let you hone in on whether there’s something about your profile that’s bothering FF.
Just make sure you pay attention to file names: your profile folder ends in “.default-release” (without the quotes) and so the new folder you make needs to end in that (and of course, the stuff to the left of the ‘dot’ needs to match your previous profile folder that you moved to the desktop).
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Had a look on LMDE5 (debian based linuxMint) and nothing jumps out here, Firefox 102.1 has been working fine. But, I get my firefox updates from the debian repos and not the mint ones which may or may not affect functionality, although I do remember having issues using the mozilla repos a while back where FFesr 99.10 froze for no apparent reason that i thought turned out to be an extension issue. I removed noscript and the issue was gone but, the issue reappeared hours later so I scrubbed FF and moved to the debian repos for Firefox and haven’t had an issue since.
This to me says there’s something different between debian/mint/ ubuntu FF, debian works for me so haven’t looked back. Mint changed something earlier this year with regards to firefox that didn’t agree with my device.Windows - commercial by definition and now function...2 users thanked author for this post.
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These FF errors are apparently not universal. In fact, we have two computers here running the same Mint Mate 19.2, same extensions, same everything, and the other one runs v.102.0.1 with no issues.
In theory I could deploy the most recent of the weekly backups (Veeam, on an external HD) taken before v. 102.0 and overwrite the local files from that backup with the current files. Bookmarks are saved to a html file. That would leave me with FF v.101.x. Not sure just how to get that done, but seems doable.
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I get my FF through Mint and have it running on 4 computers with no apparent problems, although I think @Slowpoke47 has said there are other folks with similar issues reporting on Mint forums.
Never having used VeeAm I don’t feel qualified to offer any instructions about using it to restore anything. So in my position and I wanted to try reinstalling FF, I think you’ve already tried that with Software Manager with inconclusive(?) results, and would open Synaptic Package Manager, search for Firefox and choose Reinstall and/or Repair Packages (might not be the correct wording, but close).
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If I understand everything you’re saying – in particular that you have control over the passwordless P/P sign in on the laptop using either FF or Opera but that on the desktop you have this control with Opera but not with FF – then, yes I agree its a problem with FF on your desktop. But I’m not sure we know whether the problem is FF’s fault, meaning that FF has somehow failed to make itself play nice with your particular desktop hardware, or whether something is wrong with the installation on your computer, which could be FF’s fault or it could be your computer’s fault.
IIRC you don’t get any system issues and you don’t get any driver needed messages. So if it’s FF’s fault all you can do is tell them what your issues are, and I think you’ve done that.
On the chance it’s your computer’s fault I would go to Synaptic Package Manager and search for Firefox. It should show you have FF installed (darkened check box), probably version 102.0.1. Select that entry. Then under Edit there’s an option to “fix broken packages”. Under Packages there’s an option to “mark for reinstallation”; if you choose this then click Apply, and FF will reinstall. I’d try “fix broken packages” first, and if that doesn’t fix issues try reinstallation. I think you’ve done this before when you were trying to get a certain update to install. I don’t think you’re going to brick your computer by doing any of this and I don’t think you’ll make things worse. I’ve done this before with other programs and not hurt anything. In one case it fixed some issues, in another it didn’t do anything useful but there was some other issue that was causing a problem (it was my misinterpretation of how some command was supposed to work!).
I might be able to try it with FF on my test machine tonight.
Edit Looks like there’s another FF entry that’s checked: firefox-locale-en, you can do the same for that, although I would think that if you reinstall FF the -locale entry would get reinstalled also.
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I was typing while you posted this. I’ll look at Synaptic, can’t hurt.
EDIT- just invoked Synaptic, can’t really say right off what corrections might have been made, but Synaptic showed 53 packages to be withheld and one to be activated, nothing to be downloaded. No restart called for. Extension icons, upper right, still AWOL. They remain activated, but in the past these icons were visible, which might mean I still have a defective FF installation. Also a few font sizes are too large or too small.
EDIT- FF still does the freeze/hang trick. Just reinstalled FF via Synaptic, no changes evident. Leaving it running to see if it freezes.
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Hearing from the Mozilla/Firefox site that some others are having the same hang/freeze issues, in all versions of Windows as well as Linux. One suggestion is to try a different FF release, presumably still v. 102.0.1
Still keep thinking that, at my skill level, the best move is to deploy the most recent backup that includes v. 101.x. But I’m still on shaky ground on overwriting local files in that backup using current files. Losing saved work since then would be a disaster. And I have current bookmarks saved on the desktop to a .html file, not sure how to proceed with that either.I did use Backup Tool to save local files and a list of installed apps to a stick, but since that was a week ago, if I went this route I’d do that over.
Is it possible to have more than one instance of FF on the same machine?
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The only 2 versions of FF I would touch are the first one on the list (which is what you’ve got) or the extended support release (which I’ve never dealt with although others here have, @microfix being one of those IIRC) I think the other versions are for those who want the very latest and probably tend to be buggy (uh, yeah, I know what you’re thinking).
I’m pretty sure it’s OK to have the regular and extended release version on the same computer; don’t know about having say 101 and 102.
you import your saved bookmarks once you have an installed version of FF; that’s straightforward and we can walk you through that.
Hopefully some others will weigh in some of these matters.
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@Microfix has instructions for installing an ESR version of FF from the terminal here:
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/how-do-i-switch-firefox-to-esr-on-linux-mint/I’m not sure how much you messed around with Synaptics Package Manager, but I did the Fix Broken Packages” and Mark for Reinstallation folowed by Reinstallation, and it’s pretty inocuous – looks pretty much like a normal software update through Update Manager. I don’t see that anything’s going to go wrong trying it.
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Hello Slowpoke47, I am that anonymous guy that pops in every few months. I see you are having troubles with Firefox. You have several good people here helping you (and a hello to Microfix).
I would suggest you look into the older but still supported version of firefox ESR which is 91.11. This 91.xx ESR version will be good until around september. The last update will be on 8-23-22. At which time you could roll-over to the newer 102.xx ESR, or the current version of firefox at that time.
I gave up on firefox over a year ago and went to Pale Moon. Firefox was causing too much troubles for me with RAM issues, maxing out my 4 gigs in only 5 or 6 websites opened. Then it would go to swap file and c r a w l at that point. After living with that for a year, and not seeing any hope with the new versions I moved away. I am very happy with Pale Moon. However be aware that the entire Internet is following Chrome lead.
I have used various distros of Linux, but I am not well versed in it, so someone else will have to guide you maybe DrBonzo.
Either I missed it or something, but I did not see what processor you are using nor the amount of RAM your PC has. You mentioned the “relatively new HP laptop” is OK but the desktop is acting up, so what are the desktop specs?
Good luck Slowpoke.
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Yesterday I reinstalled FF using Synaptic and left the computer running for several hours. During that time it didn’t freeze, but the various other errors persist. I think I’ve identified one error as site-specific because it happens on Opera as well, but I haven’t begun chasing it yet, still working on FF.
Several suggestions here and also on the Mozilla help forum on a next step. I’ll be reviewing them today and attempt to move forward.
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You can find your profile folder from this: Here’s a link with profile info including how to find the profile: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/profiles-where-firefox-stores-user- data#w_how-do-i-find-my-profile
This page is reasonably straightforward. signed into FF, tried to view profile as instructed, got this pop-up:
EDIT- Just opened profile on laptop, running same OS and same FF. Didn’t even have to log in, in fact, on the Mozilla page on the laptop, there was no option to log in. That page on the desktop had a sign-in box, but signing in didn’t allow opening the profile.
FF v.102.0.1 runs with no issues on the laptop.
If my goal is to get 102.0.1 running correctly on this machine, and I uninstall FF, download and reinstall it, the old profile will be lost, correct?
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I’m not sure what to make of all that.
Follow the instructions in the link above to get to your profile but instead of opening (or trying to) the Profile Directory, scroll down a bit to Profiles and click on About:Profiles, and tell us what you see.
If you follow those instructions on your laptop does it let you see (open) the profile?
On none of my Mint machines do I have a profile folder with a name that goes beyond “.default-release”; i.e., nothing like -1656931890132. Not sure what if anything that means. Does the laptop have a profile folder whose name ends in .default-release, or does it also have a long string of numbers at the end?
I posted another set of directions farther up in the same post that has the link you just used. Can you get to a profile folder that way?
If you uninstall FF and reinstall, FF will start to make it’s own new profile and that new profile won’t have your current profile information in it. You can save your current profile folder to a stick or desktop assuming its actually not corrupted as the pop-up perhaps indicates. You may be able to transfer some of the extensions, etc from that current profile to the new one – but I don’t know for sure. If you’ve saved your bookmarks separately to a stick or desktop as an html file you’ll be able to import those into your new FF installation assuming they are not corrupt (save your current bookmarks as an html file and then open that file with Opera to see that you’ve saved them)
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Thanks. Back at this tomorrow.
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Hello DrBonzo, you might want to have Slowpoke do these two items. First, I am not sure if I read this or not here, but has he tried starting firefox in its own “firefox safemode”?
Second, have him make a new firefox profile called “test” and see if the issues go away. If they do, then his normal profile maybe corrupted or improperly set-up.
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If you follow those instructions on your laptop does it let you see (open) the profile?
The profile opens on the laptop using the original path.
On the desktop, clicking on about:profiles generates this screen:
On this page, selecting any of the four highlighted “open directory” generates the same error message as before, posted earlier in the thread.1 user thanked author for this post.
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So you’ve got 2 profiles, neither of which you can open by clicking the “open Directory” buttons. You apparently have a corrupted – bad – profile, but try one other thing: see my next post below in reply to your “Stuck at square one…” post. I’m in a state of semi-flux at the moment so it may be an hour before I post.
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I think there was some talk about dragging his profile to the desktop and then creating an empty profile folder and seeing how FF ran.
Stuck at square one with this- where is the profile folder?
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Stuck at square one with this- where is the profile folder?
Let me help out a bit. Although I use Windows, I can see from your previous post (number 2465438) that your profile is located in the following directory: (I’m using > instead of the slash since this site handles slashes somewhat unpredictably)
home>steve>mozilla>firefox>ir0y6r1w.default-release-1656939890132
This path is directly from the image in the post I mentioned above. Go into that directory using your file explorer/file manager/the default app that you might use in Mint for managing files. Make sure to do it with Firefox completely closed and not in use.
If Mint doesn’t let you into that folder with FF closed and not running in any way, shape or form, then you might have permissions issues if that’s possible in the Mint ecosystem, or as @DrBonzo has stated above you might have a corrupted profile folder.
The random freezes you’re experiencing could very well be a side effect of corruption in your default profile folder, the one ending with the long 13 digit number.
If Mint’s file explorer won’t let you into that directory, post back here with whatever error occurs or error message you receive.
I strongly suggest what @DrBonzo has mentioned in earlier posts…get into that folder mentioned above and move all of the files and folders contained inside it to another location of your choosing. That will leave the profile’s folder in existence, but completely empty. Now, get out of it (the profile folder) and start FF back up. It might take FF more than a couple of moments to start because, based upon an experiment documented by @DrBonzo in a prior post in this thread, FF will be busy creating a new profile from scratch.
Once you have FF running with its newly created profile, take it for a “test drive” to see how long it goes without freezing using the new profile it created from scratch. If it doesn’t freeze, then that means that there’s a setting somewhere inside your profile that’s causing the freezes. Also, keep an eye out for the other anomalies you’ve mentioned above to see if they recur or not.
I hope this helps!
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Yesterday I reinstalled FF using Synaptic and left the computer running for several hours. During that time it didn’t freeze
This was too optimistic- screen freeze still randomly present.
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It’s right here below another reply above instead of down here at the bottom of the thread. No idea why it’s there, however, instead of down here.Never mind, had a momentary case of brain fog!
However, @DrBonzo did say in that post that it would be possibly an hour or a bit longer to post again.
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I was going to post much of what Bob99 said. In particular how to get to the Profile folder. See the File folder just to the left of your Terminal icon in the lower left? Open it. You should see a bunch of folders, but even if you do click View and then make sure the Show Hidden Files box is checked. Then open the .mozilla folder and then open the firefox folder. You should now see your profile folders, both the active one whose name ends in default-release followed by a long string of numbers, and the other one that’s not in use. Try to open the in-use profile folder. If you can’t right click on it and choose Properties and then click on the Permissions tab at the top. My Permissions tab at the top has an entry for Owner with my name after it. Below that is Folder Access with Create and Delete Files in the box. Everything else in the Properties Tab is either blank or “none”, and with these entries I can open my profile folder.
I would say that if your permissions are set like mine and you still can’t open the profile folder, then you have a corrupted profile.
But whether you have a corrupted profile or not you should do what Bob99 continues with about trying out a new profile generated by FF and see how that runs. If runs without freezing you need a new profile and you can start by importing your saved bookmarks into the one FF just generated. Then you’d need to set up the extensions and add-ons. I’ve never tried to import extensions or add-ons and I don’t even know if that’s possible, but unless you have a gazillion of them it shouldn’t be too bad to set them up.
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I think I’m getting a bit confused here. When you say “The working default-release folder opened readily…” are you talking about the default-release folder with the long string of numbers at the end of its name, and are you also saying that when you opened it you used the method starting with the folder icon to the left of the terminal icon – as opposed to trying to open it from FF and getting the message that the folder couldn’t be opened because of possible corruption?
If the answer to this awkward question is ‘yes’, then the folder may not be corrupted and you obviously have the proper permissions. But that also means that for some reason FF is having trouble opening it, so that in effect, you do have a corrupted profile.
Corrupted or not, I wouldn’t be in a hurry to get rid of anything – you never know what you might want/need. If you want to get rid of it save it to stick or your desktop, or wherever.
I think you just want to start FF with a new profile and see how it runs. You can do this in 2 ways.
1) Move the profile folder with the long string of digits at the end to your desktop and create a new empty folder with the same name as the profile folder you just moved in the same location where that profile folder had been. Start FF and let it go for a while, surf around and see if it freezes. If it appears to work, import your bookmarks and set up your extensions/addons
2)In your Aboutprofiles-.png screen shot above, see the Create new profile button? Click it and follow the prompts.
I would choose option 1) but that might just be me being me.
I don’t know how much hassle it will be setting up your old extensions, but it seems that perhaps at this point you may just be faced with doing that. Alternatively, you could try some of the troubleshooting methods that show in your screen shots like troubleshooting mode , starting in safe mode, restarting with add-ons disabled, etc. I’ve never had occasion to try any of those so at the moment I don’t know what will happen, which brings back to my choosing option 1).
Maybe the FF experts here can provide more insight.
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I think I’m getting a bit confused here. When you say “The working default-release folder opened readily…” are you talking about the default-release folder with the long string of numbers at the end of its name, and are you also saying that when you opened it you used the method starting with the folder icon to the left of the terminal icon – as opposed to trying to open it from FF and getting the message that the folder couldn’t be opened because of possible corruption?
Yep- from folders page, hidden files>mozilla>firefox (see s/shot). 4th item under FF- note “48 items folder.” This folder opens readily, and as mentioned, shows 12 subfolders and 36 files. FWIW, many of those files show “date last modified” as yesterday or today.
The title of this folder is identical to that shown using the path thru hamburger. Again FWIW, the laptop profile folder, which as mentioned, displays w/o problems, has close to double the number of items.Your suggestion #1 in the above quoted post seems like a good move. Will report back.
EDIT- closed FF, saved profile folder to desktop, set new folder in the tree under FF. System would not allow renaming, but did automatically add a new folder with the same name, first with 1 item, then 5, finally 38 items. Note that former (moved) folder has 48. FF settings have reverted to default, no bookmarks, of course, but looks like FF is still compromised.
Quick scroll thru settings menu shows options returned to default as far as I can tell. Various display errors still present. Freeze behavior as yet unknown, since it has been random. Overall assessment- in this machine, FF is still not running properly.
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OK, thanks. I think I’ve got it. I don’t understand why you can open the profile folder (48 item folder) going through the file system (as you did in the above screen shot) but can’t when you go through the hamburger menu.
I’m not surprised the new profile folder has fewer items than the old since there are no bookmarks in it yet and probably no add-ons or extensions. Also not surprised everything is set as default.
One other odd thing. You have another profile folder with a bunch of numbers at the end of its name (0 items created on July4) and another default-release folder (0 items, created March 16, no string of numbers at the end of its name). This is a long shot but you could try dragging them to your desktop and seeing how FF runs, but I wouldn’t do this until you see if FF freezes up with what you’ve already done.
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I wouldn’t do this until you see if FF freezes up with what you’ve already done.
That will likely be awhile, perhaps not even today. The last freeze happened after several hours’ runtime, but the time before that there was less than an hour between freezes. In the meantime, I know FF is still compromised in this machine because the other performance and display errors are still present.
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As an FYI regarding upcoming FF releases, from a post by @Microfix:
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/firefox-and-firefox-esr-updates/#post-2465701
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drbonzo and bob99 want to let you know this problem with firefox has already happened and been addressed as how to properly delete firefox from linux mint and how to examine folders in the mint forum only 4 months ago. a refresh of firefox so all will know. thanks.
Firefox removal protocol (resolved)
by Slowpoke47 » Mon Mar 14, 2022 4:44 pm
‘currently updated to v. 98.0. A few weeks ago, the previous version, 97.0.2, developed an error that has defied diagnosis, so my solution will be to remove it completely and replace it with a new copy downloaded from Mozilla.’ he did do a refresh of firefox, but could not find folders he was instructed to examine or delete.
the refresh of firefox does put the 13 digit numbers to the new profile. we tested this and proved it.To admin: if this can not be posted then please PM drbonzo and bob99 the details. at least post the 13 digits are from a firefox refresh so all will know. thanks.
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Can you please post link to this thread? Can’t seem to find it.
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Internet search didn’t turn up the link for me either.
Last night on a test machine I uninstalled FF 102.0.1 using Software Manager. Took just about a minute. It did not remove the .mozilla folder or anything inside that folder including the profile folder. I then reinstalled FF 102.0.1 using Software Manager; took about a minute. Started FF 102.0.1 and the same profile as was in use before the uninstall/install cycle was being used.
So, uninstalling (Remove) followed by installing won’t apparently shange the profile. After doing the above, I dragged the .mozilla file to the desktop, started FF and got a Welcome to FF screen, as well as a new .mozilla folder with a new profile.
So you can try updating to 103.0, but I don’t think it will do anything to your current profile, which IMO is questionable. I think you’ll need to remove 102 and then install 103 – as opposed to updating to 103 – and start 103 without a .mozilla folder. That probably means you’ll need to redo your add-ons/extensions and also import your saved bookmarks.
That’s how I see things at the moment. Perhaps an FF expert can chime in.
One possible slight hiccup. When I dragged the .mozilla folder to the desktop it didn’t appear on the desktop! It was in the desktop folder but I had to open the desktop folder and drag it to the desktop in order to see it.
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Well- no one seems to have a clear solution to this problem- here, the Mint forum, or the Mozilla forum. At this point, looks like it’s not worth chasing, since v. 103.0 is in the pipeline. And, considering what others have posted about buggy first releases, might not hurt to wait until the first group of patches for 103 is offered.
Here’s the link to that FF removal thread. For some reason, it brings you to the middle of the thread, but you can scroll either way to see it. This info (which as a Slowpoke I forgot about) may come in handy for fixing the current mess, and I bookmarked it for quick access.
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=369904&p=2152286#p2152286
Since the FF repair looks fruitless, I could use some tips on how to restore my bookmarks, currently saved on Desktop as .html file.
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I’ll read the link in a while. As far as bookmarks: hamburger menu, choose Bookmarks. At the bottom choose Manage Bookmarks. At the top of the new window, there should be an entry in the menu bar that says Import and Export (or maybe only Import and Backup if it’s a new installation or there are no bookmarks to export). Click that and then choose Import Bookmarks from HTML… You’ll get a window that will probably show you the bookmarks file you have on the desktop; otherwise you may have to manuever in that window to your desktop (use what I call the file bar near the top which probably has entries like Home, Desktop, etc.). Choose your saved bookmarks file and then Open (might say Import). Wait a few seconds and your bookmarks should be there in FF. I’ve done this at least a handful of times and my saved bookmarks have always ended up where they had been in the version of FF I had been using (typically using on a different computer and wanting to import bookmarks from one computer to another).
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This reply is a do-over, as this d… browser apparently ate the first one. In short, the Manage Bookmarks operation is somehow compromised, as it returns a message that the .html file type is not supported. I can open it in a browser window, and I can move the b/m’s manually, but the .html file itself is fubar, has about a third of the bookmarks, in list format, and repeats that third several times, other 2/3 missing in action. Time to consider my options…
Maybe I can somehow revert to the FF installation config before I refreshed it, or maybe my full-system backups include bookmarks. As far as I can tell, they’re not part of the current install.
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Can you open your saved bookmarks html file with Opera and check if all bookmarks that should be there actually are? If they are, then the html file should be good to go and should be importable to FF. If they are not, the FF is apparently messing up in saving (exporting) the bookmarks. Try exporting bookmarks to html again (you might be prompted to change the name of the file, since it will probably be the same name as the bookmarks html file you already have. Just to make sure you don’t lose anything, though, you might want to rename either the bookmarks html file you already have or rename the one you’re currently exporting – you should see a save as window). Then open this new bookmarks html file in Opera and see if what’s there is correct.
You can also save bookmarks to a .json file by going to hamburger, Bookmarks, Manage bookmarks, Import and backup, Backup… I’ve never done this, so I’m not sure what happens next. I’d assume you could import the Bookmarks json file into FF but I don’t know.
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The saved .html is the same when opened in Opera. When I did the save, I looked at that file but didn’t study it to see if every b/m was there. The bookmarks went away when I refreshed FF, nothing there now to save. Searching “bookmarks” on the files (repositories) page produces about 20 files called “jsonlz4 document”, all dated within this month, but I couldn’t find an app to open them- got error messages. They are each about 256 kb. Those files are probably the bookmarks. The further into this I go, the more compromised the browser seems to be.
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By “files (repositories) page” I assume you mean the window that opens when you click on the Files icon to the immediate left of the terminal icon in the lower left of your screen? When I click on Files icon I get a window with a bunch of folders among which is .mozilla. When open the .mozilla folder, then the firefox folder, then my profile folder, I see a window with a bookmarkbackups folder in it. Inside this last folder are some files ending with .jsonlz4, and I’m assuming these are the files you’re describing above? I can’t open those files either.
But when you are in FF when you go to Bookmarks from the hamburger, do you see your bookmarks? I still see my bookmarks even though I can’t open the above-mentioned .jsonlz4 files, and I can still save my bookmarks to an html file
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I’ve got those .jsonlz4 files too, and I just had to use them!!
Those files are the actual bookmark backups that have been made by Firefox. Each file is a different backup of your bookmarks. Select a file name that has a date in it as close as possible to the last few days and use it to restore your bookmarks within the “Manage Bookmarks” utility within Firefox, no external file manipulation needed!
Click on the “hamburger” menu to open it. Now click on “Bookmarks”. Now click on “Manage Bookmarks (it’ll probably be at the bottom of the list). That will bring up a window with the Bookmark manager that’s built into Firefox.
In that window, you should see a listing/item towards the top third of the window that says “Import and Backup” with a little “down arrow” (˅) next to it. Click that item and select “Restore”. That will bring up a list of bookmark backups that Firefox is aware of within your profile. If it doesn’t, then proceed with the following paragraph.
If there aren’t any backups listed using the procedure above, then after choosing the item labeled “Restore” in the previous paragraph, you should see an item labeled “Choose File…”. Selecting that will bring up a box that should allow you to navigate to the folder where you’re seeing all these files ending in “jsonlz4”. As mentioned above, try to select the file with the date in its name that’s closest to the current date as the file you want to restore your bookmarks from.
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Thanks- this more or less worked, with some intuitive guesses added- bear in mind that the current FF in this machine is compromised. Bottom line- bookmarks are (mostly) back.
Looks like v. 103.0 is not ready for prime time, just as with 102.0 before it. Not ready to go there. Seems safer to remove the current FF using the method linked earlier in the Mint forum and try a new v. 102.0.1 install.
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@Slowpoke47 and @DrBonzo –
Well, I updated to FF103 and it crashed upon closing again!! Had to replace profile with a known good backup profile I made back on July 6th. FF 103 now works just fine again. Seems like I’m now going to have to do that as a workaround to get FF up and running after any update.
Just wanted to let you know that there’s probably no fix in FF103, so beware that you’ll probably need a workaround of sorts.
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See the link to the Mint forum in my post https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/firefox-5/#post-2465932 above. I plan to purge the current FF install, download, and install anew, not update.
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Some minimal headway in between freezes and user missteps- searching “bookmarks” in directories (not “repositories”), as mentioned, generates a list of about 20 jsonlz4 files. These files are opened with “FF web browser.” Looks like the bookmarks saved to that .html file were as of Jan. 2020, not current bookmarks. Unknown why that happened.
Right-clicking one of those jsonlz4 files generated the familiar pop-up that asks what to do with it- in this case, save or open. I chose open, and FF produced a list of tabs that was likely one for each bookmark, so many that they didn’t begin to fit in the address bar. But a tactical error- I wasn’t quick enough to un-check the box for “do this every time…”, recovery may be possible via hamburger>general>applications, but in this machine FF is not behaving as expected.
Possible way forward- first order of business is bookmark recovery. Then, since FF 102.0.1 seems to be running ok in most cases, and installing 103 is at best a roll of the dice so far, I could follow the steps in the Mint forum link mentioned above, which worked in the past, to fully remove the current FF in this machine and replace it with a new and (hopefully) uncompromised installation of 102.0.1, then wait for the first round of updates (103.0.1?) to 103 before jumping into that pool.
EDIT- Bookmarks jsonlz4 file now downloaded and saved, but the only app I have found that actually opens it is FF, with the results above described.
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Edit to above post- seems like, with v. 103.0 now offered, a download of v. 102.0.1 is no longer available.
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Your strategy sounds good to me (not that I’ve been able to solve your problems). Save your bookmarks as best you can, both as an html file and a json file (the ones with lz4 in the name). Save them to a stick, to your desktop on your desktop and also put a copy on your laptop. Might even copy them to a stick and put it in your safe deposit box.
Then get rid of every bit of FF you can – the program itself plus all the other stuff that apparently just clicking “Remove” in Software manage doesn’t remove. It looks like the mint forum link gives the terminal commands to do this. Then install FF; if it was me I’d probably wait a week or so until 103.0.1 comes out. Hopefully that will start you off with a fresh profile that you can add your bookmarks to.
I don’t know how mission critical using FF on your desktop computer is, but you might want to consider setting things up on your laptop which seems newer and more reliable and/or less temperamental.
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I’d probably wait a week or so until 103.0.1 comes out. Hopefully that will start you off with a fresh profile that you can add your bookmarks to.
I agree. Doesn’t hurt to do the belt-and-suspenders thing. I think the key to success is to purge the old FF completely via those terminal commands, then download and install the new FF directly from Mozilla.
The json bookmark files are apparently local to this machine, since they come up using the directories page, but who knows if a clean removal will include them.
The laptop is mostly my wife’s computer. She uses it often, indoors and out, to get online. Preferences, apps, and such remain 99% untouched since the Mint install- a handful of b/m’s, a few tabs, that’s it. And if you remember, it was quite an ordeal getting that HPLIP driver package (now due for an update) mostly working in the desktop. Not looking to do that twice :-).
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@Slowpoke47, If you do decide to remove Firefox from LM19.2 via synaptics there are a couple of things worth noting to remove the profile completely (it doesn’t do it by default)Before re-installing FF.
1. Within the File Manager (nemo) goto View in the Filemenu (top) and make sure that ‘hidden files’ are visible (ticked)
2. Then within HOME folder navigate to:
(a) Config folder and nuke any Mozilla/firefox files within. THEN
(b) Local folder and do the same.
After that there will be no associations left with the problematic profile.Go back to number 1. and undo what was changed.(untick hidden files)
Then continue to Install Firefox with a fresh profile, import bookmarks etc..Windows - commercial by definition and now function...2 users thanked author for this post.
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Thanks, I value your advice. Looks like my best bet is to wait for the release of FF 103.0.1 before doing these steps.
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Your strategy sounds good to me. Save your bookmarks as best you can, both as an html file and a json file (the ones with lz4 in the name). Save them to a stick, to your desktop on your desktop and also put a copy on your laptop. Might even copy them to a stick and put it in your safe deposit box.
Bookmarks now restored to FF home screen. Previous files .html and .json deleted (not trashed) from system.
Hamburger>bookmarks>manage bookmarks>import and backup>export bookmarks to html>desktop generates a .html file on Desktop that consists of bookmarks from about 2 years ago, repeated several times, that file deleted from computer. Bookmarks also supposedly saved on stick as .json files, but as mentioned above, the only way to open that file is via FF which generates a multitude of tabs that will not open across the top of the screen. So I can’t actually confirm just what’s saved there.
The screen displayed using “manage bookmarks” shows in the tray as a FF screen named Library. My conclusion is that the old bookmarks pages deleted from this computer are still saved by FF. This could be a problem when I remove the current FF and replace it with the expected 103.0.1.
EDIT- Hamburger>history, deleted from history items related to bookmarks, tried “save bookmarks” sequence again, old bookmarks still saved to html.
EDIT- Just made another effort to view .json file saved to stick. This time text is displayed in a list format, not useful except to confirm that this is also the 2-year-old bookmarks.
Copied all bookmarks to a LibreOffice doc. Restoring from there if needed will be tedious, but at least I have them.
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If I understand correctly, you have bookmarks saved to an html file and a json file that are 2 years old and older, but none that are newer than 2 years old?
You have all your bookmarks available (whether they are older or newer than 2 years old) to you while you’re in FF?
You have all bookmarks (new and old) saved to a LibreOffice document? And they are in that document as links that work?
I think the answers to these questions are all ‘yes’, but tell me if I’m wrong. If I’m not wrong, then based on the apparent difficulty of saving all bookmarks (old or new) to either html or json format, I’d stop trying to do that. If all your links are in a LibreOffice document and the links work, then you’ve got the next best thing to having bookmarks in your browser. Once you get a properly function FF installed, just open the LibreOffice document and when you need a bookmark find it and open it. Of course try to import from an html or json file but if you can’t just use the LibreOffice document to build up your collection of bookmarks.
As far as “the old bookmarks pages deleted from this computer are still saved by FF. This could be a problem when I remove the current FF and replace it with the expected 103.0.1.” is concerned, that shouldn’t be a problem if you also nuke all FF files as suggested by @Microfix above and some of the replies in the Mint forum mentioned above
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If I understand correctly, you have bookmarks saved to an html file and a json file that are 2 years old and older, but none that are newer than 2 years old?
Those two efforts are now deleted from the computer, but FF probably remembers them. Any of those bookmarks that I wanted to keep are retained in the current list. Before I tried those two methods, I reviewed the entire list of bookmarks and deleted ones no longer needed.
You have all bookmarks (new and old) saved to a LibreOffice document? And they are in that document as links that work?
Yes. All current bookmarks are copied and pasted, in link format, with folders and subfolders retained, to a LO Writer doc. They are functional, just tested one. I have abandoned the html and json attempts, seems that this instance of FF is too compromised to complete the operations. My assumption is that, since LO is local to this machine, FF can’t reach them by default.
ust use the LibreOffice document to build up your collection of bookmarks.
I hope to do just that when I achieve a fully realized FF installation. I absolutely plan to do as Microfix advises. The only question I haven’t addressed yet, at this point slightly premature, has to do with acquiring the replacement FF file. I could download it with Opera, it uses the same local Downloads folder.
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You can download it with Opera. It will probably download as a tar.gz or something like that. I’d have to refresh my memory for how to deal with that.
I think @Microfix earlier in this topic or the mint forum you linked to have terminal commands for installing FF.
Or you can install it from the Software Manager or from Synaptic Package Manager. I’d probably pick the Software Manager. The other night I used Software Manager to Remove FF, then dragged the .mozilla file to the desktop, then installed FF (with Software Manager) and I got a Welcome to Firefox Screen that appeared to be a totally clean installation of FF – no bookmarks, history, extensions, add-ons, etc., which is what I think you want.
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The frustration around this compromised FF installation is deepened by not knowing exactly the extent of its erratic behavior, amply illustrated over the course of this thread. There are a few irregularities not even mentioned here that may or may not be caused by FF. Invoking either Timeshift or my preferred full-system backup, Veeam, has drawbacks if the intent is to revert to a previous and proven version of FF. I’m reminded that I went through a similar ordeal just four months ago trying to update to FF v.98. At this point, my best bet, as stated above, is to wait for the next bus- v.103.0.1- and meanwhile hold my breath. But a proactive solution comes to mind for the next time FF (or any other app) holds me hostage.
This machine currently runs Mint and Windows 7 on separate HDD’s. On initial boot-up, a choice between the two is provided. We no longer use W7 since Microsoft ended support for non-paying users. If I wipe the W7 HDD and install the current Mint OS, it would provide an escape hatch from a problem in one or the other OS and, in the case of FF, give me a means to revert to a previous version while not affecting any other apps, settings, etc.
Currently, the Mint OS provides access to W7 files, etc. without booting W7. If I had two Mint OS installed, I expect they would act similarly (expert verification?). Before I wiped W7 I would save any remaining data to the current Mint OS. Going forward, when updates were offered, I would install them in one system only at first, and if all seemed well, update the other OS. Yes, keeping two systems up to date (in leapfrog fashion) would be a little more effort, but the upside would be to avoid situations like the current mess. Of course, this plan would be defeated if FF were able to “bleed” from one OS to the other.
While we do have Opera on this machine, I am leery about using it to any degree as the extent of any telemetry- collecting of personal info- is unknown. What is known is that this sort of snooping is more rampant these days, and the sponsor of Opera is in a country whose monitoring of individuals is only recently becoming understood.
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There are other browsers out there. Brave and Vivaldi come to mind and there is a current topic comparing them right now on this site. I don’t know if either run on Linux, but a quick internet search should produce a list of Mint/Linux browsers.
Your strategy sounds good although I don’t consider myself expert enough to stamp it with a seal of approval. FWIW, I have one old test computer that has Mint 19.2 and 20.3 on it. I intentionally left 19.2 as a dual boot when I upgraded all my Linux machines to 20.3 (just in case!) This computer runs 20.3 just fine, but 19.2 is a bit dodgy even though it, too, was just fine when it was the only OS on the machine. I haven’t investigated this thoroughly but I think the issue is in the firmware/microcode updates that come along every so often. My thought is that those updates are in some sense hardware updates (I’m sure that’s technically wrong, but I’m not sure how to explain it) and I think they interact differently with 20.3 than with 19.2 and that’s a problem since there is only one set of hardware on my computer; I’m thinking one chip or processor, not number of hard drives. I would think, though, that 2 installations of 19.2 would not cause an issue.
One other thing to keep in mind: 19.2 goes end of support in April 2023, at which time you will want (need?) to move to 20 point something and by that time 21.something will probably be out (should be out in maybe a month?)
So you might consider moving to 20.3 now, which would give you support until April 2025 (I think).1 user thanked author for this post.
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One other thing to keep in mind: 19.2 goes end of support in April 2023, at which time you will want (need?) to move to 20 point something
I do have that in mind, and if I add a second Mint OS it would be the most recent flavor. When we started with 19.2 the plan was to update it when the 5-year support window closed.
Re FF, if I can get it to behave, I’d prefer to stick with the devil I know, warts and all. The other user here has only recently become more-or-less comfortable with FF, which runs w/o incident in the laptop, and I don’t want to confuse the issue. But if we abandon FF, I would change them all to something new.
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Experienced users on Mint forum are reporting the same freeze/hang issues with FF 103.0. See 3rd page of this thread.
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=376770&p=2207797#p2207797
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Hello Slowpoke47, I posted #2465140 above and I am making some other suggestions now.
I would highly suggest you look into using Firefox ESR on your PC. The ESR version is made for businesses and does not change, staying basically the same, for about a year. If you are looking for stability, go with ESR.
DrBonzo and Bob99 help me out here.
Slowpoke, it is like your determined to load the 103, but the “normal” release of Firefox always, ALWAYS has a change that could cause an issue. Look into ESR and maybe DrBonzo or Microfix can advise with the linux version.
I would look into the older but still supported version of Firefox ESR which is 91.11. This 91.xx ESR version will be good until around September. The last update will be on 8-23-22. At which time you could update to the newer 102.3 ESR. Once upgraded to 102.3 ESR you will be set for a year, only getting MINOR updates. By getting the older 91 ESR, you will have time for Mozilla to correct the current problem with “normal” release 102 and 103.
If you do NOT want to go to the older 91 ESR version then look at the newer 102.1 ESR currently out now.
https://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/firefox/releases/102.1.0esr/
Furthermore you never answered the following I asked:
… I did not see what processor you are using nor the amount of RAM your PC has. You mentioned the “relatively new HP laptop” is OK but the desktop is acting up, so what are the desktop specs?Good luck Slowpoke.
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ESR sounds like a good choice, but I am very hesitant to suggest it because
1) first and foremost, I have no experience with any ESR version, and
2) sometime around 8-23-2022 ESR 91 goes end of support, meaning folks would move to ESR 102. I assume ESR 102 is based on the “normal” FF 102 and it seems that the normal FF 102 is definitely causing problems for @Slowpoke47 – at the very least, normal FF 102 isn’t fixing @Slowpoke’s troubles. So it seems quite possible that if he went with ESR 91, there might be a month of trouble-free use followed by who knows what? More trouble?That’s just my 2 cents worth. Someone tell me if my reasoning is faulty.
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Mozilla has just come out with Firefox version 103.0.1 which “fixes a crash on Firefox shutdown caused by a bug in the audio manager.” It doesn’t say if this applies to all OS’es or just MS Windows. I’m also seeing complaints on Reddit about the UI font size being really big on version 103. No mention of that in the Mozilla 103.0.1 report. Anyone seeing this?
To me, this is getting to be a worry I don’t need every month!
Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's1 user thanked author for this post.
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FWIW I’ve installed FF103 on a Catalina iMAC, 2 Win 8.1, 1 Win 7, 1 Win 10, and 4 Mint 20.3 computers. Neither I nor the users of any of those machines has noticed much difference. Biggest difference seems to be in a couple of gmail accounts which now seem to have slightly different fonts and a slightly different color scheme, but other web sites don’t seem to be affected so it may just be a gmail thing.
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Probably should have said “updated”. The linux machines were all updated to 103.0 from 102.0.1 using Update Manager.
If I have time later tonight on a test machine I’ll remove 103 from Software Manager, drag the .mozilla folder to the desktop and fresh install 103 from Software Manager. I did this for 102.0.1 a few days ago and it went fine; FF just opened as though I was a first time user – gave me a “Welcome to FF” screen and didn’t have any bookmarks or history.
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Just did what I outlined above. A few comments:
Removing FF 103 in Software Manager (SM) leaves the .mozilla folder apparently untouched because when you install again from SM, the same old bookmarks and history follow along. In fact you’d be hard pressed to tell anything changed. One other note: after removal with SM, the FF icon is still in the lower left near the LM start icon; the FF icon does get removed from the menu you get using the LM start icon. A reboot removes the lower left FF icon.
Removing FF with SM and then dragging the .mozilla folder to the desktop and then installing FF with SM results in an apparently brand new installation with a new profile. The FF screen is a “Welcome to FF” and there are no bookmarks and only one item in History (the Welcome to FF page).
The above is just what happened when i did the same with 102.0.1 several days ago.
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I updated my Win 7 to 102 first and didn’t have any problems. Then I did my Linux Mint 19.1 laptop next and didn’t have any problems. They are both now updated to FF 102.0.1 and are both doing fine. See my posts #2459295 and #2459511.
I’m still holding off installing FF 103 or 103.0.1 because that’s the latest, but not necessarily the greatest update. So far I’ve only heard about 103 making fonts real big, and there is a fix for that if it’s needed.
Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's1 user thanked author for this post.
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@Slowpoke47, If you do decide to remove Firefox from LM19.2 via synaptics there are a couple of things worth noting to remove the profile completely (it doesn’t do it by default)Before re-installing FF.
1. Within the File Manager (nemo) goto View in the Filemenu (top) and make sure that ‘hidden files’ are visible (ticked)
2. Then within HOME folder navigate to:
(a) Config folder and nuke any Mozilla/firefox files within. THEN
(b) Local folder and do the same.
After that there will be no associations left with the problematic profile.Go back to number 1. and undo what was changed.(untick hidden files)
Then continue to Install Firefox with a fresh profile, import bookmarks etc..In list of hidden files, there is no folder named “home” and the folder named “config” has no entries named mozilla or firefox. But there is a folder named “mozilla”, see s/shot taken about a week ago of that folder expanded. The entry named “default release” with 45 items, if I understand correctly, is the profile.
I plan to uninstall FF via synaptic and come back to this tree and delete the files in the FF subfolder.
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Today’s effort-
Removed FF 102.0.1 via Synaptic- the main app and the .en app, which did not uninstall automatically. In “hidden files” went to .mozilla>firefox and deleted items seen in the s/shot above. Went to Software Mgr and selected FF, then “install”, pop-up said download failed. Restarted computer in case it was helpful. Back to Synaptic, installed FF 103.0.1 (the only choice) from there without incident including the language pkg. No tray icon, but a right click on the FF menu item generated the icon and a duplicate. No visible differences over previous 102.0.1 but “welcome” screen appeared on first opening and hamburger confirms 103.0.1 installed..
While going through hamburger to set preferences, FF froze as before. Closing/restarting FF gets it up and running, as before. FWIW- The names of the old profile folder (seen in the above s/shot) and the new one now in “hidden files” do not match.
Plan to continue reinstalling bookmarks, extensions, etc.
A parallel effort has been the wiping of the former W7 HDD, now empty. Plan is to d/l and install the newest Mint Mate, currently 21. In the past, I have disconnected the HDD that I don’t want altered to be sure the new OS goes where I want it. Crude but effective. Unknown whether this new OS on its own disk will avoid the freeze issue- stay tuned!
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Sounds like you’re doing the right things.
I’m not sure I would install Mint 21 just yet. It’s only been out just a short while and could still have some bugs. I would be very tempted to install Mint 20.3 instead. I’ve got 20.3 now and am waiting a month or maybe more before installing 21.
I’m curious about “freeze”. When FF freezes how are you closing FF? When FF freezes is it freezing for 5 seconds, 5 minutes, etc.? If you wait a minute or two does it unfreeze?
BTW when you click on the file folder icon right next to your terminal icon in the lower left, the window that opens is the Home folder and it should say “Home” at the very top. When I did what @Microfix suggested above, I didn’t find any remnants of FF anywhere but in the .mozilla file. If I understand correctly, that’s the case with you, too.
I’m not sure what to make of FF still freezing after the FF removal and subsequent fresh installation with a new profile. That indicates the profile isn’t the problem. Could be some hardware incompatibility but I’m not sure how to track that down. It would be of some interest to see what the specs of your computer are: SSD or HDD, amount of RAM, CPU. In Cinnamon click LM start icon and go to System Info; that will give you the basic information. Might not tell you if you’ve got an HDD or SSD but it will give you the size.
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Yes, we already know about brand new software packages- if 20.3 is the newest predecessor to 21, it’s likely a better bet for now.
When FF freezes, closing and reopening unlocks it. As for time, I haven’t waited multiple minutes, but it’s well longer than 5 sec.
In this system (Mate), that folder is not named “Home”- but I realized what Microfix meant.
Our menus are different, but this disk is a 1tb traditional type, not solid state, installed by me for this Mint OS. Storage used is called out at 6.7%. RAM is 4GB and processor is AMD 64 dual core Athlon 4400. Remember that this same equipment ran fine when on FF 101.x and not likely that 103 needs significantly more power.
Re bookmark re-install- since the only way I could save them was by pasting them to a doc, even though they work as links, the system won’t import them as bookmarks. So the only way I have found to do that is one at a time, as they won’t paste into the bookmark bar. Kinda tedious…
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1 – All of my computers are old.
2 – Never had a crash on Firefox shutdown.
Being 20 something in the 70's was so much better than being 70 something in the insane 20's1 user thanked author for this post.
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I’ve never had one on shutdown either. FF just randomly goes on strike until I restart it.
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I’m still curious how you shut down FF if the cursor is frozen.
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I’m not that clever. The cursor doesn’t freeze and the green “x” icon upper right is the only thing on the screen that is functional.
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OK . So the cursor (arrow) can still be moved with the mouse, it’s just that the only thing that responds to a mouse click is the green “X” box in the upper right.
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Yep
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FF 103.0.1 installed- some errors from previous version corrected, but random freezes still occur. Considering going this route and reverting to 101.x:
OTOH, I’m just about ready to install Mint Mate 20.3 on the now-wiped second HDD, the state of that FF install will provide some insight as to the source of the freeze issue in this installation.
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Might want to look at 2 things
1) I don’t remember if you’ve done this but if not look at System Monitor, Resources tab, and see if you’re gobbling up a bunch of your 4 GB memory and also if you’re doing a lot of swapping. (On Cinnamon, click on LM start icon and choose System Monitor). With 2 or 3 tabs of FF running (and nothing else)
I’d expect memory use of about 1.5 GB and little if any swapping.2) See if you have the packages listed under system requirements for Linux and particularly those under the last bullet talking about optimal performance. Chances are you’ve got them but it wouldn’t hurt to check with Synaptics Package Manager.
https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/103.0.1/system-requirements/I was just offered 103.0.1 yesterday, so I’d probably wait a day or 2 before installing it. If you decide to do a new Mint installation, you could probably do that now. If it’s 20.3, I’m pretty sure you won’t get 103.0.1 with the download, probably something like FF 95, and then be offered newer version(s) of FF through the update manager (as well as a bunch of other updates). Also, if this computer is the one that previously had trouble connecting to the internet, make sure you have your Panda wireless dongle.
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@slowpoke47 Just fyi – I am running linuxmint mate 20.3 without firefox issues but my specs are different than yours. I am running in a virtualbox environment allowing 4 G ram and my processor is an intel i7 and I allow 1 processor. I did a test install for you of a fresh version of linuxmint mate 20.3 and firefox was at version 95. That ought to get you back to not crashing for now at least. Good luck
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FWIW I ran FF 103.0 on Mint 20.3 Cinnamon last night for about 3+ hours on a test machine with 250 GB HDD, 4 GB memory, and an AMD Athlon Neo 64 bit single core processor. I had 3 tabs open and from time to time closed one or another and opened a different one, just trying to simulate some normal surfing.
No issues.
As an FYI, at one time I had an SSD on this machine, running Mint Cinnamon 19.2 and was amazed at how much faster it ran.
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Status report- Mate 20.3 installed and running on 2nd HDD. And as DrBonzo predicted, it includes FF 95.0.1. Haven’t yet set boot order- in fact, coward that I am, I disconnected the other HDD (Mate 19.2, with misbehaving FF) so there would be no chance the new install would displace that OS.
Once I reconnect it and button up the case, I’ll see what the default boot sequence is on restart, or whether I have to set it. When we had Mate 19.2 and Win7 in this machine, the Mint OS took over the boot sequence, displaying the UEFI menu and defaulting to Mint if no other choice was made.
Currently on 20.3, FF running for a couple of hours now, all is well, but waiting for a random freeze could be frustrating. I expect to keep the older system as default boot, the new one is basically bare of local files, etc, but I’ll let 20.3 run on FF and, in deference to the older version, I’ll stick to known sites.
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@Slowpoke47 and @DrBonzo –
Been busy these last few days at work, so just now getting back to the computer. I saw what @Charlie mentioned about 103.0.1 being released, and the fact that it claims to fix a crash on shutdown that has been caused by an audio routine in the browser.
Well, I installed 103.0.1 (updated to 103.0.1 from 103 via built-in updater as always) this past weekend when I got a minute and it behaved just fine with my newer profile that’s nice and locked down.
Just a couple of minutes ago, I swapped out the current profile for the problematic one I’d stashed in a safe place to see if the fix for the crash on shutdown due to a misbehaving audio routine in FF was also the solution for my crash on shutdown issue that I’d been experiencing with the older profile. Suffice it to say that no, it wasn’t. After swapping out the profiles, I started FF 103.0.1 and also started Task Mangler (Manager) in Windows. I used Task Manager to see that FF had indeed fully started and had at least 8 separate instances running, which it did. I then closed FF to see what would happen and, sure enough, FF’s entry in Task manager started hogging more and more system memory until getting to just over 2.7 gigs in total for all processes, at which time it crashed and triggered Mozilla’s crash reporter, which took copious notes as it always has. I told the crash reporter to send those notes off to Mozilla and to quit FF, which it did in very short order.
To help you out with one of the things it sounds like you might’ve been wondering about, FF’s memory usage while “idling”: Although my system is a 64 bit Windoze system, it has 16 gigs of system memory (RAM). When FF is up and running, but not displaying anything but a blank page with only one tab open, or AskWoody with it being on the only tab open, there are anywhere from 8 to 11 instances of FF running and the total amount of system memory in use by FF is around 320-350 megs, and no more. Goes to show that FF shouldn’t be too much of a resource hog, even if you’re running it on a lean and mean system with a “mere” 4 gigs of memory. I put the word mere in quotes because I remember being excited at my first white box PC that had a 386/33 DX processor and a whopping 4 megs of RAM back in 1993!
@Slowpoke47 , I also visited the thread you linked to above in the Mint forum for the FF freezing problem, and the moderator there had already done what we were suggesting here of wiping your old profile, installing FF from scratch and letting it make its own brand new profile. Unfortunately (as you know), they were unsuccessful in getting FF to behave, as they reported having the same random freezes that you’ve been experiencing after going through the above procedure.So, it makes me think that something in FF as of version 102 doesn’t play well with one of the binaries contained within Mint 19 or 20. Now, there’s gotta be a way of determining just who’s at fault…FF or Mint, but I have no idea how to prove just who’s “at fault”.
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I have no idea how to prove just who’s “at fault”.
Here’s a clue- this machine now dual boots Mate 19.2 and 20.3 on separate HDD’s, and on both systems there is a minor glitch in our email app (Fastmail) that showed up about a month ago. Happens on Opera as well. As of right now, v. 20.3 is running FF v. 95.0.1 and Mate 19.2 runs FF 103.0.1.
Currently working on “moving in” to 20.3- 122 updates offered including FF v.103.0.1, which I will not be installing.
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Well, about a month ago – July 1 to be precise – I went from FF101.0.1 to 102.0 on my 4 Mint 20.3 machines. (I update once a week, typically between Thursday night and Saturday morning).
That’s about the time you started having trouble and that coincided with your move to FF 102. But the fact that Opera presents the email glitch means it’s not entirely FF’s fault. I would say it’s Fastmail’s fault, or maybe even something wrong with your computer.
On June 19 I installed an “Intel microcode” update and on July 16, “linux Firmware”. I know you have an AMD chip but so do I on one of my test machines and it installed the same Intel Microcode update. There might be something in those updates that’s not playing nice with your computer (assuming you installed them).
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That email glitch happens on our laptop as well. Laptop has Mate 19.2. That glitch began about a month ago, but seems unrelated to FF. I think Fastmail and Mint 19.x and 20.x have developed a snag.
Re FF, the newly installed Mate 20.3 with FF 95.0.1 has been up for about 7 hours now with no hiccups. I’ll post some of the specifics of the FF issue tomorrow.
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Hello Bob99 and DrBonzo,
I saw that you tried the new FF 103.0.1 and for the most part it worked. But, when you replaced your old profile it failed again.
I would like to ask if you happen to have “Delete cookies and site data when Firefox is closed”? If you do you might try and uncheck that. If you don’t, then try using it and see what happens if you can, and see what happens.You mentioned, “hogging more and more system memory until getting to just over 2.7 gigs in total for all processes, at which time it crashed and triggered Mozilla’s crash reporter”.
This sounds much like the time mozilla was re-coding their “sanitation” scripts. “sanitation” is when firefox shuts down and cleans up all the leftovers files and data not needed. This was in the firefox 45 days and it crashed on me about 1/3 the time doing the same thing.
Eventually mozilla got it, but it was a very tough time then.The only advice I can give now is to recheck all of your settings in that profile and uncheck anything your truly do not need. Also, check your Add-ons or extensions. Do you need all that you ma have? If not, disable or remove them.
My fear with slowpoke is it may be an old AMD CPU issue. I am not being mean, but factual. It is possible that his older processor has been passed by with Firefox. If this IS the case, people with his processor will need to complain to mozilla Support and in the mozilla forums. If his problem disappears with the Mint 20.3 and uses FF 103.0.1, then the problem was Mint 19.2. DrBonzo is doing a fine job helping him.
DrBonzo, you said, “On June 19 I installed an “Intel microcode” update and on July 16, “linux Firmware”. I know you have an AMD chip but so do I on one of my test machines and it installed the same Intel Microcode update.” That is a good observation, and should be investigated.
Good Luck.
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For all that I’ve tried to solve for the crash on shutdown problem, I’m now convinced that my crash on shutdown problem is tied to the sheer number of files and folders in the now-defective (since FF102) profile. That number currently stands at 99.
The profile that I’m currently using, and which has been tweaked for both security and a decent amount of privacy, currently has only 46 files and folders in it.
I’m of the belief that starting with FF102, Mozilla tweaked the shutdown routine in such a way as to make the sanitization routine have a hard time with a profile with greater than a certain number of files or folders in a user’s profile. The sanitization routine is what “cleans up” by deleting files or folders that are supposed to be either zeroed out or just completely deleted from memory or a disk such as a HDD or SSD after a user shuts down the browser.
Although this may very well explain my issue’s conclusion, it doesn’t explain @Slowpoke47 ‘s (or anyone else’s) mysterious freezes that can only be solved by closing and restarting the browser. After reading everything that’s been tried, I’m of the belief that it’s a conflict between Mint 19.2 and up and FF102 and up.
I’ll admit, I like the idea presented in posts below this one that the problem may very well be that the freezes are caused by the somewhat older Athlon processor not being able to properly handle the newer code any more.
@Slowpoke47 , exactly which processor is in the desktop that contains the FF installation that’s been acting up since the release of 102? If your experience(s) with the miscreant FF can be duplicated by someone with a similarly-aged Athlon processor, then that may be the answer to your very irritating problem.Based upon the model number you mention for your laptop in your post just below this one, I was able to find that the processor for your laptop may very well be a much more modern Intel 8th generation Core® processor that should be very well equipped to handle the more modern code sets in use today.
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Here’s a snapshot of the current status:
Laptop is HP 8130U, 4GB RAM, 1tb HDD. Running Mate 19.2 and FF v. 102.0. The computer and browser both running w/o any issues.
Desktop is Dell Inspiron 1519, also 4GB RAM, 1 tb HDD running Mate 19.2 and FF 103.0.1 and second HDD, 360 GB, now running Mate 20.3 and FF v. 95.0.1. The 20.3 OS was just installed this past week. Before updating from FF v. 101.x about 6 weeks ago, this machine also ran w/o issues, including pre-loading of tabs mentioned below. Note that Mate 20.3 ran yesterday for about 8 or 9 hours without a hiccup.
Since updating the desktop from FF 101 in the desktop, the following errors have arisen. Important to stress that none of these errors were present before the FF update to v. 102.0.
The display freezes randomly, about 10 minutes to maybe 3 hours between freezes. During a freeze, the cursor is functional and I can close FF using the “X” icon, upper right. Restarting FF restores normal operation until the next freeze.
Some web pages do not display properly, leaving out (for example) parts of a form that I was to fill in. Various fonts display in the wrong sizes, typically larger.
The add-on icons no longer appear in the upper right, even though the add-ons themselves are activated.
Attempts to save bookmarks to .html or .json produced files with 3-year-old bookmarks that were deleted back then. They were listed in triplicate. I was unable to save the current bookmarks using either method over several tries.
Pages with tabs attached to home page do not load until the tab is selected. Before v. 102, they displayed instantly when clicked- i. e. they were already loaded. Note that the laptop, running v.102.0, loads these pages by default, but FF v.95 in the desktop does not. Perhaps there is a setting for this?
On any of the Invidious apps (similar to Youtube, video clips), many of the videos display an error message, cannot load… These pages open w/o problem on Opera and FF 95 (desktop) and FF 102 on laptop.
On the desktop, since updating from FF 101, a critical setting on Paypal regarding no-password login was apparently not recognized by the site. Using Opera, the setting was retained.
Seems to me that all the evidence points to a randomly occurring FF issue starting with v. 102.0, especially since others have reported similar problems within the same time frame.
A minor display issue in our email program is apparently not connected with FF because the error occurs in Opera as well. However, just to confuse the issue, it does not occur in FF v. 95, OS Mate 20.3.
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Thanks for the summary.
I agree that the issue seems to be with FF , but I also wonder if there might be other issues in play, especially since 6 weeks ago is about the time when you probably installed firmware. If you’re wondering why your other computer didn’t get affected by firmware (if that is in fact the issue) it could be as simple as it has different hardware. It looks like your Athlon 4400 was released in May 2006 (that’s for an Athlon X2 4400+, the closest I could find). That’s pretty old. No offense intended since I have some old hardware, too, some coming from 2009. But with old hardware it’s possible some new updates just don’t play nice with it, or in other words the software world has moved on, and everything at some point loses support. It may be time for a new – or different – computer, although I would continue with your current path with 20.3 before considering a new machine.
When FF freezes, does it ever unfreeze on it’s own? I’m wondering because on some of my machines, including my daily driver, Opera seems to freeze when Update manager goes out looking for updates or when Timeshift makes a system snapshot. Even the mouse/cursor will tend to lock up for as long as 5 minutes and then after the snapshot is made or the search for updates is finished things are right back to normal.
The other thing that happens on my daily driver is that as time goes on much of my 4 GB memory tends to get used, and the machine gets “gummy”. You can track memory usage with System Monitor.
Anyway, just a few thoughts. I would still continue with what you’re doing, at least for now.
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Next move will be to see if I can get FF 101 into both Mate OS. There is a bit of a hangup with the UEFI screen- while the blue setup screen recognizes the two HDD’s, the black screen doesn’t see the 20.3 disk (formerly W7) properly, tells me to press any key to continue if I select it. After that, it tells me that it is not a bootable disk, press any key to continue. With “any key” pressed, it boots 20.3. Not interested in jumping thru hoops on that account.
Not wholly averse to new hardware, but moving into a new machine seems somewhat daunting after my recent experiences. Just realized that I haven’t tried Opera re opening tabbed web pages as described above. I should do that.
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When FF freezes, does it ever unfreeze on it’s own?
No.
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As long as you can get it to boot into what you want, don’t mess with it.
Just in case it might matter, I should edit my statement about my daily driver getting gummy. What I meant by “…as time goes on…” is the longer the machine is running from a fresh boot the amount of memory being used slowly increases as does the amount of “swap”, both as indicated by System Monitor. When used memory gets to about 3.2 GB out of an indicated max of 3.8, the computer gets sluggish and the only way to speed things back up is a shutdown followed by a start.
As far as new or different computers go, IMHO, the powers that be have done a superb job of sucking the fun and enjoyment out of computing in general and setting computers up. Mint and Ubuntu are not bad but MS and Apple leave me with the impression they are trying to take every last penny from me.
Sounds like you have and/or want FF to open with several tabs. Hamburger/Settings/General and then Startup and Tabs might have what you’re looking for. Although I wonder if your freeze issue might go away if you set things up so only one tab opens on FF startup. I know that before 102 tabs were loaded, but I’m wondering if a microcode or firmware update messed with something.
Well, I’m just speculating, but hopefully your new 20.3 installation will get everything cleared up.
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System Monitor here shows light to moderate RAM use. This machine doesn’t slow down over the course of a session.
Re operating systems- couldn’t be happier to have ditched MS in favor of Linux. The basic difference between them is that MS is profit oriented, and Linux is user oriented. Having made my choice, I make regular donations to Mint.
Currently on our old OS- Mate 19.2- the one with the problem FF. Just now tried loading tabs onto Opera and restarting the computer. On reboot, opening Opera, those tabs on the home screen opened instantly, as FF used to do. More evidence against FF.
All evidence points to FF as the central problem, beginning with v. 102.0. Today’s effort will be to get back to v. 101.
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For those who asked, the spec I have for the desktop is AMD 64 X2 Athlon 4400. I have no specs for the laptop beyond what I’ve already posted.
My strategy so far has been to get FF 101.x installed in both Mate OS in the desktop to see what faults do or do not happen. As with any diagnosis, cyber or otherwise, the key is to isolate just one variable. While I have the FF tar file and extraction in the 20.3 OS, I have been unsuccessful in getting it installed via either Terminal or GUI. (re Terminal- can someone tell me what ‘operand’ means? several attempts have failed due to the lack of this element.) My plan has been to see if either 20.3 or 19.2 runs correctly on this older FF, and based on that finding, to determine a next step. Some fruitless hours there.
I hesitate to go the ESR route because, as DrBonzo points out, that support ends less than a month from now, and I could be back in the same boat then. Today a little more effort with that FF 101 install, but if unsuccessful, I can turn to Synaptic in the 20.3 OS, which, (thanks to help from Microfix) now is completely stripped of FF 95.x which came with the OS. Synaptic offers the current FF, 103.0.1, and trying it, in this dual-boot desktop, may reveal some insight.
In the interim, I’ve installed the Opera browser in 20.3 to restore Internet access.
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I’m not much of a terminal person but an “operand” is something that gets operated on. So in a terminal command its a thing (presumably a file, program, package, etc) that the command is doing something to (presumably something like install, remove, download, etc.).
Regarding using Synaptic to install 103.0.1, I’d say that at this point, go for it, what have you got to lose? You’ve got a fresh installation of 20.3 that seems to be running fine (I hesitate to say perfectly), and you’ve stripped everything pertaining to FF95 and any other instance of FF that may have snuck in against all odds; so you’ll have a fresh installation of 103.0.1, too
FWIW over the last couple days I’ve updated to 103.0.1 on 4 20.3 machines (and also a Win 7, 2 Win 8.1, and a Win 10 Home) with no issues of any kind.
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Earlier today I installed LM21.0 (22:04) Cinnamon on my test device to see what happens with firefox (as well as toy around with the OS, some nice enhancements made to apps and general OS environment) Tweaks made to suit that device, then online and ran mintupdater….
Firefox updated to 103.0.1 without issue along with multiple updates. Rebooted (kernel update) I then imported bookmarks and prefjs from another 103.0.1 then restarted firefox and went back online to install browser extensions ublock Origin and noscript.
Have been online for a few hours now using FF 103.0.1..no freezes whatsoever, it’s zipping along quite nicely.
Error logs: nothing to report and x-session-error logs clean as a whistle. (that’s a first! with LM, as I usually have to track down causes of errors and implement workarounds/fixes post installation)
The more I use this OS, the more I like it for an LTS, with the added bonus of support ’till 2027 (far better for that C2Duo/ 4Gb RAM/ SSD device than all the LM20’s) YDMV
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For those of us with but a small fraction of your experience, is the recommendation to avoid the “bare” version of an updated Linux OS and wait for the x.0.1 still the best bet?
Currently switching between Mate 19.2 and 20.3 trying to tease out clues re the freeze issue, still present on 19.2 running FF 103.0.1. At the moment, I’m running Mate 20.3, dual booted, same machine- two or three hours now without freezing, but a lack of a random symptom is not a true diagnosis.
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Regarding using Synaptic to install 103.0.1, I’d say that at this point, go for it, what have you got to lose?
My thought as well. The best observation I can reach here is that FF on the 19.2 side of this machine has some sort of bug- this same machine on the 20.3 side so far appears to run FF 103.0.1 without a hitch.
One possible solution would be to upgrade the 19.2 in this machine to the new 21.0 or 21.0.1 when released- hoping to get rid of whatever is wrong in 19.2.
Should it come to that I’ll likely need some hand holding to preserve the local files intact while dumping the 19.2 OS. Could be if I did that as an update the bug would migrate to the new system.
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At some point Mint will release instructions for upgrading to 21 from 20. IIRC I read that on their website. So It might be worth waiting for that.
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The OoM (Out-of-Memory) bug only affects new LM21.0 live media creation that HAS a workaround, which is why it’s an askwoody supersticky.
Existing LM 20.X users will be able to upgrade to LM21.0 very soon once the process has been tested and refined by Clem and the Linux Mint team.
@Slowpoke47, no need to worry about point 0 LM releases as fixes/ updates come quick on each Mint NPI as they have a good reputation to uphold.
mozilla mainstream browsers however, are a different story…no need to get confused between themWindows - commercial by definition and now function...2 users thanked author for this post.
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I’m hoping to wind up in this machine dual booting Mint 20.3, now installed and seemingly 100% and on the other disk the Mint 21 OS. That will actually be an upgrade from the 19.2 that has the FF freeze problem. When completed, Mint 21 will be the daily driver and 20.3 the safety net.
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That sounds like a reasonable solution. If you do this, save your 19.2 files to a stick using the Backup Tool or just do it manually. Make some notes to make sure you get the files back where you want them in 21.X. Then I would do a clean installation from an installation stick. That will wipe out everything on the 19.2 side of your computer and result in a truly fresh installation of 21.X.
Not to be overly pessimistic, but we still don’t know what caused your FF issues, so there is a possibility that your current 19.2 disk is bad and that FF and 21.X won’t work properly on the 19.2 side. But if that happens, at least you will have discovered where the issues came from. And you’ll still have a good 20.3 installation.
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One possible solution would be to upgrade the 19.2 in this machine to the new 21.0 or 21.0.1 when released- hoping to get rid of whatever is wrong in 19.2.
Well, 21 has been released, but there are some gotchas/caveats. See the following thread from @Microfix for details: https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/linuxmint-21-warning/
Sounds like, for the moment, you might be better off waiting for something a little higher than 21.0.
On a separate note, it’s good to hear that, for now, you haven’t had a FF103.0.1 freeze on 20.3. If you haven’t done so already, see if its possible to migrate your bookmarks from the freeze-prone installation on 19.2 into the FF installation on 20.3.
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Hello Slowpoke, While you are doing a good job in trying to diagnose the cause, my question is what is going to be your solution? Let’s say you prove that firefox 102 caused this, and that 101 works fine, and the issue is still happening in the current 103. What is your solution going to be?
Are you going to stay with 101? Are you going to test every new version that comes out and go back to 101 if it fails?
Are you going to turn off Hardware Acceleration and keep it that way?
Are you going to go to Opera or Chrome and live with those? You could try Pale Moon.
You should to consider filing a Mozilla bug report with all this diagnosis you have been doing.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/createaccount.cgi
Let them know the problem started with 102 and is still current. See if this is a bug (regression) or a new addition to 102 that causes your computer to freeze. Once it is acknowledged your issue is indeed a bug, the mozilla team will investigate why it is happening.
So, unless you have a clear plan for the future with another browser, submit a bug report and see if mozilla can fix it for you.
Good luck.
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My preferred solution, posted above, will be to go for a clean install of Mint 21.0.1 when released. Currently have Opera as a fallback browser on both systems and it’s nowhere nearly as functional as FF- plus, Chinese ownership makes me nervous (see the TikTok mess).
I may send a report to FF after reviewing my notes, thanks for the link.
Pleased to say that this “old decrepit” machine has now run FF 103.0.1 glitch free for several hours on the Mate 20.3 OS. (FWIW, I’m old and decrepit too)
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see if its possible to migrate your bookmarks from the freeze-prone installation on 19.2 into the FF installation on 20.3.
Already done, imported from stick. But Bookmarks Manager couldn’t find the .html file with those same bookmarks. A win for the belt-and-suspenders approach
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Already done, imported from stick. But Bookmarks Manager couldn’t find the .html file with those same bookmarks. A win for the belt-and-suspenders approach
Yay, even more good news! So, it sounds like the only thing left for you to do, if you haven’t started it already, is to slowly start changing any preferences you feel the need to for privacy and/or security within the about:config settings page.
I mentioned slowly above because when I did it as part of my “repair” of the crash on shutdown, I changed a few (5 or 6) at a time and saw how things went. If they went well, I then proceeded to another set of preferences to change them to my liking. If you do indeed do this, please make a note of the changes you make each time so that if a group then suddenly makes FF freeze, you can back out the last set one preference at a time and see if FF no longer freezes. Once it doesn’t freeze, you know that the last preference you changed back from where you had it was the one that caused the freeze. You can then decide if you can do without that particular preference being set to you liking.
I sincerely hope if you do make any changes within the about:config page settings that NONE of them affect your FF installation in a negative way. After all, you’ve got a fairly clean installation going for you now that should work well into the future.
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I will second what @Bob99 says , especially about going slowly with any changes. It might be a pain in the neck, but I’d do one change at a time, waiting for however long you think is appropriate to see if FF freezes or otherwise misbehaves. I would also keep a logbook and record exactly everything you do so you know just what to undo to get back to a working state.
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That sounds like a reasonable solution. If you do this, save your 19.2 files to a stick using the Backup Tool or just do it manually. Make some notes to make sure you get the files back where you want them in 21.X. Then I would do a clean installation from an installation stick. That will wipe out everything on the 19.2 side of your computer and result in a truly fresh installation of 21.X.
My thoughts exactly. And Microfix posted what appears to be a bug-free experience with 21, so I’m not going to wait for a followup .0.1 update. And any operations, of course, will use the apparently clean 20.3 disk.
If there is still a problem, the disk currently running 19.2 must be at issue and I’ll replace it- again the basic troubleshooting principle of reducing the variables to one.
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Well… some unfortunate news to report. Just now online using the Mate 20.3 OS and FF 103.0.1. Couple of hours in, had a screen freeze just like those in Mate 19.2, unfrozen by reopening FF. As mentioned earlier, this is the other disk in this machine. So much for previous theories.
EDIT- Discovered that System Monitor continues the traces when minimized. Opening additional tabs in FF causes CPU usage to temporarily max out, then go down to ~15% or less. Same when posting this text. Is this normal? Bear in mind that both disks are running whenever the computer is booted.
FURTHER EDIT- CPU usage does not always spike under above conditions. But after a while FF was very slow to respond to mouse input to change tabs, also cursor inappropriately showing hand icon instead of arrow. Mouse input within a tab is likewise very slow. Closing and reopening FF corrects these errors. Yesterday FF ran without incident for several hours here in Mate 20.3.
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On my daily driver my CPU usage spikes in the same way as you describe, so I think it’s normal.
I don’t get freezes, but if I leave my computer on for a few days surfing will gradually get slower, and I’ll reach a point where the mouse is sluggish. This behavior correlates with an increase in memory use and swap over time as monitored in System Monitor. Once memory use gets up around 3.2 out of 3.8 GB and Swap gets up around 600 MB, I need to shut down the browser(s), then the computer, do a fresh boot and then I’m good to go. I’m not sure why the memory use increases over time, perhaps 4 GB just isn’t enough anymore to handle graphic laden websites.
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I have noticed that Mate 20.3 is somewhat faster than 19.2 which to me indicates fewer resources needed. But it’s odd that these symptoms should come up today after all day online yesterday w/o issues. This points me back to some sort of FF issue.
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How are the other anomalies you were dealing with in FF in 19.2? Have they been fixed in FF and 20.3?
Might be time to submit a help ticket to FF as suggested by win7user.
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Some appear to be corrected, different ones in the two systems.
I was going to do that anyway, but now there’s more incentive.
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darn it! sorry to read that slowpoke47
A different plan of attack..comparison.
As you prefer to use a gecko browser (mozilla based) over webkit (chromium based) and like online privacy, install Librewolf.Claims to have more privacy than mainstream firefox at defaults (it is) with an integrated ublock origin and will import your existing .json bookmarks without fuss with a 3 day delay to mozilla updates. How bad can that be?
Homepage:
https://librewolf.net/Installation instructions for Mint/ Debian on LM20.3 (LM19.2 not supported):
https://librewolf.net/installation/debian/Try it alongside firefox on LM20.3 and see if the freezing issue persists
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Thanks for that info, I’ll do that. My objection to chromium- is that Google’s?- is regarding telemetry.
Still planning to nuke 19.2 in favor of 21.
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Yeah looking at those requirements for librewolf, ia a sign that the LM19.x series is no longer in favor and drifting into the sunset. I think your doing the right thing moving onto LM20.3 with LM21 on the flipside. Nice failsafe setup
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I think Chrome is Google’s version of Chromium. Chromium is open source and probably little if any telemetry and it shouldn’t be under any control of any kind from Google. Chrome will have Google’s footprint, handprint, fingerprints, etc. all over it. I don’t know much about Chromium, although it looks like you can get it from Software Manager.
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and in the ‘software manager’ it can stay!
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Hello Slowpoke, you have done a very good job in diagnosing your issue. Sorry to hear it froze again.
Since it is a new and supported version of Mint, and it is the newest Firefox, I HIGHLY suggest you file a Mozilla Bug report and try to get the Mozilla team to investigate why this is happening to you and possibly others with your type of hardware.
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/createaccount.cgi
It could be your CPU or your video card causing this strange freeze.
Slowpoke you also said, “20.3 is somewhat faster than 19.2 which to me indicates fewer resources needed”. That could be, but it also nay be the new 20.3 is more resource efficient (they eliminated some wasted or unneeded code).
Keep at it. You are doing good.
DrBonzo, you said, “perhaps 4 GB just isn’t enough anymore to handle graphic laden websites.” I agree with you. My feeling is, “if you have 16 gigs of RAM, then firefox runs great.
Good luck Slowpoke.
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Report filed w/ the entire laundry list of errors, see previous post this thread.
https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/firefox-5/#post-24678671 user thanked author for this post.
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Insert each line one at a time into the terminal then press [Enter]
wget -O- https://deb.librewolf.net/keyring.gpg | sudo gpg --dearmor -o /usr/share/keyrings/librewolf.gpg
sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/librewolf.sources
sudo apt update
sudo apt install librewolf -y
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Much appreciated! Have to get back to this tomorrow, running late for an audience with the Queen…
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Hello Slowpoke,
This is to let you and others here know that a similar bug was posted at Mozilla Bug Reporting number 1781167.
“Firefox window randomly freeze”
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1781167Also, I think your Dell is a 519 model not a 1519 model. Please confirm.
Good luck on a Mozilla solution.
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Hello Slowpoke and others,
Here is another Mozilla Bug Report that is similar to what you have mentioned. The Firefox User Interface freezes but the program itself does not. This may be why you can still click the X close button and shut down firefox in a normal way.
[Wayland] Firefox UI freezes when we fail to show a popup Opened 6 days ago
https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=1782948If you are lucky they may be looking into a fix of something similar.
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FF 103.0.2 is out.
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Insert each line one at a time into the terminal then press [Enter]
Copied and ran this code as instructed, got error message. See s/shot. Went to Librewolf site, copied and ran from there (now that I know which lines to use), same result.
Also, error message now shows in Update Manager.
This was in the Mint 20.3 OS. Before this operation, Update Mgr was normal, a few updates offered. In 19.2, Update Mgr is also normal.
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??
ok lets undo what was done then..
You did make a timeshift restore point before making changes, right!
Using timeshift, restore to previous will fix it allHowever, If no restore point was made which I suspect and whilst ONLINE:
Go to menu> administration> Software Sources
input your passwordThen click on the LHS Panel for each and remove everything associated with ‘librewolf ‘for each section
PPA
Addicitional Repositories
Authentication KeysOn the LHS panel select maintenance and click the following:
these will take a bit of time)
Fix mergelist problems
Purge residual ConfigThen go to Official repositories on the LHS panel and hit the Restore the default settings button.
this should get you back to previous settings before librewolf commands.Windows - commercial by definition and now function...1 user thanked author for this post.
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ok lets undo what was done then..
You did make a timeshift restore point before making changes, right!
Using timeshift, restore to previous will fix it allHowever, If no restore point was made which I suspect and whilst ONLINE:
Go to menu> administration> Software Sources
input your passwordThen click on the LHS Panel for each and remove everything associated with ‘librewolf ‘for each section
PPA This section is blank
Addicitional Repositories One entry for installation media, one entry for Opera
Authentication Keys Two entries for OperaOn the LHS panel select maintenance and click the following:
these will take a bit of time)
Fix mergelist problems “The problem was fixed, please reload cache”
Purge residual Config “There is no residual configuration in the system”Then go to Official repositories on the LHS panel and hit the Restore the default settings button.
this should get you back to previous settings before librewolf commands. See s/shot- this is what displays after clicking “restore the default settings” The entry for source code repositories has unchecked without my input and generates the error message, 2nd s/shot
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I don’t want to get too cooks in the broth here, but your 1st screen shot looks just like mine with no Librewolf – the same mirrors and three unchecked options. To me that says you’re ok. Maybe click OK to update APT
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click OK to update APT
That generates the 2nd s/shot.
Before the Librewolf install came up, and Update Mgr was displaying normally, there was a blue banner above the update entries asking “would you like to switch to a local mirror? Local mirror is faster” with yes/no options to click. I clicked yes and that Software Sources pop-up appeared. Didn’t know what to do with it, so x-ed out of it. IIRC, “source code repositories” was activated then.
This OS is currently mostly bare except for imported bookmarks and Opera. Push comes to shove, I can wipe it with little or no consequence and reinstall.
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no restore point was made
Didn’t think there was much here to save, just imported bookmarks and Opera browser. No files or apps.
FWIW see s/shot of pop-up that displays with cursor hovered over Update icon:
Question for the experts: should I do this? https://linuxhint.com/linux_mint_boot_repair/
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ok the old fashioned method is required:
Open up a terminal and insert the following followed by the [Enter] keysudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/librewolf.sources
edit: also run in terminal:
sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/librewolf.sources (1)
this is because you input the command twice, which is why your APT is confused
then access the ‘software sources’ and update your APT as previously posted.Windows - commercial by definition and now function...1 user thanked author for this post.
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Question for the experts: should I do this? https://linuxhint.com/linux_mint_boot_repair/
no
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Are you having boot issues? If not then you don’t need Boot Repair.
I’ve run into an issue similar to yours with LibreWolf when I’ve tried to install Opera in the past. The error messages and/or wording was a bit different (I just don’t remember exactly what the messages were but basically the updater couldn’t find or read or open the necessary Opera website). After a few tries over the period of an hour or so, everything worked. With Opera I didn’t have to do anything with command lines, but something similar might be going on with LibreWolf. Also, every once in a while when just trying to do an Opera update, I’ll get a similar message. The Opera update shows up in Update Manager but when it comes time to download and install the update, Update Manager says it can’t find the update. Waiting and trying again has always worked, so I think its a problem with an Opera website being down for a short while. It also happens on my Windows and Macs. Sometimes, I get an message “An error occurred while checking for updates”
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@slowpoke
I tried the same librewolf install and got the same errors as you did. The bottom of the website for librewolf shows how to remove the librewolf repositories. I entered all the commands as one command, entered my password on prompt, then exited terminal.
That fixed the problem and the updater manager errors went away.
https://librewolf.net/installation/debian/Removing the repositories from your system
To remove all of the LibreWolf repositories from your system, run:sudo rm -f \
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/librewolf.sources \
/etc/apt/keyrings/librewolf.gpg \
/etc/apt/preferences.d/librewolf.pref \
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/home_bgstack15_aftermozilla.sources \
/etc/apt/keyrings/home_bgstack15_aftermozilla.gpg \
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/librewolf.list \
/etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/librewolf.gpg \
/etc/apt/sources.list.d/home:bgstack15:aftermozilla.list \
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Sorry @microfix, did not see your earlier response, yes agree that just the 2 commands may fix. By the way I installed librewolf successfully the day before on mint mate 20.3 using all the website commands. A minor glitch (did not prompt for my password – had to press enter again) occurred but it installed ok. Today’s install, which failed like slowpoke’s failure, I tried on mint mate 21. More details if you are interested.
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@Sueska, this is kinda confusing from their website:
Attention. We only build LibreWolf for Debian 11, Ubuntu 20/21/22 and Mint 20.2/20.3.
Might not work on Mint21 yet, as there is no mention of it although ‘jammy’ is the codebase in their script.
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@microfix Some good news. I was able to get librewolf installed on Mint 21. It turned out the the librewolf sources file located in etc/apt/sources.list.d was empty. I edited the librewolf sources file in Mint 21 to match what was in Mint 20.3. Then continued with sudo apt update & the sudo apt install librewolf -y commands to complete the install. Also as an fyi I was able to install Palemoon quite easily on Mint 20.3 and Mint 21. Their website for linux install has copy links that made installing into the terminal very easy. I hesitate to recommend however, since it looks like updating needs to be done via terminal.
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ok the old fashioned method is required:
Open up a terminal and insert the following followed by the [Enter] keysudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/librewolf.sources
edit: also run in terminal:
sudo rm -f /etc/apt/sources.list.d/librewolf.sources (1)
this is because you input the command twice, which is why your APT is confused
then access the ‘software sources’ and update your APT as previously posted.Done, see s/shot
EDIT- did this before your edit. Am I good?
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EDIT- did this before your edit. Am I good?
not quite..should have done a timeshift restore point before system changes
lol
You did input the removal of the ‘sources (1)’ also, then it’s good.
See #2468842 for further purging/ cleanup.Windows - commercial by definition and now function...2 users thanked author for this post.
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As @Sueska has posted the librewolf method, try that also to get rid of remnants:(omitted what we have done already) Copy and paste all as one big command.
sudo rm -f \ /etc/apt/keyrings/librewolf.gpg \ /etc/apt/preferences.d/librewolf.pref \ /etc/apt/sources.list.d/home_bgstack15_aftermozilla.sources \ /etc/apt/keyrings/home_bgstack15_aftermozilla.gpg \ /etc/apt/sources.list.d/librewolf.list \ /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/librewolf.gpg \ /etc/apt/sources.list.d/home:bgstack15:aftermozilla.list \ /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d/home_bgstack15_aftermozilla.gpg
that should get shot of it completely, thanks for the heads up sueska.
Edit: typo space missing between -f and \ ooops!
Try it again slowpoke now it’s correctedWindows - commercial by definition and now function...3 users thanked author for this post.
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Terminal output:
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see ammended #2468842
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@Sueska, @Microfix, and @Slowpoke47 for the win!
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Edit: typo space missing between -f and ooops! Try it again slowpoke now it’s corrected
Thanks. Is this what you expected to see?
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Job done, now back to options..stick with opera for now LOL
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FWIW- Just now on Mint 20.3, running Opera- same freeze has occurred as with FF.
Typing this on FF…System Monitor nowhere near maxed out other than brief spike.
EDIT- Both Opera and FF frozen, only functional element is cursor. Could not x out of either browser. Menu>quit>restart froze w/ Mint logo displayed, shut down machine w/ power button after waiting a few minutes with no movement. Manual restart was slow but eventually completed.
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Strange that freezing happened using Opera in LM 20.3 also?!?
Something seems amiss somewhere, whether it be Linux mint, ubuntu, debian, kernel, etc.. etc…could be anything or a combination of any..sigh
Then some are reporting that the freezing issue disappears over time and use.!One thing I came across upon research, was to try the mozilla
‘troubleshooting mode’ within firefox to establish/ narrow down what may be causing the freeze?
Detailed explanation and walkthrough within this guide:https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/diagnose-firefox-issues-using-troubleshoot-mode
Give it a whirl and see how you get on scratching head
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Updater just offered FF 103.0.2 and Linux kernel 5.4.0-124.140 Must be some meaty- download ran about 12 minutes.
Ran these and rebooted per instruction. Hope springs eternal- will let FF run and see if it behaves…
Next move either way will be to try Microfix’s link posted above.
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You never know, perhaps the updated kernel will fix the freezes (hoping) It’s possible given that both opera and FF froze on LM20.3
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The Ubuntu security notices site was unavailable a short while ago (back up now) so Ubuntu servers could be having trouble and hence the long DL time – just a guess since FF is 63 MB and the kernel is 1 MB.
I’ve never run into anything like you’re experiencing – 2 browsers down.
Try @Microfix suggestion. Also check out Logs from the LM start button, and see if any crashes are reported. Wouldn’t hurt to check out Disks, System Monitor, System Reports (click on all the tabs on the left hand side including Crash Reports), see if anything is flagged, if you’re running hot, anything you think might be abnormal/suspect.
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FF now running w/o hiccup since my previous post3+ hours ago. Not ready to award a thumbs-up yet, in the past it occasionally ran for longer than that between freezes- and as we all know, the lack of a freeze so far is not truly a future forecast.
System Monitor shows no spikes or heavy CPU use. Everything looks okey-jake in Disks. System Reports s/shot posted- previously never saw anything to report there, not exactly sure what to do with this…
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Not sure what to make of it either. Anything in the Logs?
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Not sure what this tells me either.
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I am unable to generate anything that looks like your screen shot. How did you get to the window that’s shown in your screenshot?
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You can report/post on the Linux Mint forums after logging in using pastebin button. Copy/Paste the output in your Mint topic, one of the mods will look at it and pass it onto the devs. xenopeek usually
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Your post on the mint forums looks OK but it’s not showing what’s in your screenshot.
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just a guess since FF is 63 MB and the kernel is 1 MB.
Kernel with dependancies is more like circa 300mb for the 5.4.0.x series
https://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/5.4.0-124.140Windows - commercial by definition and now function...2 users thanked author for this post.
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FF has now run over 8 hours (Mint 20.3) w/o a stumble since installing the 103.0.2 and kernel updates this morning. The only step back from 101.x is that FF no longer preloads the tabs on the home page. Our laptop, now running (IIRC) FF 102.0, still does that, and in this machine, Opera does it as well. But if that’s the only setback, it’s a small price for an otherwise healthy (I think) browser.
Tomorrow I’ll open the other disk w/ 19.2 to see how that all stands. Still plan to upgrade that disk to Mint 21.
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Your post on the mint forums looks OK but it’s not showing what’s in your screenshot.
Just used posted link to view that Mint post- the s/shot I see there is exactly what that pop-up looked like, including the black rectangle. All I did was shoot the image, save, and post it. Thought the black rectangle was not too helpful…
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I am unable to generate anything that looks like your screen shot. How did you get to the window that’s shown in your screenshot?
menu>log file viewer
An interesting side note since running the FF and Linux kernel updates in both Mint OS- the black screen in the boot sequence now shows the correct options for selecting which OS to start- previously the boot sequence didn’t readily find the disk with 20.3, showed error messages and needed input.
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Looks like you have a different log viewer than I do (likely Mate vs Cinnamon).
I don’t know what to make of your screen shot as it’s shown. What happens if to click on one of the entries on the left side? I’m guessing you’ll see information about the clicked item over on the right. The names/entries on the left don’t seem to be terribly helpful, but you might see something that suggests crashes, programs/apps, maybe even Firefox.
I was hoping after an 8 hour run yesterday that things got fixed, but then I saw your posts below. Does the version of FF you’re running on Mint 20.3 right now have the same extensions/add-ons as the version when you first started having trouble a month or 2 ago? Or is it free of all of them?
I suppose you could also have a go at running FF in Troubleshoot mode.
Edit – The internet seems a bit sluggish in general to me today on Opera.
Edit 2 – Didn’t see @Microfix’s post below about how to use the logs. Do what he says!
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After running FF for 8+ hours yesterday, reported above, in Mate 20.3 FF just froze after about 2 hours. Just as before, a restart restores function.
EDIT: 1 hour later, another freeze. Also today FF seems to be sporadically slow to respond. System Monitor shows extended spike on Woody login.
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REF: Post #2469094
@Slowpoke47 FYI (and for future reference)
You need to select/ highlight EACH crash report* one at a time in that error System Reports> Crash report Window.Mon 2022-08-08 then Sun 2022-08-07
which will display the data in the black window.Copy and paste the ‘Stack Trace’ output in the black window from EACH crash into a text editor, then post these on the LM forum with terminal command output FIRST:
inxi -Fxxxrz
Then post the data from the two crash reports*
Otherwise you’ll get no positive replies/ feedback to these issues.Your last post on the LM forum is generally useless as more data is required for the devs to investigate.
Please read this, and pay attention to it for future use.
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=83444Windows - commercial by definition and now function...1 user thanked author for this post.
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As you can see, I’m lost with this. The current System Reports now shows only the Monday entry and when highlighted, the black field shows:
The debug symbols are missing for firefox
Please install firefox-dbg
I want to get this right, as I have never done anything like this before. I have a blank Text Editor open. If I understand correctly, this is what I am to do- copy/paste (in the normal manner) the text in the black box into the Text Editor- then select all/copy/paste the output from the command you cite- post the resulting doc to the Mint forum. Is the terminal output to go in Text Editor or in the forum post? Is there a special procedure for saving/posting this doc, or is it treated as any other attachment?
Finally- is <sudo apt-get install firefox-dbg> the correct Terminal command? And is it possible (or preferable) that this deficiency can be corrected here without filing a report?
EDIT- just did this with Synaptic. Does a report still need to be filed?
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I’ve never posted to a mint help forum before but the way read @Microfix’s directions, you want to run his terminal command and copy the output from that into a text editor. Then copy the stuff in the “black box” into the text editor below the stuff you just pasted into it from the terminal command. Then post what’s in the text editor to the forum.
As far as posting a Mozilla bug report, I’ve never done that either but there should be instructions under hamburger/help.
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Hello Slowpoke and others,
I am sorry to see the freezes are continuing. We all hoped the last update fixed it. If this freeze has also happened with Opera, then any “chrome based” browser is going to have that problem.
Your diagnostics have been well planned, but it looks as though the problem still exists.
Microfix suggested Librewolf. That was a good idea but look a the difficulties. I would suggest Pale Moon but now wonder about the “install difficulties”.
I don’t think you actually filed a Mozilla Bug Report because I do not see any new submissions dealing with your exact issue, nor have you come back here telling us of a Bugzilla number you were assigned. The only way you can hope to get Firefox to fix this is to file a bug report and talk directly with a MOZILLA developer. If they can reproduce it, then that is good. If not, then unless your logs show anything definite to them, it may be no good. At which time you may need to turn off Hardware Acceleration and live with it that way. As mentioned by others here, I feel your hardware is the issue (CPU?) or probably the video (integrated?). Dell 519 from 2008.
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@microfix not sure if you saw my reply of being able to install librewolf on Mint 21 and installing Palemoon on both 20.3 & 21 Mint Mate easily. https://www.askwoody.com/forums/topic/firefox-5/#post-2469565 @slowpoke – sorry you are still having troubles, I have never filed a Mozilla bug report either, but know you have to sign up/create an account with them 1st. If you are willing slowpoke and Microfix thinks it is a good idea to try, I am willing to help you install Palemoon. sueska
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Thanks for the offer, I’ll keep it in mind. Currently on this dual-boot machine (Mate 19.2 & 20.3) we have FF and Opera- that latter I’m not impressed with for multiple reasons. Next move (shortly) will be to update the 19.2 disk to Mate 21. When that’s set up I’d be a candidate for an Opera substitute.
Currently holding my breath to see if that software deficiency in FF has any effect on freezes. Only way AFAIK is to run it and find out.
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When you say software deficiency in FF do you mean the dbg file? If so, that’s probably not causing your issues, although I hope I’m wrong. I think it’s part of a debug feature in FF, and FWIW it’s not installed on any of my machines.
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It’s not in our laptop either, and that computer has had zero problems with any of the FF updates. Only mentioned it because it came up under “crash reports.”
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@slowpoke & others New article by William Stanton posted yesterday on alphr.com regarding lightweight browsers https://www.alphr.com/lightest-web-browsers
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INCONCLUSIVE
As Slowpoke has had a freeze-up with both Firefox and then Opera, I believe it’s something in linux mint/ ubuntu/ debian or a change in recent kernels. I don’t think changing browsers will solve anything, although worth bearing in mind at a later stage.
I have my suspicion that any of the aforementioned have done something somewhere in time, in the name of security to the detriment of older tech.So in pursuit of a fix Slowpoke, use the ‘inxi -Fxxxrz’ command output needed and post on the LM fora in a new thread, with additional info so that the knowledgeable guru’s can look at the issue relative to hardware and configuration.
Intermittent bugs are also harder to track down..that’s way above my pay grade. The information is supplied to achieve this in the LM help topic:
https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=83444A NEW EXPERIENCE:
I’ve recently installed LM21 Cinnamon and found very few errors that affected the OS/ hardware configuration on older tech, namely an HP C2Duo 4Gb ram with an SSD Did have to mask sleep but, once uneeded services and resources were reduced with tweaks pertaining to the hardware, the OS moves along smoothly.
No lock-ups or freezes with the Linux Mint 001 supplied Firefox. although no guarantees Slowpoke’s will be the same..ALTERNATIVE OPTION:
As Slowpoke is planning to install LM21 Mate, perhaps this is an oportunity to do that quicker than scheduled to see how it behaves on his older tech?
Slowpoke you could use the mintupgrader to shift from LM20.3 to LM21?
See LM forum on how to achieve that, if it fits your setup.
https://linuxmint-user-guide.readthedocs.io/en/latest/upgrade-to-mint-21.htmlCATCH22
@Slowpoke47, If you opt to burn an LM21 iso, you should use Rufus but wait…one needs a windows device to do that! which I believe you no longer have…Geeez!
Not sure if any others burn a live LM21 successfully to the USB flashdrive whilst avoiding the OoM bug (Out of Memory) which screws up the live USB installation. It may or may not work using a writable DVD though..unsure, haven’t used one of those in years.Windows - commercial by definition and now function...2 users thanked author for this post.
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I read somewhere that they were going to fix the Out of Memory issue, so that Rufus would not be required; i.e., other such programs would work.
Can you use “USB Image Writer” instead of Rufus? It comes with 20.3 and I’ve used it before to go from 19.2 to 20.3 in a clean installation. I would think Mint would have insured that an image writer that comes with Mint would work!
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Intermittent bugs are also harder to track down..that’s way above my pay grade.
If that’s so, how do you think I feel? Somebody get the number of that truck…
Your logic makes sense to me. Been running System Monitor while online today (now that I know it keeps running in the background) and at the moment, in 20.3- FF just froze, looked at the CPU trace- hovering well under 50% the whole time. I think this means that RAM is not the issue.
To recap- the freezing has happened in both OS in this machine. 20.3 is just installed and the plan has been to keep it and replace 19.2 with 21. Actually was going to do that today.
Previously win7user posted a link to bugzilla, was on that site when ff froze. Turns out I do have an account there, not sure why my efforts earlier didn’t result in an official bug. But I do have a thread in FF help from 3 weeks or so ago and no one had an answer there but others have similar problems.
Reason tells me that whatever is causing this must be rooted in LM as you mention. Before I go any further I’ll do as you suggest.
As for a new 21 install- I’ve done OS installs via a download and unpacking to a stick- is there a better way?
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Not necessarily a better way but a different way is described in the link under ALTERNATIVE OPTION in @Microfix’s post above. But you need to have 20.3 to use it to go to 21.
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Haven’t viewed that link yet- just opened a new thread on LM forum as he suggests, https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=379404
Want to replace 19.2 with 21 and keep 20.3. Microfix mentions using a disc- I have some CD-R blanks from awhile back- should I try one of those?
EDIT- just looked at the LM update link by Microfix- I already had that bookmarked.
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I’ve never used a CD to install Linux but you can give it a try. It should work the same way as installing from a usb stick. You will have to get an ISO image onto the CD and I don’t know if Rufus or USB Image Writer will do that. You will also need to get into the BIOS to set your computer to boot from a CD. (Actually that might depend on how you left the BIOS. If when you set it up to boot from a usb stick you also set it to look for a bootable CD and then finally look for the HDD/SSD then you’re all set. Otherwise you’ll need to set it so it liiks for a bootable CD first, then the bootable USB stick, and finally the HDD/SSD)
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With 2 disks, in the past I have unplugged the one I want left alone. IIRC the with a stick installed, on boot the choice to boot from the stick is offered
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That sounds right. If you also got the choice to boot from CD then you’ll be good to go as long as you get the downloaded file onto the CD in bootable form.
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If you use USB Image Writer, you need to download the version of Mint you want to install, then use USB Image Writer to get that download onto the usb stick.
Insert a usb stick into your computer. Then when you open USB Image Writer after “Write Image” you want the file name of what you just downloaded (it may already be listed there, but if not type it in). After “to” choose the usb stick you just inserted, and then click on Write. You’ll see a progress bar and be told when it’s finished (could take a few minutes)
The above is what I’ve always done to install Linux (a couple times I’ve used a program other than USB Image Writer – I used Balena Etcher which runs on Windows a couple times but the procedure is the same). What’s not clear to me is whether you need to use Rufus to avoid the so-called OoM (Out of Memory) bug. This bug is something new to installing 21 and I’ve not encountered it before. But I do recall reading that Mint intends to fix the bug so other programs will work. But as I said above it seems crazy to me that Mint would suggest an installation method that wouldn’t work with the program they provide for installing Mint, namely USB Image Writer. So I would really think a bootable stick created with USB Image Writer would work, but I can’t guarantee it.
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Seems to me that a new installation should be on a wiped disk after what’s gone before. Think I’ll drag my feet a bit to see if anything comes of my new thread on LM forum.
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As I recall, before the actual installation begins you will be told what OSs the installer has found and asked something like “Do you want to install Mint 21 where Mint 19.2 is now?” If you answer yes you will be warned that all information on your chosen location will be lost, which means everything on your chosen location will be wiped, nuked, obliterated, etc. No need to wipe anything yourself – it will be just like a fresh installation on a clean disk.
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Suggestion, could just install LM20.3 over 19.2 as you already have the media to do so and have two LM20.3’s for now, THEN upgrade one of them to LM21 at a later time whenever it suits you. (obviously back up your LM19.2 personal stuff first)
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If it does, you KNOW for certain there’s a hardware issue.
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Hello Slowpoke,
“Re hardware accel, on or off makes no difference.” Ohh, that is not good. Sorry.
“Currently holding my breath to see if that software deficiency in FF has any effect on freezes.”
Like DrBonzo said, if you are talking about the Debug symbols, then NO, it is not a deficiency. The debug symbols are used to add more information when debugging a problem in firefox. The only people that care about those debug symbols are the firefox developers.“I used the link you posted and followed the prompts. Could be I messed it up? Didn’t get a response”
The link given was to make an account for the Mozilla Bug reporting. Yes I can see how it would be somewhat confusing because the site tries hard to get one to look at the FAQs. But, the create account is at the bottom right of the page. Did you create an account? Once done you should be able to make a bug report and this will give you a Mozilla Bug number so you can reference it to anyone.https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/createaccount.cgi
“Bear in mind that this machine ran FF 101.x and all previous versions w/o issue.” Yes, we understand that it was working well at that time but remember when there is a version change that means there was a code change. Therefore something was added to the code with 102. This addition is acting up on your system with your present hardware. This will either be the CPU or the video card (driver).
“It’s not in our laptop either, and that computer has had zero problems with any of the FF updates.”
What is the CPU, Video and year model of that Laptop?I would like to see you get this fixed, but feel it will be from random chance. There are a few people complaining about a crash, on various OSs, it is not a lot of people. It will take a firefox developer looking into the issue to hope for a true fix to come from firefox. As it is, one can only hope that version 104 or 105 or 106 will correct the issue.
Keep at it Slowpoke and good luck.
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Another angle to consider- while the freezes seemed to begin after updating from FF 101.x to 102.0, there were several other updates installed at that time, see history s/shot, entries for June 29.
That history is of OS 19.2. Now- to confuse the issue- the second Mint OS, 20.3, wasn’t installed until a month later, but also has the freeze issue. The common denominator here seems to be this computer, as, to reiterate, our other machine, currently running Mate 19.2 and FF 103.0.2, is unaffected.1 user thanked author for this post.
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It’s certainly possible that one of the updates installed on 6-29 and perhaps even before that has a change that somehow causes FF and Opera freezes. Figuring out if that’s the case seems difficult to me because the only thing I can think of is to start deleting packages and that seems pretty risky to me (although you do have the ability to do a complete clean installation a Mint version to get you back to where you started). I don’t think I would want to do that.
FWIW, I would probably hang tight for a few days and hope that someone on the Mint forums or here can see what your issue is. After that I would be seriously thinking about a new computer. From time to time you can snag Dell Optiplex computers for a couple hundred bucks from Dell Refurbished. Some might come with a monitor, others not, and many come with no OS. If your budget allows you might try getting a computer from the maker advertised on the Mint website (Think Penguin IIRC), they will install Mint, make sure everything works and have a support line (free or paid) if you run into trouble. I’m not saying you need the latter option – just sort of depends on how much of a bad taste your troubleshooting experiences have left you with.
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Well… screen froze while I was 1/2 way through typing this response. Tried a s/shot>copy>paste, wouldn’t paste into this field (sigh).
I’m thinking along the same lines, if freezing can be attributed to hardware. That’s why with Microfix’s encouragement I started a new LM forum thread with the hardware details from terminal. Taking a hiatus from this problem looks like the best immediate (non)move. Also of interest, recent FF and/or kernel updates seem to have corrected the FF deficiencies except for the freezing and failure to load tabbed pages on starting FF (this last not a huge deal).
My thoughts on a replacement PC are to go new, not refurb, and look for one w/o HDD’s, and then use the current ones, neither is all that old. This would sidestep potential errors in transferring files. But, BUT- don’t want a freeze error if such exists, to be relocated into a new machine- in which case I wouldn’t have needed a replacement anyway.
Just random thoughts, no action at this time.
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IMHO if you’re going to go new, then go new all the way. Save your current HDD/SSD and use them as spares. If issues are really caused by hardware problems and those problems can’t be isolated, then why bring some of that hardware to a new machine?
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Yeah, my fear also. That’s why I’m still hoping to discover the true cause. Of course, all new, disks and all, will provide me with plenty of opportunities to screw up populating those new disks
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It’s easy to think that you are at fault, but I doubt that you are the cause of your current issues. It’s got to be some kind of hardware and/or software problem.
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the unknown is daunting to anyone, I prefer to call it ‘a challenge’ and take the bull by the horns.
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They don’t call me a coward for nothing
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In reply to #2469995 agreed but, I’m inclined to think it’s more a hardware/software relationship change in a patch affecting browser use, rather than hardware itself.
There’s only one way to find out..Windows - commercial by definition and now function...-
This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by
. Reason: Edit to clarify reply, as nesting is maxed out which could be misconstrued
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This reply was modified 2 years, 9 months ago by
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Have you removed all plugins/extensions and then put them back in one at a time while testing?
Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher
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Yes, only 3 extensions, some time back I wiped and reinstalled FF and it froze w/o them. Our other machine has the same 3, same OS, same FF, and runs 100%.
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I have my suspicion that any of the aforementioned have done something somewhere in time, in the name of security to the detriment of older tech.
Not above replacing this computer w/ new, if the freeze problem is found to be hardware. But if that strategy is just a guess, it’s not as appealing…
With my new thread on the LM forum, perhaps the cause can be determined when/if the developers look at it.
As things stand, IMHO my best bet is to hold off on any further OS or app installations or upgrades beyond any offered updates.
Note to Microfix- Timeshift image of this OS (20.3) taken a few days ago. Ongoing weekly backups of 19.2 OS via Veeam. Backups for 20.3 (not yet fully set up w/ apps, etc) to be scheduled when both 20.3 and 21 are established in this machine or a replacement.
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Maybe you’ve already done this but it would be interesting – and maybe, against all odds, even useful – to see if your computer freezes doing anything else. Have you ever turned the computer on and just let it sit for 10 hours (or whatever)? Or open a few documents in LibreOffice and let it sit there or maybe type a few lines at random in each document over 10 hours? The idea is to try and sort of emulate browsing for a few hours by having a few documents open and messing with them once in a while. I wonder if LibreOffice will freeze after a while. Doesn’t have to be LibreOffice, any program will do.
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Everything other than the browsers seems to run 100%- for several hours if I choose.
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Have you tried ‘Firefox hangs at random times’ section in this mozilla suport article?
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/firefox-hangs-or-not-responding
Note 3 addendum for linux:
Your profile for firefox is in your HOME folder under Mozilla.
You may need to ‘view hidden files’ within File Manager (caja)
in the File Menu top bar to see it.Slowpoke, see #2469980 for an option, comparison between identical installs on the same hardware /snick
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Thanks for the reply. I’m still of the belief that something might change for the better for you with a fresh, clean installation of LM 21.X (X=the version of your own choosing).
If a fresh, clean installation of LM 21 coupled with the same type of installation of the then-current version of FF (guessing 103 or 104) still produces a freeze for FF, AND you still experience a freeze with Opera (albeit less frequently that with FF), then I would say that your CPU is the problem, in that it can’t handle a video routine that it’s being told to handle within the FF and/or Opera lines of code. That can very well happen with hardware as it gets older. Manufacturers try to deal with those changes by making adjustments to the firmware (where applicable) or the driver for a given piece of hardware as it ages, but eventually they give up and no longer offer such support.
In my case, I had my fingers crossed as I installed a 6 year old driver for my 9 year old printer into Windows 10 when I got a new computer that came with windows 10 Pro two years ago during August of 2020. Surprisingly, the installation went well, but there was a minor complaint fro Windows due to the age of the driver, but I ignored it. The printer works well to this date, but I don’t think I’ll be so lucky if I try installing the printer on a Windows 11 machine. I’ll probably told by windows 11 to quit using a dinosaur and go get something newer that it can deal with much better.
So, here’s hoping that once you decide to take the plunge with LM 21, that it produces good results for your browsing!
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Here’s my non-expert answer. As long as the CPU spike is not prolonged, you’re probably OK. If the CPU is constantly near 100%, I would say your system needs a better/faster processor.
Amount of memory and %CPU use are not necessarily correlated with each other. A small program (or app) may not occupy much RAM but could be extremely busy and therefore using a large per-centage of CPU. The opposite can be true as well. In System Monitor, click on the Processes tab and you’ll see a bunch of processes all of which use a certain amount of RAM but probably very few of which are using much CPU.
FWIW my daily driver shows spikes in %CPU, but nothing prolonged – which is what I think you’re seeing – and my Processes tab shows what I’ve described above.
Maxed out RAM and/or maxed out %CPU are probably not the only things that can cause a freeze. A software update could have some lines of code that are changed and that for some reason don’t play nice with older hardware, although it wouldn’t have to necessarily be older hardware. I have some recollection of Summer 2017 when a lot of Windows 7 computers were bit by a monthly update (BSOD). I’m not sure anyone ever figured out exactly what the problem was but it seemed to only affect a few generations of Intel processors which were neither the oldest or newest Intel processors in existence. I started having trouble with Win 7 updates back around November 2016. Sometimes it was my 3rd generation Intel computer and sometimes it was my 5th generation Intel computer that had problems.
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First, I think my FF may be set up a bit differently than yours in that when it starts only one tab opens – what I’ve designated as my home page. Then I open new tabs as needed. I have the impression your FF opens a few tabs when FF is started.
Bu in any case, if I open more tabs and allow each to load, when I switch back and forth between them each one is “right there”, so to speak; none of them loads again. This behavior holds for up to about 5 tabs; it’s extremely rare for me to have more tabs than that open. Same behavior with Opera and on a Win 8.1 with FF.
Another Win 8.1 has FF and is set up to open 2 tabs when FF starts. It does that and both tabs are “right there” when switching between them, as are other tabs that get opened during a session. An iMAC with FF is set up the same way and behaves the same way.
One other thing: on my daily driver every tab I open adds to the amount of RAM being used and by the time I get up to 7 or 8 tabs I’m using around 3.5 GB of RAM out of a usable 3.8, and the whole system gets sluggish (nothing freezes, though) until I close some of them. I rarely have that many tabs open so I can live with that.
I’m not sure there is a right answer to whether all tabs should load in right away. I think computers might behave differently from one another depending on hardware configurations. It’s also conceivable that what used to happen on a given computer might no longer happen on that same computer because of patches/updates. I think all computers change as time goes by.
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After beating this issue to death, I’ve concluded that this computer needs to be retired due to outdated functionality. (With a tear in my eye) I’ve ordered a replacement. Grateful thanks to all who have scratched their heads and posted to this long-running thread.
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Hello Slowpoke, can you tell us what computer you purchased and if it is acting OK for you now with Firefox?
Can you run the command Microfix gave you above inxi -Fxxxrz and see what your current specs are? You might want to print those out or put them in a text file for future reference.
I hope your new computer is faster and makes you happy.
Let us know.
Good luck Slowpoke.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Today working on moving into a Dell Optiplex 5060, refurb by Dell. Came with 500GB HDD and Intel i3-8300 cpu. Planning to add 2nd disk, to complete my plan to run two Mint OS and alternate updating them as the respective support ends. Current machine runs Mate 19.2 and 20.3. New pc will be running 20.3 and 21 when that OoM bug is corrected.
Pleased to report that the new pc opens FF tabs immediately, like the old one used to before the 6/29 updates. Some element, maybe in the BIOS, of the old computer seemed to be incompatible with an OS update from about then. The freeze issue that was the original topic on this thread is likely behind me since I’ve updated the hardware, time will tell.
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I’m sure the retired device will have a new lease of life for something less immediate
Windows - commercial by definition and now function...2 users thanked author for this post.
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Get your hammers, drills, saws, etc out and take your computing frustrations out on the old machine.
Or maybe target practice.
Seriously, though, I’m glad things are going well with the new computer so far.
1 user thanked author for this post.
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And without your help and that of some others, I would have found myself in deep (waste products).
1 user thanked author for this post.
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Post mortem: While my solution to this problem, as mentioned above, is a new desktop, others on the Mint forum are still debating the freeze issue and what to do about it. https://forums.linuxmint.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=376770&view=unread&sid=d7ec0d4df9f964b8828d369dbadece3a#unread
For myself, moving on is proving to be a relief.
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