Ubuntu
firefox-3.5 package

[karmic regression] firefox 3.5 extremely slow autoscroll on some pages

Bug #470671 reported by CarloBaldassi
30
This bug affects 6 people
Affects Status Importance Assigned to Milestone
firefox-3.5 (Ubuntu)
New
Undecided
Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: firefox-3.5

I have recently updated from Jaunty to Karmic and I experience extremely slow autoscroll with some pages, apparently long pages with many images (a random example of a page on which I experience this bug: http://forum.ubuntu-it.org/index.php/topic,104123.0.html ).

Expected behaviour:
Smooth, fast scrolling

Actual behaviour:
Very slow scrolling, X system is unresponsive to commands for several seconds, 100% CPU usage.

Longer description and additional notes:
I use a lot the Firefox autoscroll feature (Preferences->Advanced->General->Use autoscrolling) and in some pages, when I press the middle mouse button to trigger it, the autoscrolling symbol appears and the scrolling starts, but it is very slow and the system becomes almost unresponsive: the CPU usage jups to 100% (top says 70% is being used by X and 30% from friefox, roughly). It seems that while the scrolling is taking place the whole X system is unresponsive to commands (e.g. I can't change window focus or desktop), although I am able to go to a virtual desktop with CTRL+ALT+F1. The "system hangup" may last for several seconds.

This happens both using Compiz and Metacity.
This does not happen when scrolling normally with the mouse wheel, unless I select the "Use smooth scrolling" option.
This didn't happen at all with Firefox 3.0; furthermore, I did try for a while Shiretoko on Jaunty and the problem didn't occur.
I have also tried disabling some of the firefox extensions I'm using, but it didn't help.

I can provide any other information as requested to inspect this bug in greater detail.

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Mon Nov 2 13:11:13 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: firefox-3.5 3.5.4+nobinonly-0ubuntu0.9.10.1
ProcEnviron:
 SHELL=/bin/bash
 PATH=(custom, no user)
 LANG=en_GB.UTF-8
 LANGUAGE=en_GB.UTF-8
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-14.48-generic
SourcePackage: firefox-3.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-14-generic i686

Revision history for this message
CarloBaldassi (carlobaldassi) wrote :
Revision history for this message
Pin (chessmani-gmail) wrote :

This happens to me as well. Bug #437703 is a duplicate.

Revision history for this message
traxxas (traxxas) wrote :

I have the same problem on Karmic amd64, with all versions of the nvidia closed driver (173, 180, and 190). I'm using metacity with compositing and without compositing still has the problem. Another way to trigger the slow down is to press F11 to switch to full screen mode and watch the address bar jerky scroll off screen to hide.

Revision history for this message
Pin (chessmani-gmail) wrote :

I solved this problem by upgrading my nvidia graphics driver to 190.42. Works perfect now. Before I was using the nv driver I guess.

Revision history for this message
Bogdan Harjoc (harjoc-gmail) wrote :

Exact same behavior, using an ATI Radeon Mobility 7500, with 3D acceleration disabled (RenderAccel false in xorg.conf) to avoid corruption of transparent notify text on ATI cards.

Revision history for this message
Bogdan Harjoc (harjoc-gmail) wrote :

Same behavior for an ATI Radeon Mobility 7500, using "RenderAccel false" in xorg.conf, to avoid corruption of transparent notification texts.

Revision history for this message
wizzor (visa-parviainen) wrote :

Same, but with Nvidia proprietary drivers.
Happens on both KDE and Gnome, with compositing on or off (Gnome)

To post a comment you must log in.
This report contains Public information  
Everyone can see this information.
Subscribing...

Other bug subscribers

Remote bug watches

Bug watches keep track of this bug in other bug trackers.