Firefox uses high CPU for extended periods of time when spawning a new window with many tabs already open

Is this still an issue for you? We are trying to trying sort out the older Mozilla issues and would like to know if this still happens.

What version of firefox are you using and what version of ubuntu is this on?
Which flash package do you have installed?
Which Java package do you have installed?
Which firefox extensions do you have installed?
Can you please provide us with the links?

you remember if you have the download manager window open when CPU usage peeks?

I can't seem to repro it now by hitting C-n while I have 9 tabs open in one window and the download manager open.

I am currently using a Firefox that reports itself as Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.1) Gecko/20060601 Firefox/2.0.0.1 (Ubuntu-edgy).
I am using Flash 9 (not sure which minor version).
I'm not sure which Java package I have installed, but I know that I have one.
I have installed: Firesomething 1.7.0 (disabled since an upgrade), Greasemonkey 0.6.7.20070131.0, Live HTTP Headers 0.13.1, Long Titles 1.2.4, Nightly Tester Tools 1.2.1, Restart Firefox 0.3, Sage 1.3.10, SomethingAwful Last Read 1.15.1917, SwitchProxy 1.4 (disabled since an upgrade), and VideoDownloader 1.1.1.

I will post another comment with a test case if I can reproduce the bug in the future.

I confirm this behavior. I am using Feisty uptodate. If more info is needed please let me know.

I can confirm this too. When I have many tabs open and I open a new window, processor consumption steadily climbs until it reaches 100% and then Firefox becomes completely unresponsive and I have to terminate it. The problem persisted even with a fresh profile. This started happening after the last Firefox security update. I have started using Firefox from an official mozilla.org tarball, and it doesn't seem to have the same problem.

On Sat, Jun 30, 2007 at 04:12:15AM -0000, Ryan Paul wrote:
> I can confirm this too. When I have many tabs open and I open a new
> window, processor consumption steadily climbs until it reaches 100% and
> then Firefox becomes completely unresponsive and I have to terminate it.
> The problem persisted even with a fresh profile. This started happening
> after the last Firefox security update. I have started using Firefox
> from an official mozilla.org tarball, and it doesn't seem to have the
> same problem.
>

Can you please describe exactly what behaviour you see? e.g. what
steps do you take to get high CPU load et al.

Then, try to disable all extensions and see if things improve for you.

 - Alexander

Yup. Happening to me 2-3x/day.

FF 2.0.0.6 running on Windows 5.1 (don't laugh).

Three weeks ago, this didn't happen, but now...

As Joshua described, when many tabs/multiple windows are open, sometimes opening one more causes FF to send my cpu into 100% usage, with no return. I have found no pattern, in terms of number of windows or tabs it takes to get this to happen--anything more than 5 tabs and 2 windows seems to make it a candidate.

Confirmed here, also. Firefox uses 100% of one core of a dual core CPU when opening a new window, when I have many tabs open. This is always the behavior, no matter what I use.

My extensions:
Adblock, Add N Edit Cookies, Adsense Notifier, Canadian English Dictionary, Download Statusbar, DownThemAll, FasterFox, Firebug, FireFTP, FoxClocks, Greasemonkey, MediaPlayerConnectivity, mplayerplug-in, Add Tab Button on Tab Bar, RefControl, Restart Firefox, SearchStatus, SwitchProxy Tool, Tamper Data, VideoDownloader

Usually have quite a few tabs. As I said, it always happens, but I haven't tried any debugging.

On Sun, Sep 30, 2007 at 08:26:48PM -0000, Adrian Saldanha wrote:
> Confirmed here, also. Firefox uses 100% of one core of a dual core CPU
> when opening a new window, when I have many tabs open. This is always
> the behavior, no matter what I use.
>
> My extensions:
> Adblock, Add N Edit Cookies, Adsense Notifier, Canadian English Dictionary, Download Statusbar, DownThemAll, FasterFox, Firebug, FireFTP, FoxClocks, Greasemonkey, MediaPlayerConnectivity, mplayerplug-in, Add Tab Button on Tab Bar, RefControl, Restart Firefox, SearchStatus, SwitchProxy Tool, Tamper Data, VideoDownloader
>
> Usually have quite a few tabs. As I said, it always happens, but I
> haven't tried any debugging.
>

Would be great if you could track down which extension causes this by
disabling your extensions one by one.

 - Alexander

The problem is Google Tool Bar, disable it and you will be able to open more than three windows without FF locking up at 100% CPU usage.
It worked fine before the Gutsy update.

I confirm this behaviour, I disabled all extensions but still happens. It seems when I open a few tabs and leave them open after a while Firefox gets all CPU and completely freezes for a minute or so. Fresh install Firefox 2.0.0.8 on Gutsy and no extensions loaded (no Google Toolbar).

Seem to have same problem as you guys.
 Firefox {(Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.8.1.12) Gecko/20080207 Ubuntu/7.10 (gutsy) Firefox/2.0.0.12}
starts to suddenly take more & more of the cpu, 1-3x /day of online web sessions; if I catch it early enough, I can manually end the Ff sub-process taking 60-95%cpu:
 '/usr/lib/firefox/firefox-bin'
which crashes Firefox; I can then restart Firefox.
If I don't catch it within ~1-2 minutes or so this sub-process will take more& more cpu until system becomes locked & unresponsive. It resolves itself 2-5 minutes later, releasing the cpu & browser session can continue uninterrupted - until it happens again several minutes to several hours later :(
Restoring or not restoring crashed session has no discernible effect on if/when it happens again, from a few minutes to (usually) a few hours later. I always use a single Ff. window; I almost always have many (10-50) tabs open.Today it crashed itself for the first time during one if it's 'seizures'

Sorry about the size of the Firefox/apport-autogenerated crash report -27MB(!!!) I was doing too many things at once & didn't stop to check the size when I attached it - hope there's something (findable&!) useful in there.Again sorry - I'll double-check before attaching anything in the future... - Chris

Removed Ffox crash report - I'll go through it tomorrow & try to find useful (brief!) data to post.

It happens to me too, sometimes it forces me to hard reboot to continue working (happily the session restoring works well) see "Kudzu9 wrote on 2008-03-2"

*** It seems to me that it's happening when at least 1 html sheet contains flash content ***

All updates made
Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; fr; rv:1.9) Gecko/2008061015 Firefox/3.0
Ubuntu 8.04 (hardy) Gnome 2.22.2 Kernel 2.6.24-19-generic

Memory free (~62%) HDD free (a lot)

I had similar problems with the browser and it was caused by Javascript due to its high memory requirements (I have only 512 MB of RAM). I have installed Adblock plugin and it solved the problems. This plugin switches off Javascript by default and only for specified pages the Javascript can be enabled.

I have this problem as well using Ubuntu 8.04 and the latest patches of everything. The only thing unique about my system is that I'm running a custom Hardy kernel to support PAE and Xeon processor.
Typically I can kill the firefox process and bring up a new window, but that is always a pain.
I can also reproduce this at will by trying to open three separate Firefox instances. I can open two, but when I try to open the third, the first two go to gray screen and firefox is using 100% of CPU.

The seme problem as Kudzu9 wrote on 2008-03-2.

I am having the same issue as Eric Bursley. Running Ubuntu 8.04 64-bit up to date. One window, good; two windows, okay; third window, 100% cpu. I can also reproduce the error on Ubuntu 8.04 32-bit as well.

I disabled all my add-ons, enabling them one at a time... and presto it turned out that the Google Toolbar was causing the issue. Running version 3.1.20080605L of the toolbar. I know this isn't a resolution, but more information is always helpful!

One additional quick note, I upgraded to version 3.1.20080714L of the Google Toolbar and still have the issue.

We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with the latest firefox version? Thanks in advance.

In my case, the behaviour was caused by the extensive usage of JavaScript in the web pages. JavaScript of the complex pages spends lot of memory and thus the swapping on HDD was often neccesary (I have only 512 MB). I have installed addon NoScript and my problem was solved.
> ------------ Původní zpráva ------------
> Od: Martin Mai <email address hidden>
> Předmět: [Bug 66350] Re: Firefox uses high CPU for extended periods of time when
> spawning a new window with many tabs already open
> Datum: 20.1.2009 21:03:45
> ----------------------------------------
> We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with
> the latest firefox version? Thanks in advance.
>
> --
> Firefox uses high CPU for extended periods of time when spawning a new window
> with many tabs already open
> https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/66350
> You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> of the bug.
>
> Status in “firefox” source package in Ubuntu: Incomplete
> Status in “firefox-3.0” source package in Ubuntu: Confirmed
>
> Bug description:
> If I have many browser tabs (in one or many windows) open already and I open a
> new window (either by clicking a link that opens a new window, implicitly having
> a window opened by a pop-up that slips through the cracks, or by invoking the
> "new window" action by the keyboard or menu), Firefox locks up (fails to repaint
> any of its windows) for an extended period of time (30 to 40 seconds is not
> unheardof) and uses 100% CPU. The time spent appears to be proportional to the
> number of tabs open.
>
> I took a preliminary look into Firefox with a debugger while it was doing this,
> and a few samples showed that it appeared to be spending some time laying out
> all of its pages that it had open again. I could be way off base, though; I took
> 5 or 6 non-scientific samples with control-c (gdb) bt, and I don't know
> Firefox's internals well enough to say that's what those functions actually
> did.
>
> It adversely impacts Firefox's usability.
>
>
>

Hi,
i came to a similar conclusion than koudy ,but thinking it was caused by
flash ads. I've monitored the CPU usage and opening pages containing
flash ads adds up to 50% CPU usage per tab. I've tried both available
Firefox flash plugin (the free and Adobe's - sorry for version
information but my investigation dates)
It's still an issue but i've learned to live with and do not open too
many tabs when i'm not knowing sites browsed. The solution for me seems
to be an hardware upgrade, although, the system and ffox + plugins
updates are daily checked and done when needed and i haven't seen any
update for these flash plugins for long.

thanks

Le mercredi 21 janvier 2009 à 07:03 +0000, koudy a écrit :
> In my case, the behaviour was caused by the extensive usage of JavaScript in the web pages. JavaScript of the complex pages spends lot of memory and thus the swapping on HDD was often neccesary (I have only 512 MB). I have installed addon NoScript and my problem was solved.
> > ------------ Původní zpráva ------------
> > Od: Martin Mai <email address hidden>
> > Předmět: [Bug 66350] Re: Firefox uses high CPU for extended periods of time when
> > spawning a new window with many tabs already open
> > Datum: 20.1.2009 21:03:45
> > ----------------------------------------
> > We were wondering if this is still an issue for you. Can you try with
> > the latest firefox version? Thanks in advance.
> >
> > --
> > Firefox uses high CPU for extended periods of time when spawning a new window
> > with many tabs already open
> > https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/66350
> > You received this bug notification because you are a direct subscriber
> > of the bug.
> >
> > Status in “firefox” source package in Ubuntu: Incomplete
> > Status in “firefox-3.0” source package in Ubuntu: Confirmed
> >
> > Bug description:
> > If I have many browser tabs (in one or many windows) open already and I open a
> > new window (either by clicking a link that opens a new window, implicitly having
> > a window opened by a pop-up that slips through the cracks, or by invoking the
> > "new window" action by the keyboard or menu), Firefox locks up (fails to repaint
> > any of its windows) for an extended period of time (30 to 40 seconds is not
> > unheardof) and uses 100% CPU. The time spent appears to be proportional to the
> > number of tabs open.
> >
> > I took a preliminary look into Firefox with a debugger while it was doing this,
> > and a few samples showed that it appeared to be spending some time laying out
> > all of its pages that it had open again. I could be way off base, though; I took
> > 5 or 6 non-scientific samples with control-c (gdb) bt, and I don't know
> > Firefox's internals well enough to say that's what those functions actually
> > did.
> >
> > It adversely impacts Firefox's usability.
> >
> >
> >
>

Can you please open a new bug report with the following, please open it for flashplugin-nonfree if you are using our package.
We have instructions on debugging some types of problems at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProcedures

At a minimum, we need:
1. the specific steps or actions you took that caused you to encounter the problem,
2. the behavior you expected, and
3. the behavior you actually encountered (in as much detail as possible).
4. Which flash package do you have installed?
5. Which Java package do you have installed?
6. Which Firefox extensions do you have installed?

Sorry, I've forgotten to unsubscribe. Thanks

Le dimanche 22 mars 2009 à 15:54 +0000, John Vivirito a écrit :
> Can you please open a new bug report with the following, please open it for flashplugin-nonfree if you are using our package.
> We have instructions on debugging some types of problems at http://wiki.ubuntu.com/DebuggingProcedures
>
> At a minimum, we need:
> 1. the specific steps or actions you took that caused you to encounter the problem,
> 2. the behavior you expected, and
> 3. the behavior you actually encountered (in as much detail as possible).
> 4. Which flash package do you have installed?
> 5. Which Java package do you have installed?
> 6. Which Firefox extensions do you have installed?
>
> ** Changed in: firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu)
> Status: Confirmed => Fix Released
>
> ** Changed in: firefox (Ubuntu)
> Status: Incomplete => Invalid
>
> ** Changed in: firefox (Ubuntu)
> Assignee: Mozilla Bugs (mozilla-bugs) => (unassigned)
>

On 03/19/2010 01:23 PM, Kuba Galus wrote:
> ** Changed in: firefox-3.0 (Ubuntu)
> Status: Fix Released => Fix Committed
>
Please dont change status or importance without commenting on why you
changed it.

--
Sincerely Yours,
    John Vivirito

https://launchpad.net/~gnomefreak
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/JohnVivirito
Linux User# 414246

"How can i get lost, if i have no where to go"
    -- Metallica from Unforgiven III

We no longer use versioning with Firefox and Thunderbird

Opened with confirmed since i don't see anyone working on this bug or even if it still is reproducible with lasted Firefox

Sorry forgot to say i am unable to reproduce this bug with no extensions using version:

 3.6.3~hg20100315r33738+nobinonly-0ubuntu1~umd1

Can anyone still reproduce this with Firefox 13. If so, on what version/s of Ubuntu?

[Expired for firefox (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]