Firefox Seizes Desktop

1

I found Firefox (latest version) unusable on GumTree, as clicking on the left/right browsing arrows on images hammered the processor then seized up the desktop. Opera was almost as bad, so I used Chrome which was usable but struggled. No useful answer from Mozilla or GumTree forums.

I then spotted this somewhere more-or-less by chance:

gsettings set org.freedesktop.Tracker.Miner.Files crawling-interval -2
gsettings set org.freedesktop.Tracker.Miner.Files enable-monitors false

It seems to have fixed it. I believe this is to do with file indexing, is it likely that it could be relevant? It’s possible there could have been some change to Firefox or GumTree since I last used them of course.

2

I guess it’s a mixed issue. Indexing files might have « loaded » your system while you were also using your internet browsers - all of which are resource intensive.

How much RAM does your computer have ?
Did you try Firefox without any addons enabled ?
Is your processor always hammered this way, or at a specific moment, with one or another app’ ?

Command top while system begins to slow down may narrow down the greedy culprit…

3

The page you link to is where I found the commands to disable the indexer.

I guess it’s a mixed issue. Indexing files might have « loaded » your system while you were also using your internet browsers - all of which are resource intensive.

No. That would be an incredible coincidence as it happened every time I use that website but not otherwise.

How much RAM does your computer have ?

4GB which is fine for everything else.

Did you try Firefox without any addons enabled ?

No, there are only two, which only run when I choose - a de-duplicator and a PDF downloader.

Is your processor always hammered this way, or at a specific moment, with one or another app’?

Fine for everything else.

Command top while system begins to slow down may narrow down the greedy culprit…

System Monitor pointed to the utilities mentioned above in my first post.

I wonder whether it is something about the GumTree webpages which triggers the indexer?

4

Ok !

I can’t see any slowing while browsing https //www gumtree com/ here, beside the fact it has a very huge list of ads providers and partners…

Note I use µblock origin + decentraleyes addons.

Maybe something related to FireFox settings in about:preferences#privacy ?

5

about:preferences#privacy

Only trackers.

6

I’ve just remembered that about one time in three my system takes a few minutes to shutdown and beeps two or three times while doing so. Could that be relevant?

7

Yes, might be.

That suggests some hardware issue.

dmesg | grep -e "[e|E]rror"

will list a few, as dmesg is quite a long output ( it logs all hardware events, sort of ).

free -h

will show your RAM global state.

Those should give some hints.

8 
dmesg | grep -e "[e|E]rror"
[    1.587877] RAS: Correctable Errors collector initialized.
[   10.885604] EXT4-fs (sda1): re-mounted. Opts: errors=remount-ro
[14218.021626] usb 1-7: device not accepting address 9, error -71

free -h
total used free shared buff/cache available
Mem: 3.2Gi 2.0Gi 117Mi 165Mi 1.0Gi 838Mi
Swap: 1.1Gi 239Mi 903Mi

9

You’re a bit short about RAM. So that your swap is used a little. And swap may be slow.

You could try to set another swappiness value, according to https://askubuntu.com/questions/103915/how-do-i-configure-swappiness but remind there is no " best fit for all ". Try lower value and see if it improves your life…

You may also have an usb connected device that goes to sleep sometimes, but if you did not notice any problem so far, don’t worry that much about dmesg.

Internet browsers go heavier and heavier these days, so if your memory is already busy with your idle system that won’t help. Have you tried lighter distribution - such as Xubuntu, Peppermint, or other LXDE or LXQT based ?

10

There is 4GB of RAM, but due to an infamous BIOS problem the OS only sees 3.2GB.

My Wifi is a USB dongle that sticks out of the front of the system box, so I catch it with my knee sometimes - so no need to worry about USB errors!

It works fine for everything else except the GumTree website on Firefox. In the past (before this problem) I have fiddled with swappiness but it didn’t make much difference.

I don’t want to try any of those other OSs, as I have found them inferior to UB and there wouldn’t be much point changing when the problem is just with one website.

I might try changing these factors

gsettings set org.freedesktop.Tracker.Miner.Files crawling-interval -2
gsettings set org.freedesktop.Tracker.Miner.Files enable-monitors false

back to what they were to see if problem comes back. Not sure how to do it though, something like

gsettings set org.freedesktop.Tracker.Miner.Files crawling-interval -#?
gsettings set org.freedesktop.Tracker.Miner.Files enable-monitors true?
11

I’ve looked for those gsettings keys on my system with dconf editor but can’t find them…

It probably means I don’t have indexing and tracking services on my side.

In your situation I’d try

sudo sed -i "s/NoDisplay=true/NoDisplay=false/g" /etc/xdg/autostart/*.desktop

this will make all the programs starting at boot appear in « Startup Applications » ( by default only the ones launched by your user are shown there ).
Then disable or re-enable all the « tracker-things » you may find…

I hope this still works in 18.04+ maybe those services are now handled by systemd I don’t know.

Regarding RAM, it sounds like a 32 bits vs 64 bits issue ? Is your computer so old ?

12

is this a browser specific issue? Does chromium have the same issue?

If you create a new firefox profile - does that help?

firefox --ProfileManager
13

I’ve run the command and will experiment with starting/not starting “tracker-things” at startup.

I don’t understand what you are getting at with “32 bits vs 64 bits”. I’m running a 64bit OS on a 64bit processor.

14

Old memory, those values remind me what a 32bits windows system would have seen if I had plugged 4Go RAM hence the 32/64 question.

Is updating your BIOS out of reach ? Is it a legacy bios or UEFI bios ?

I’m not expert enough but it’s strange a nowadays computer can’t access its whole RAM…