Firefox Sluggish Performance

[brm]

Mageia 8 with updates

Hi all. Firefox seems difficult to use at the moment. Opening - closing tabs, using dialogue boxes on a web page, are problematic. Nothing seem to flow. I have to wait. Sometimes it requires a double click, then a page will open.

Has anyone using Mageia 8 noticed unusual behaviour ? or delays and waiting for Firefox to do something?

[sturmvogel]

Did you already try the standard troubleshooting methods?
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/diagnose-firefox-issues-using-troubleshoot-mode

[brm]

Still going with this. My problem seems to lie beyond Firefox. Moving between tabs in Konsole or Dolphin produces the same result. It may or may not change the tab. It may just stay on the previous tab. A long click can sometime produce the correct result i.e. change the tab. I may have a hardware problem - not sure.

[sturmvogel]

You could check if a process or application is eating up your system ressources by using a monitoring tool. Under plasma you could use the systemmonitor. Or if you use an other desktop environment you can use htop (has to be installed via MCC).

[tis]

hi,

I haven't experienced this problem, but you should try about:preferences#privacy to clear cache and prev website data - ALL, and set the privacy to strict.
You can also remove all about:addons to check if the problem grow up from there...

[sturmvogel]

It's not necessary to remove the addons. If you read the linked Mozilla article you will see what the correct procedure for troubleshooting is.
The privacy setting has nothing to to with firefox performance at all. And please don't recommend the strict setting without mentioning that this could lead to not working websites anymore. And brm is experiencing also strange behaviour in dolphin and konsole. So that means there is something going on systemwide. Processmonitoring would be the next step as already suggested.

[tis]

Ty, you're right, the strict option will disable auto-running strange things like viruses that maybe cached in firefox... so my advice is to remove all browser history and cached data (faulty scripts and setting and so on).
If the addon not updated but ff works badly since ff update, that can cause problems...

these are just opportunities to find the problem, not a task, and ff say that strict option can stop working some sites. (I haven't found kinda site yet I would like to read) and when the ff works well again, you can try switching back the privacy and installing addon...

[sturmvogel]

...the strict option will disable auto-running strange things like viruses that maybe cached in firefox......

What?

This is getting blocked by a strict enhanced tracking protection setting (the word tracking says it all...):
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-protection-firefox-desktop#w_strict-enhanced-tracking-protection

The only difference between Standard Enhanced Tracking Protection (recommended setting from Mozilla) and Strict Enhanced Tracking Protection is:

• Standard: blocks Tracking content in Private Windows only
• Strict: blocks Tracking content in all windows

and

• Standard: blocks Cross-site tracking cookies (other third-party cookies are isolated)
• Strict: blocks Cross-site cookies

A full quote what the enhanced tracking protection from Mozilla is really blocking. Source: https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/enhanced-tracking-protection-firefox-desktop#w_what-enhanced-tracking-protection-blocks

What Enhanced Tracking Protection blocks

Firefox uses a list of known trackers provided by Disconnect. By default, Firefox blocks the following types of trackers and scripts.

Social media trackers
Cross-site tracking cookies (also isolates remaining cookies)
Fingerprinters
Cryptominers
Tracking content: These trackers are hidden in ads, videos, and other in-page content. In Standard mode, tracking content is blocked in Private Windows. To add this protection in all windows, visit your privacy preferences and select Strict or Custom as explained below.

In Private Browsing Mode and Strict Mode, Firefox includes Total Cookie Protection, which confines every cookie to the website where it was created. This prevents cookies from tracking you across sites. Strict Mode also includes Enhanced Cookie Clearing, which allows users to clear third-party cookies more effectively.

And if you mean "cryptominers" with "virus in cache": They are already blocked in the recommended standard enhanced tracking protection.
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/tr ... nced-track

[sturmvogel]

My problem seems to lie beyond Firefox...Konsole or Dolphin...It may or may not change the tab... A long click can sometime produce the correct result.... I may have a hardware problem - not sure.

If the application does not react at your first click, only doublecklick or long click: An easy (and sometimes undererstimated) troubleshooting tip could be to test with an other mouse. This only applies if your system doesn't react to your mouseclicks at all. If the systems reacts with a big time delay after clicking then it's most likely not the mouse.

[tis]

I would like to ask your apologies drm, I haven't read your second post, that not only ff slow.

It could be a lot, you should check free mem, free cpu, disk spaces e.g. with top, df and try to make enough. (I can also suggest clearing cache and tmp if no disk space)
also hardware failure like disk read errors or too hot cpu can slow down your machine.

[tis]

When did you experienced the problem? Was it good with mga8 before?
- if you think it is since after an update, you can try to boot with prev kernel if it was updated or downgrade packages

you can also check

Code: Select all

journalctl -ae  or journalctl -xe

for latest error messages, or without 'e' for all.

there can be a driver problem that waits a lot before can continue (there were similar with intel_hda viewtopic.php?f=26&t=14365 at me)

[brm]

Many thanks for your feedback. A long click - or hold down left button - pause - then release seems to be necessary. What a pain. I will continue to watch logs, specifically journalctl and htop for any problems. It begs the question - is some unkown process is running on this pc? Meanwhile I plan to get hold of another mouse and check it out. This hardware is a logitech wireless mouse/keyboard combination. It is old however.

[brm]

Update: An alternative Keyboard/Mouse combination works as normal. Mouse clicks happen quickly and do not require a second try. The Logitech Keyboare/Mouse sits in the corner unused. Repeated attempts to switch back to it result in the same behaviour, despite having new batteries. So it needs retiring. I will be looking around for a replacement desktop set - to take over from this temporary fix.

[sturmvogel]

Good to hear that your problem is solved. Sometimes it is the simple thing which you didn't think about that creates the strangest behaviour.

Please don't forget to mark this thread solved. You can do this by editing your first post and add [solved] to the title. Thanks ahead.