Firefox freezes after trying to open "Downloads"

Today i did a fresh install of Ubuntu MATE 17.04 64bit.
I noticed that Firefox freezes when i want to open the Download location (~/Downloads/).

Does this happen to anyone else too? It doesnt matter which download file.

Firefox 52.0.1

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Yes, I’ve noticed this too. I usually have to switch to the console (Ctrl-Alt-F1) and killall firefox there. I’ve been using mostly Firefox nightly (55 right now), and it happens with that version too.

I guess I’ll have to try other desktops/file managers, like GNOME, and see if it happens there.

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Do you have some addons witch modify the downloads ?
Is this happening when you start firefox in safe mode (firefox --safe-mode) ?

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This is easily reproducable in my 17.04 VM. The download history is there so all I need to do is “Show All Downloads” and select that icon “Open Containing Folder” on the one and only download in the history.

Run from the commandline gives no clues and --safe-mode behaves same.

Attempting to close the unresponsive main app does get the unresponsive Marco message and forcing it closed DOES work most the time.

This is a pristine Firefox install, too, hardly ever run in this VM.

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FWIW Firefox changed their downloads button pop-up in version 52.

I can confirm this report too, on bare-metal.
@elcste, this doesn’t freeze the desktop though apparently, just the FF window Edit: actually it’s weird, the desktop UI is frozen but you can open a terminal from shortcuts, however you can’t move the terminal window afterwards. Anyway, no need to switch to tty1.
Edit: I’ve let FF sit while I was writing this reply and it eventually opened the download folder. and unstuck itself.

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Old issue, I see this in Debian Testing with Firefox ESR 45, and IIRC it started happening several versions before that too, I just can’t remember when.

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For me it was the first time yesterday. And i am using Firefox for many years.

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I had a problem with Firefox a while ago, don’t remember exactly what it was but Firefox was acting up.
I ended up deleting the Mozilla default profile folder then restarted Firefox, this will create a new .profile folder, which fixed my issue, maybe worth a shot.

The profile can be found in your home folder, ctrl h to view hidden files
then go to .mozilla/firefox/ and delete your.default folder or you can rename it if you do not want to delete it for testing.

Starting Firefox will create a new .profile folder.

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What graphics and WMs are everyone using? My personal machine is nouveau graphics and usually marco w/compton, but I think I tried and saw this on compiz too. (I wasn’t being very systematic :unamused: )

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I just tried on a machine at my work that I had installed Ubuntu GNOME on. In GNOME, no freeze. When I booted the same machine to a Ubuntu MATE 17.04 live session, it did happen then. I switched to Compiz and it still froze, so not a WM thing.

I let it wait longer than I have in the past, and as @ouroumov said, it eventually unfroze (and it worked without freezing when I clicked it again until I restarted Firefox and did a new download.).

To test my new download widget theory, I downloaded Firefox 51 from Mozilla and tried that. Looks like @monsta is right — it does happen with pre-v.52 Firefox too.

So do you think I should submit a bug with Mozilla and/or MATE (Caja?)?

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I tested it in a VM with 17.04: Firefox freezes too. But on UM 16.10 Firefox 52.0.1 doesnt freeze. I think there could be a problem in Ubuntu MATE 17.04.

My WM: Compiz
Graphics: Intel’s onboard solution in i5 6500

On my netbook (other machine) is UM 16.04 32 bit installed. There runs Firefox 52.0.2 without this download problem

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FF freezes (and so does desktop UI) when opening downloads library in 17.04 updated from previous beta2 version. But only when opening it the first time. Sorts itself out in about 30 seconds. Thereafter, Tools, Downloads seems to function as expected. Compton used as window manager. Graphics Intel 965GM. Weird…

Edit: Ran safe mode while still in 17.04 - no problems.

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G’day.

Recently installed MATE 17.04 - clean install on an X220/i5/16GB RAM/250 GB SSD.

My problem is as follows.

When Downloading a (any type) file using Firefox 52.01, when the file download concludes, if you click on the little “display progress of download” arrow on the address bar (RHS), then click on “Open Containing folder” my machine crashes. It sometimes becomes responsive after a minute or 2, sometimes all I can do is bring up a terminal (which is basically all I can do - all menu’s are unresponsive, as is FF, shutdown button, anything in the panel, etc.) search for the PID of FF and kill it.

I have tried:

  1. deleting FF and old profile I had copied across from my old O.S (16.10 Ubuntu Mate) and reinstalled a new copy of FF - via the Package Manager , which created a new profile. No addons or extensions applied.

  2. Disabled everything. Ran FF in safe mode, refreshed FF, reset the browser:download user settings. Still same problem.

  3. Cleared cache, cookies, etc on new fresh FF install.

  4. I have just tried booting 17.04 using a bootable USB drive (ie. running Ubuntu 17.04 Mate from a USB drive) on the same machine. The problem is still present.

5 . I have tried again to change my download location to another newly created folder in my /home directory. The Problem is still present.

  1. Whilst testing FF, I ran “htop” from the command line to see if there was a memory issue. The Firefox PID was only reporting ~2% of CPU & ~1.5% of RAM. I did notice however that whilst FF was crashed, several processes (new PID’s) were being created. Not sure if that’s relevant.

  2. Other programs on my system quite happily let me save and choose a folder to save to.

8 . PDF’s opened via the browser PDF application (Atril) work fine. But if that PDF is Downloaded, and the Download arrow is clicked after D/L completion, then the folder icon to open file location - it crashes.

  1. I have also tried FF 51 on same machine, and get same thing/problem.

Initially I thought it a FF problem and have submitted this:
https://support.mozilla.org/t5/Firefox/Firefox-52-01/m-p/1391429/highlight/false#M1047621

But, on further investigation I don’t think it’s FF crashing as I don’t have anything in “about:crashes” in FF.

I have also subsequently gone back to 16.10 (used another SSD) and have no problem with FF and D/L’s.

I am really thinking it’s a MATE problem.

How can I go finding out exactly what is crashing? It’s like the MATE desktop is crashing (I think) …Any other thoughts? Diagnostics I can run?

Thanks

~S.O

(excuse numbering, it kinda got wonky after I posted, can’t fix for some reason…)

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Others have reported a similar issue. See -

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Sorry for my bad English. I have a same issue here on Ubuntu mate 17.04. When i click on Same here. When i want to open the Download locationб Firefox freezesб but about 10 sec. or soб opening files, but not in file manager, but in audacious music player…

Created bug report.

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu-mate/+bug/1683653

Please add any other information, etc.

Thanks

~L.

2 Likes

Today i tested Solus MATE 2017.04.18 with Mate Desktop 1.18.0.
There Firefox also freezes when trying to open “Downloads” after downloading a file. I added this text also to bugs.launchpad.
Just to let you know :slight_smile:

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This is now fixed:

Sorry, that was a regression from migrating Caja to GtkApplication in 1.18. We’ll release a new 1.18.x version later.
@Wimpy: please pick up the patch :slight_smile:

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Thanks for fixing it, and thanks for posting here to let us know!