How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

Sector11 · 2016-07-09 19:50:18

I thought I had fixed this but I have not.

Sometime before Firefox became the norm for Debian, Iceweasel was slow to fire up and Firefox ESR 45.2.0 became like a sloth stuck in quicksand when starting and stopping the app.

Well, I just fixed that. I found this site of all places at: mozilla support. DUH!!!

How to stop Firefox from making automatic connections

I went through everything but the Section that really helped speed things up: Mozilla content
- Subsections: Tiles and Snippets.

FF takes 3 to 5 seconds to fire up and I watch my CPU usage climb so one of my triple cores will max out at 100% for a couple of seconds; this also happens when shutting down.

Any help appreciated.

Could this be related - by Horizon_Brave

Index » GUI & Applications » FireFox.. A CPU Hog Suddenly

ohnonot · 2016-07-12 10:24:54

S11, apart from all that was said in that other thread (i really just scrolled through it) - you know there's plenty of "speed up firefox" howtos on the 'net?
most of them miss one important fact: if you keep all your cookies and other offline data across restarts, maybe even re-open all your tabs (instead of starting with a blank page) - all that will slow the startup and subsequent browsing experience. sometimes spectacularly so.
i recommend to visit the privacy tab of your preferences and make sure that both cookies and offline data are cleared when firefox closes.
i have also restricted 3rd party cookies to visited sites.

Head_on_a_Stick · 2016-07-12 19:13:23

Does this still happen if you start Firefox in Safe Mode?

Press F10 to bring up the menu system and go to Help → Restart with Add-ons disabled

Sector11 · 2016-07-12 20:13:47

ohnonot wrote:

if you keep all your cookies and other offline data across restarts

OH CRAP! I was hoping it wouldn't come to this. My wife plays a zillion 'flash' games and has more cookies than the Girl Guides to 'keep her scores'.

I hate this.

Guess I will have to live with this. every time I talk to her about 'security etc etc' I get - "Welll, I have nothing to hide." {sigh}

Sector11 · 2016-07-12 20:18:38

Head_on_a_Stick wrote:

Does this still happen if you start Firefox in Safe Mode?
Press F10 to bring up the menu system and go to Help → Restart with Add-ons disabled

Yup, safe mode fires up faster. Not sure what that would do with my wife's games though. Must check.

Sector11 · 2016-07-12 20:29:04

Saw unklar's /usr/bin/firefox-esr idea and 'seems' to be that it's working faster but still hitting 100% when shutting down.

Sector11 · 2016-07-12 20:36:14

Just so everyone knows the addon's - and flash (which should be pepper-flash - I have no way of knowing) :

hhh · 2016-07-12 21:00:30

@ Sector, merge your thread with this other one?

https://forums.bunsenlabs.org/viewtopic.php?id=2317

Sector11 · 2016-07-12 23:39:25

I had it there and split it because:

He's talking about maxing out after suspend and videos not working

Mine is slow to start and maxing out a cpu to 100% when starting and shutting down.

They are different.

hhh · 2016-07-13 01:03:18

Got it, that's fine.

Horizon_Brave · 2016-07-13 01:10:14

Sector11 wrote:

I had it there and split it because:
He's talking about maxing out after suspend and videos not working
Mine is slow to start and maxing out a cpu to 100% when starting and shutting down.
They are different.

Not quite, mine maxes out before the suspend, but causes a lot of "unresponsive script" errors once suspend has activated. Even from the get go when playing any flash, the cpu cycles like crazy

ohnonot · 2016-07-13 06:03:24

Sector11 wrote:

OH CRAP! I was hoping it wouldn't come to this. My wife plays a zillion 'flash' games and has more cookies than the Girl Guides to 'keep her scores'.

ok, in that case make a test:
don't change your privacy setting just yet, but open firefox to a blank page, then go preferences => privacy => show cookies, and delete all cookies except those your wife depends on.
then shutdown & restart and see if it helps.

IF it helps, there's addons (cookie manager?) that can automate that.

there's also the so-called "Offline website data" - not to be confused with ff's cache - i THINK that's just passively sitting there until you open the site in question, but who knows for sure?

johnraff · 2016-07-13 06:36:09

Sector11 wrote:

ohnonot wrote:
if you keep all your cookies and other offline data across restarts
OH CRAP! I was hoping it wouldn't come to this. My wife plays a zillion 'flash' games and has more cookies than the Girl Guides to 'keep her scores'.

Firefox used to have an "ask me every time" option for cookies which they sneakily took away ( google, or http://www.ghacks.net/2016/04/05/improv … n-firefox/ ).

Anyway, you can try setting Fx to delete cookies whenever you close the browser (with "keep until I close Firefox") then set the important ones to keep forever, either manually in the "Exceptions" box or with a cookie manager like Keep until Closed. This arrangement has been working pretty well for me to date.

unklar · 2016-07-13 09:19:12

@johnraff

johnraff · 2016-07-14 03:34:08

^Yes, pretty much the same as mine.

ohnonot · 2016-07-15 07:38:06

^ but won't that just make firefox choke on its own, without affecting the rest of the system?

Sector11 · 2016-07-15 17:07:34

Been busy with life ... will read up and see what's what. Have not abandoned my thread.

Sector11 · 2016-07-15 17:16:56

ohnonot wrote:

Sector11 wrote:
OH CRAP! I was hoping it wouldn't come to this. My wife plays a zillion 'flash' games and has more cookies than the Girl Guides to 'keep her scores'.
ok, in that case make a test:
don't change your privacy setting just yet, but open firefox to a blank page, then go preferences => privacy => show cookies, and delete all cookies except those your wife depends on.
then shutdown & restart and see if it helps.
IF it helps, there's addons (cookie manager?) that can automate that.
there's also the so-called "Offline website data" - not to be confused with ff's cache - i THINK that's just passively sitting there until you open the site in question, but who knows for sure?

I have "Self Destructing Cookies" active and if a site is not "Allowed" in the white list they get deleted as soom as I shut down FF. Also that list comes with "Blocked" sites, when installed, that are know Bad-Boys. I keep a pretty close eye on that list.

Sector11 · 2016-07-15 17:34:36

madoromi wrote:

You can put Firefox into an extra cgroup and limit the maximum CPU share it can take (also memory, swap, network bandwidth, etc). E.g. as explained here https://samthursfield.wordpress.com/201 … g-systemd/. It can also be done using firejail https://firejail.wordpress.com/features-3/man-firejail/.

I have firejail and tried it - my wife lost all her scores on her games

Well, didn't loose them, but couldn't assess them. I use firejail now with my FF and Palemoon.

Also trying something unklar mentioned:

/usr/bin/firefox-esr

... it seems tio help. so nest step is:

firejail /usr/bin/firefox-esr

While mentioning firejail
1. can FF be set to accept these cookies but keep them in the sandbox, so if FF is started without firejail it won't see the cookies?

Must search for that.

Horizon_Brave · 2016-07-15 17:59:00

Also Sector11, try disabling/enabling hardware acceleration in firefox's preferences. It was suggested in my F.F thread, but I didn't notice much of a difference, maybe you'll have better luck?

Also do you notice that HTML5 video (a lot of youtube) does increase the CPU load but no where near as badly as Flash. And it doesn't crash or max out the cpu until it slows do a hot, crawl? I can play a video through HTML5, monitor the CPU and see a HUGE difference.

Lastly, check out Cookie Controller 5.5 it's in the add on's store in firefox.

#1 2016-07-09 19:50:18

How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#2 2016-07-12 10:24:54

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#3 2016-07-12 19:13:23

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#4 2016-07-12 20:13:47

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#5 2016-07-12 20:18:38

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#6 2016-07-12 20:29:04

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#7 2016-07-12 20:36:14

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#8 2016-07-12 21:00:30

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#9 2016-07-12 23:39:25

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#10 2016-07-13 01:03:18

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#11 2016-07-13 01:10:14

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#12 2016-07-13 06:03:24

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#13 2016-07-13 06:36:09

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#14 2016-07-13 09:19:12

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#15 2016-07-14 03:34:08

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#16 2016-07-15 07:38:06

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#17 2016-07-15 17:07:34

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#18 2016-07-15 17:16:56

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#19 2016-07-15 17:34:36

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

#20 2016-07-15 17:59:00

Re: How does one stop FF from maxing out CPU usage

Board footer