Firefox scrolling gets very choppy over time

[Red Squirrel]

This started recently, I noticed that on some sites, such as Facebook or other sites that use lot of javascript, the scrolling will get incredibly choppy, to the point that it's so frustrating I have to reboot. I will be good for maybe 10 or so minutes, then it will start to get bad again.

What would be causing this? In Windows it's always very smooth.

 

[ShadowVVL]

yeah I am still on kubuntu 12.04 and debian 7 and I have the same issues.I sometimes get it on Midori aswell.

Not sure what causes it!

 

[Red Squirrel]

Glad to know it's not just me!

 

[ShadowVVL]

same,I am going to test gnewsense next week and see if I get the same issues.

I should also mention debian is using openjdk-6-jre and on kubuntu is java 6 from oracle.Both have the same issues.

If you have flash player plugin enabled that could be it also.I know flash is kinda iffy as well on most debian/ubuntu based OSes.I will try browsing around with it off for a few days and see if it might be the issue.

 

[lxskllr]

The only page I get lag on is the local addon page. I haven't really looked into it since I don't spend much time there. Try changing hardware acceleration settings, and see if that helps.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah that does nothing. The issue escalates worse and worse till I reboot. I can't even view the Facebook time line past the 5th entry or so. It's pretty bad when my brand new core i7 machine with tons of ram and a SSD can't even do Facebook. Not that I spend much time on there, it's just an annoyance to know that even my crappy work computer can handle it better than mine. There's got to be some kind of fix for this.

Is there another browser I can use under Linux other than Chrome[ium]? (which I don't really want to use) At least I can see if I can rule out a Firefox specific issue.

 

[John Connor]

Have you tried the NoScrip add-on?

I thought Pale Moon was developed for Linux, but appears "Moonchild" won't make it. So here's a list of other browsers. http://alternativeto.net/software/palemoon/?platform=linux

 

[lxskllr]

That isn't normal. Completely remove it, preferences and all, and reinstall. If want to try other browsers, here's a few I use...

Midori
Icecat
Seamonkey

 

[Red Squirrel]

Don't have no script. I like the idea, but I hate the fact that I have to spend about 5 minutes screwing with it each time I go to a site, because today's programmers are terrible at overusing javascript. Some sites also have like 30 different hosts I need to allow, I dont get that. Just grew tired of dealing with it and went without it. I'm hoping that because I use Linux the odds of a drive by virus are slim to none... I do use adblock though... wonder if that could be causing this?

I was on IMDB and it's doing the same thing. It seems to be random select sites.

 

[John Connor]

I just allow top level domains by default in NoScript. It lessens the cumbersomeness.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I'm starting to think it's adblock that was causing this. I disabled it and I've been fine since. White listing certain sites is not enough, it has to be disabled completely. Damn... Guess I'll have to live with ads everywhere.

 

[lxskllr]

I use ABP, and don't have that problem. What exact addon are you using, and what lists?

 

[Red Squirrel]

Only addons I have is Adblock Plus 2.4 and Ubuntu Firefox Modification 2.7. Did not add that, guessing it's a system thing. Also have youtube centre but it actually breaks youtube completely so I've always had it disabled. wanted to troubleshoot and just never got around to it.

Also have shockwave flash 11 under plugins.

Other than that it's a fairly standard basic install.

 

[lxskllr]

I don't know. I have the same thing more or less, and I don't get scroll lag aside from the addons menu like I mentioned above. Here's my list of addons...

Adblock Plus 2.4
BetterPrivacy 1.68
Certificate Patrol 2.0.14 [DISABLED]
CipherFox 3.7.1
Colorific 5.7 [DISABLED]
DownThemAll! 2.0.16 [DISABLED]
DownThemAll! AntiContainer 1.3 [DISABLED]
Element Hiding Helper for Adblock Plus 1.2.3
Exif Viewer 2.00
Firebug 1.12.5
Firefox OS Simulator 4.0 [DISABLED]
Flagfox 4.2.16
FlashDisable 0.9.3
FlashGot 1.5.5.95
Forecastfox 2.2.2
Greasemonkey 1.13
HTTPS-Everywhere 3.4.5
Jamendo Album Downloader 0.2.2.1 [DISABLED]
Lightbeam 1.0.5 [DISABLED]
MediaCrush 1.0
Nightly Tester Tools 3.7
NoScript 2.6.8.12rc2
Preferences Monitor 3.5 [DISABLED]
Rainbow 1.6
Reddit Enhancement Suite 4.3.1.2
ReloadEvery 17.0.0
RequestPolicy 1.0.0b3
Roomy Bookmarks Toolbar 1.4.4
SecretAgent 1.14
Self-Destructing Cookies 0.4.2
Shumway 0.7.944 [DISABLED]
Status-4-Evar 2013.09.14.22b
Stylish 1.4.0

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yeah definitely adblock doing it for me. Tried enabling it again and immediately scrolling became very choppy.

 

[John Connor]

Does Linux have the equivalent of a host file? You can block ads with that.

I guess Linux does have a host file. http://hosts-file.net/?s=Download

http://lifehacker.com/5817447/how-t...and-speed-up-web-browsing-with-the-hosts-file

 

[Red Squirrel]

Well it started doing it again without adblock turned on, so guess it's not adblock. What a pain in the ass. Lot of sites become completely unusable when it's doing this. Pretty much anything that uses javascript based scrolling or just lot of javascript in general.

 

[Steltek]

Have you tried to create a new firefox user profile? It is possible your firefox profile could be corrupted.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Have not tried but suppose it's worth a try. Could also use a bookmark cleanup anyway, lot of sites I don't really visit anymore. This bookmark profile has been imported through so many versions and OSes that it's very well possible something went screwy. The actual profile is fresh though, but the favorites arn't.

I also keep getting a message that firefox is slow to load (I don't really find it is but w/e) and I clicked the link to fix it, and it did a "reset".

Right now I'm running with no extensions and so far so good. I will give it more time then put back adblock to see if it starts again.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Been running with zero extensions, it was going well,then suddenly it started doing it again. So guess it's not adblock after all. It's Firefox itself. I don't know why it's so random though. I went practically a whole month with no issues till now. I rebooted since I had to load into windows for something, and now it started to do it again right into a fresh boot in Linux.

In windows it's so smooth.

 

[Scarpozzi]

Been running with zero extensions, it was going well,then suddenly it started doing it again. So guess it's not adblock after all. It's Firefox itself. I don't know why it's so random though. I went practically a whole month with no issues till now. I rebooted since I had to load into windows for something, and now it started to do it again right into a fresh boot in Linux.

In windows it's so smooth.

Maybe it's your linux video driver.

For me, I have issues in firefox with text areas. I'll open a window (this reply window, for instance) and whole lines of prior text disappear randomly. They're still there, but just don't show up.

I'm on the latest video driver, but there's something to it. I don't have this problem in Midori.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I hate these stupid driver issues, because there's nothing you can do. So guess I'm probably stuck with this then? Hardware companies really need to just make the drivers open source. There's no reason not to, we buy the hardware to use it, and it just so happens it needs drivers. It seems most hardware companies usually skimp on the driver part anyway, so let the community fix it.

 

[Scarpozzi]

I hate these stupid driver issues, because there's nothing you can do. So guess I'm probably stuck with this then? Hardware companies really need to just make the drivers open source. There's no reason not to, we buy the hardware to use it, and it just so happens it needs drivers. It seems most hardware companies usually skimp on the driver part anyway, so let the community fix it.

Yeah...some chipsets just have better support than others. It's all speculation that it's a driver issue. I just know I see occasional hiccups and make the assumption that there's a link somewhere.

I've not had any other issues that I'm aware of with my drivers since I got them direct from AMD. It's only in Firefox that I get disappearing text.