Ubuntu + Firefox + Add Reply or PM = Crash

[Robor]

This bug has been updated with some new info. Here's what the developer said:

'This will be fixed in Feisty. For Edgy however we can only add security patches to it, and from reading backport policies we are not able to backport FireFox. However this has been nominated for 1.8.1.3 from upstream. If it is fixed in upstream version than its likely it will be fixed in 2.0.0.3 release, and than we will beable to fix this issue for edgy. We are looking into this and keeping track of it so we know what we can do with it.'

--------------------- Original Post Below ---------------------

Before it was happening once in a while - a few times last week. Now it's happening more frequently - 2 times today. Here's the bug I filed -- Bug link here

I ran Firefox from command line to see if I got some idea of what's causing it. Here's the output after the crash:

(Gecko:15252): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid uninstantiatable type `(null)' in cast to `GtkWidget'

(Gecko:15252): GLib-GObject-WARNING **: invalid uninstantiatable type `(null)' in cast to `GObject'

(Gecko:15252): GLib-GObject-CRITICAL **: g_object_get_data: assertion `G_IS_OBJECT (object)' failed
Segmentation fault (core dumped)

EDIT: Fixed link (duh on me)

 

[Bremen]

hrm, no problems here. Running edgy myself. Maybe its a plugin/add-on you installed?

 

[drag]

What I would try is to isolate the problem. It's probably due to some extension or theme that your using, is my guess.



Setup a second throw-away account and see if you can reproduce from there...

Also clean out the cache and personal data then try it again.

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: Bremen
hrm, no problems here. Running edgy myself. Maybe its a plugin/add-on you installed?

I've got my Ubuntu lappy here with me at work. I've got a very similar setup on it and it's stable. I've got more Add-ons installed on it but they're not exactly the same. Here's my Add-ons on the system that's crashing (posting from it now)...

Adblock Plus
Adblock Filterset.G Updater
* Adblock Plus: Element Hiding Helper
Fasterfox
Foxmarks Bookmarks Synchronizer
* United States English Dictionary

* Not installed on my other 'stable' system

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: drag
What I would try is to isolate the problem. It's probably due to some extension or theme that your using, is my guess.

Setup a second throw-away account and see if you can reproduce from there...

Also clean out the cache and personal data then try it again.

Theme is default and my Add-ons are in the post just above this one. I have Firefox set to auto-clear personal data (browsing/download history, cache, saved forms, and authenticated sessions) on close.

The frustrating part is it's sporadic. Happened 2 or 3 times yesterday. Happened a handful of times last week. One of the Devs replied to my bug and asked if I had other windows/tabs open. I'm pretty sure the last crash happened with just AnandTech open but today I'm going to make sure I have just AT open and see if I can reproduce it.

(EDIT) -- It crashed on this post but I had the Launchpad.Net bug page open as well

 

[zig3695]

try installing firefox on windows

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: zig3695
try installing firefox on windows

Why? I've installed literally hundreds of Firefox installs in Windows. I've been using Firefox in Windows to post on AnandTech for years and I've never experienced this problem. I'm trying to track down the issue within Linux.

 

[xtknight]

Same thing happens here. It always has, even through reinstalls.

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: xtknight
Same thing happens here. It always has, even through reinstalls.

You're getting the same crash that I'm getting?

 

[brutal]

I'd recommend building the package natively, if you're using a precompiled binary form of the package.

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: brutal
I'd recommend building the package natively, if you're using a precompiled binary form of the package.

I'm using the version that comes by default with Edgy. The only additional thing I did is install the Add-ons (see above).

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: Robor

Originally posted by: xtknight
Same thing happens here. It always has, even through reinstalls.

You're getting the same crash that I'm getting?

I haven't tracked the exact stderr/stdout of the program but my Firefox crashes (only on AnandTech Forums when replying). It doesn't seem to happen under Windows for me either, only Ubuntu.

I press "reply to topic" while having a good number of windows open, and just as the reply window closes and the main forum viewing page starts to reload, all the graphics of the window gradually degrade and it crashes to my desktop, bringing along all the open tabs with it. If I restore my session I usually end up with a stray blank/malformed 'reply to message' browser window.

I'll try tracing it the next time I can reproduce it. That might be hard as it doesn't happen to me very often (maybe once or twice a day). And, it doesn't happen all the time. I am not able to find a pattern in when it happens. I think I've noticed it only happens when I've replied at least once already to a post. And the number of windows doesn't matter (I have 27 open right now with various tabs under each). It has crashed when I've only had 2 windows open with few tabs. Crashes on the AT Forums have never happened under Opera/Linux.

 

[xtknight]

Originally posted by: brutal
I'd recommend building the package natively, if you're using a precompiled binary form of the package.

I'm pretty sure it happened when I compiled my own Bon Echo.

Edit: err, actually I didn't compile it. It was a Bon Echo binary separate from my distro's, though.

 

[Nothinman]

I'd recommend building the package natively, if you're using a precompiled binary form of the package.

Unless he plans on actually debugging the thing with something like gdb that's pointless, compiling something locally adds more variables than it removes.

 

[brutal]

Unless he plans on actually debugging the thing with something like gdb that's pointless

It'll build the package with the libraries on the system, rather than the libraries of the system which the binary package was built upon.

Those who're having trouble with this package, consider rebuilding the package and all its dependencies from the latest stable release of your package source tree.

 

[Nothinman]

It'll build the package with the libraries on the system, rather than the libraries of the system which the binary package was built upon.

Which will be the same unless he built other things locally too.

Those who're having trouble with this package, consider rebuilding the package and all its dependencies from the latest stable release of your package source tree.

All of it's dependencies? That's insane, it's got over 20 dependencies and if you follow the dependency try all of the way down you'll end up recompiling 1/3 of your distro.

 

[drag]

Look. This is what you do.

1. Update your system. Make sure you have everything up to date.
2. Reboot to make sure that everything is running the latest version of whatever is aviable.
3. Create a sterile user environment were you can use Firefox in it's default state with no add-ons, themes, or anything of that sort.
4. See if you can recreate the problem.

If you can do that then make a step by step description of what you need to do to reproduce the problem and send that to the bug report. Tell them what you did and such.

That way a developer can go and and FIX the bug.

It may not have anything to do with Firefox at ALL!! It could be a bug with X or with some gnome libraries that is causing Firefox to fail.

Recompiling firefox to make it work for you may help, but ultimately that bug will still be there later on to bite you in the ass. If you can get the problem reproducable in a controlled environment then it will make it much much easier for the Ubuntu people to find and fix the problem.

Then later on you are not going to run into again. It will not only be fixed for you then for everybody else using Ubuntu.

(this isn't windows, people actually fix stuff time to time...)

 

[brutal]

Which will be the same unless he built other things locally too.

Not usually.

All of it's dependencies? That's insane, it's got over 20 dependencies and if you follow the dependency try all of the way down you'll end up recompiling 1/3 of your distro.

Maybe your distro.


drag's answer is more precise and wiill better assess the problem.

 

[Nothinman]

Not usually.

Yes, usually. Any distro worth it's salt has autobuilders that build their packages against their own current packages, otherwise autobuilding the packages is worthless.

Maybe your distro.

And yours too unless they strip out half of the functionality first.

 

[xtknight]

I wasn't able to reproduce the problem at all today despite numerous replies. I will reply to your bug report just to make sure they know it's not only your system that has the problem. Is yours reproducible by just replying once to a thread? Only with the big-window reply (vs. quick reply)? Need some more details.

 

[brutal]

And yours too unless they strip out half of the functionality first.

No, they just separate the third party packages from the base system, so none of the functionality is lost.

 

[Kappo]

I had a VERY similar problem and it ended up being an issue with Flash. The Ubuntu forums have some great walkthroughs on using the newer Firefox as the system default instead of Bon Echo.

 

[Nothinman]

No, they just separate the third party packages from the base system, so none of the functionality is lost.

The core functionality of Firefox requires X, cairo, libfreetype crap, glib, gtk2, spelling crap, c++ crap, etc. If you were to recompile all of that you'd end up rebuild at least 1/3 of your distro if not more.

 

[Robor]

Originally posted by: xtknight
I wasn't able to reproduce the problem at all today despite numerous replies. I will reply to your bug report just to make sure they know it's not only your system that has the problem. Is yours reproducible by just replying once to a thread? Only with the big-window reply (vs. quick reply)? Need some more details.

I got the Email about your reply to my bug. Unfortunately I have been slammed at work and had no time to test this issue further since filing it. Hopefully today will be a little slower and I'll be able to experiment. I will reply to the developer and your post when I get a chance. Thanks!

EDIT: Re-reading the thread again... xtknight -- Someone mentioned flash maybe being the problem. Do you have flash installed? If so, do you have Adblock installed as well and use it to block flash ads here? I block the top and side banners when I see them (same as other forums). Maybe that's part of the issue?

 

[xtknight]

Robor:

I do have the Flash32 .so library (run through the 64-bit nspluginwrapper plugin). And Flash does work. I also have AdBlock but maybe Flash is still getting loaded somehow. I have had a few problems with Flash causing 100% mem usage (mem leak?) and completely freezing the PC, but these are few and far between. Also rather unreproducible. Frankly I just haven't gotten around to caring about it since it only happens about once a week (the Flash crashing). The Firefox crashing is more frequent but I haven't been able to reproduce that ever since I've tried running firefox from the terminal. I've replied at least ten times since and haven't had the issue, even with 21 windows open.