Filed under: Bugs/Recalls, Internet Tools
Process-eating Bug in Firefox 1.5 for Mac OS X
There's a bug in the Mac OS X version of Firefox that has been around for more than three years, and in the latest version released yesterday, the bug is still present.
When you click and hold to highlight some text on a webpage in Firefox, your computer's processor(s) spikes to 90-100% usage until you let go of the moust button. While this is not a problem for every Mac OS X Firefox user, it is definitely a problem for laptop users. A pegged processor, even for a second or two, will kick on a Powerbook or iBook's fan(s) and therefore more rapidly drain the battery.
As much as I like Firefox, this is a problem that should've been fixed a long time ago. Some people are reporting that the same processor spiking occurs when navigating around in Google Maps, as well as many Web 2.0 apps (that use Google's API).
This problem does not affect non-Mac OS X versions of Firefox, or other browsers on the Mac platform.
Correction/Note: Deerpark is the development code name for Firefox 1.5, and I'm running the G5-optimized version on this G5 I'm in front of. When the app was recompiled from the sourcecode, the name wasn't changed, which is why it shows up as Deerpark.
When you click and hold to highlight some text on a webpage in Firefox, your computer's processor(s) spikes to 90-100% usage until you let go of the moust button. While this is not a problem for every Mac OS X Firefox user, it is definitely a problem for laptop users. A pegged processor, even for a second or two, will kick on a Powerbook or iBook's fan(s) and therefore more rapidly drain the battery.
As much as I like Firefox, this is a problem that should've been fixed a long time ago. Some people are reporting that the same processor spiking occurs when navigating around in Google Maps, as well as many Web 2.0 apps (that use Google's API).
This problem does not affect non-Mac OS X versions of Firefox, or other browsers on the Mac platform.
Correction/Note: Deerpark is the development code name for Firefox 1.5, and I'm running the G5-optimized version on this G5 I'm in front of. When the app was recompiled from the sourcecode, the name wasn't changed, which is why it shows up as Deerpark.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
NicB said 6:28PM on 11-30-2005
I cant reproduce this on a PowerBook with 1.5 nor a PowerMac with 1.07.
However, last week I was suffering something similar with 1.5RC2/3 and traced this to the 'FasterFox' extension. Removing that dropped my CPU utilisation down from near 100% to 10-15%.
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andras said 6:29PM on 11-30-2005
Glad they took the time to fix that one....
Here's another one - I can't get the clear privacy system to work correctly at all. It won't clear http auth (and the http auth plugin no longer works), it randomly decides to use it's own settings (clearing session history too) and it doesn't seem to save it's own settings.
I'm using a powerbook, and can vouch for how annoying the cpu spike is. But to be honest, it never really seemed to be a problem until the last update I did, which I hoped that 1.5 would fix.
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JP Dane-Castro said 7:28PM on 11-30-2005
On my dual 2.5Ghz G5 with 1.5GB of RAM both of my processors jump to apporiximately half usage. So on a single processor computer I am guessing that that would be at 100%?
Looks like I replicated it...and I am on the same G5 optimized build as Damien was.
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Thomas said 8:01PM on 11-30-2005
Odd, only happens with the left mouse button. But I see it to. PowerBook 667. Good to note, as soon as you let go of the button the processor goes back down. I don't think it's a huge deal is it? Just an annoyance?
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Nic said 1:40AM on 12-01-2005
Where do I check for usage on my Powerbook?
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Grant Hutchins said 1:54AM on 12-01-2005
The problem shows up for me, taking both 2.7 GHz G5s up to full blast. It's only then that I noticed that I idle at about 40% on both procs. Hmm I should investigate...
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CraHan said 4:18AM on 12-01-2005
Confirmed on a powerbook 1.33GHz. Highly annoying (I tend to select text from webpages quite a lot) and something that should've been solved ages ago.
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Steve P said 6:48AM on 12-01-2005
and is it just me or does Firefox get really flaky when you are trying to select text by double/triple clicking? It gets confused and then slows to the point you can't proceed without reloading.
V1 used to select all text in the url with a single click (how annoying) but V1.5 is more normal. But it still gets confused when you are trying to insert the cursor into the url or search box. If you have text in the search box that is longer than the box, it seems impossible to insert the cursor at the end of the box - you must insert it before there and use the cursor keys to move over. Wacky.
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Chad said 9:51AM on 12-01-2005
This is a carbon thing, not a firefox thing. Try the same thing with Photoshop, AppleWorks, or any other big carbon app. Same result. My guess is carbon is allocating resources the way OS9 used to.
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Thomas said 12:49PM on 12-02-2005
I created a new Appleworks document and tried it. Sure enough the processor went up to 80%. Oddly enough, it didn't spike when I opened a doc file from the desktop. Odd.
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Mark Studdock said 4:26PM on 12-02-2005
That is so weird. At first it didn't really seem to do anything because I had an application that was already taking up close to 70%, but when I closed that I could tell.
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