Firefox 3.0 Beta 1 Now AvailableTuesday November 20th, 2007The Mozilla Corporation today released Firefox 3 Beta 1, which is now available for download in a variety of languages. The beta includes updates to the default theme, the new places site management features, improved security architecture, and Gecko 1.9. Release notes with a more complete list of features, are also available. I hope for the next release the release notes link to, e.g., testsuspect.mozilla.com instead of www.mozilla.com to demonstrate Malware Protection and Web Forgery Protection. I had to use the back button and check the URLs to understand what I was seeing. Congrats on this release, I've been running nightlies for so long (before it was even "Gran Paradiso") that FF3 seems years old. The recent "Location bar & auto-complete" improvement is almost telepathic. Tell me, please, how I can send some bug reports about Firefox 3.0 to developers? The first thing I would suggest is to make a post about the bug in http://forums.mozillazine.org -- the volunteers here are happy to help, but most of them are not developers. To report broken web sites, go to the menu Help->Report Broken Web Site. To do all other official bug reporting, go to https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/enter_bug.cgi -- but please search for an existing bug first, to help reduce duplicates. As always, try to be as descriptive as possible when reporting a bug or requesting a feature. Mac version feels much more fluid and softer. The gui changes are a great improvement. But after I started browsing the preferences it began to lock up and then I had to force quit Firefox. ME TOO! I have not been frustrated with this computer (a Powerbook Al, 12", 512MB RAM, G4 @ 1.33GHz, OS X 10.4.11) until today. The last thing I expected from Firefox 3.0b1 was a runaway condition. I had several tabs open (the same as I always do), and after browsing for a while, the VM reported kept increasing ... up to 1 GB!! Brought the little computer to its knees. I tried closing a few tabs, which took almost 1/2 hour just to get the GUI to respond. The time was still wasted, I eventually sent a kill (TERM) signal to Firefox. Will try to see whether anyone has an open bug on this problem. I'm figuring that it's either a JS runaway, memory leak, etc. (frustrated;) Larry. Here are a couple of bug ids that I feel are relevant to the problem seemingly related to the url classifier db (populating), where the whole system gets taken over in code and VM thrashing -- https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=404645 https://bugzilla.mozilla.org/show_bug.cgi?id=402469 Larry. Firefox 3 beta -1 on Windows XP (SP2) It turned out to be memory HOG ! Just after opering few tabs, the entire system became non-responsive with very frustrating hour-glass wait cursor. Task manager shows memory usage of more than 300,000 K ! O.K., I managed to get a peek at what I am facing (this is on MacOS X, see my comment above). I wonder whether there is a similar situation using the Windows executable. I managed to see the call stack of a thread that seems to be hogging everything. What I've been able to do is to close all tabs and windows, and the darned thing still hogs the entire system. So then, I attached to the process and looked at this piggy thread ... (last call shown first) JSD_GetValueForObject sqlite3_db_handle sqlite3_blob_open sqlite3_step JSD_GetValueForObject JSD_GetValueForObject JSD_GetValueForObject JSD_GetValueForObject JSD_GetValueForObject NS_StringContainerInit_P NS_StringContainerInit_P XRE_GetFileFromPath _NS_InvokeByIndex_P XRE_GetFileFromPath XRE_GetFileFromPath js_Invoke js_FreeStack js_Invoke js_Invoke JS_CallFunctionValue XRE_GetFileFromPath XRE_GetFileFromPath XRE_GetFileFromPath XRE_GetFileFromPath XRE_GetFileFromPath XRE_GetFileFromPath XRE_GetFileFromPath XRE_GetFileFromPath JSD_GetValueForObject JSD_GetValueForObject DispatchEventToHandlers(EventTargetRec*, OpaqueEventRef*, HandlerCallRec*) SendEventToEventTargetInternal(OpaqueEventRef*, OpaqueEventTargetRef*, HandlerCallRec*) SendEventToEventTarget JSD_GetValueForObject -[NSApplication sendAction:to:from:] -[NSMenu performActionForItemAtIndex:] -[NSCarbonMenuImpl performActionWithHighlightingForItemAtIndex:] -[NSMenu performKeyEquivalent:] -[NSApplication _handleKeyEquivalent:] -[NSApplication sendEvent:] -[NSApplication run] JSD_GetValueForObject XRE_GetFileFromPath XRE_main __darwin_gcc3_preregister_frame_info Earlier, I sampled text using Apple's Activity Monitor and in the thread that had sqlite3, I think I saw a hole series of nested mprintf() (or something like that), I though it might be peculiar. Anyway, I think the sqlite3 may be part of Places. Will start looking better in bugzilla, now that I have some function calls (if I did it right;) Larry. Well, something definitely seemed to be hogging the system, from that places access thread (sqlite3 stuff). I was finally able to tame it!! Not sure if all of this was necessary, but I manually deleted the contents of the Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/abcdefgh.default directory (including a 13MB urlclassifier3.sqlite file ... is that normal?). Then I went into the terrible Firefox session and turned off the Restore Windows and Tabs option (general Preferences), to finally make those restored tabs not restore (every time I'd close the window, then have to kill the process, they would come back next time even though I'd previously closed the entire window in Firefox). Then I did a Tools .. Clear Private Data, threw away history, sessions, etc. (everything except for Cookies and Passwords). Now, Firefox 3.0b1 is behaving normally for me. VSIZE as reported by "top" is way, way down (between 200 and 300 MB). Larry. The bad syndrome came back. I had a single window, with no extra tabs, entered addons.mozilla.org into the location box. Things started to slow down. I look in the Cache directory under the profile subdirectory, and the urlclassifier3 is chugging along big time. I see the urlclassifier3.sqlite-journal file populate, then flush to the urlclassifier3.sqlite frequently ... that file has grown again to a few MB already. I close that Firefox window, and the process does not quit. Looking at the one or two active threads, again I see all of those sqlite3-mprintf() calls, apparently nested. I wonder what it's chugging? I need to get either a handy viewer to try and peek into the urlclassifier3 db, or else maybe a Places activity viewer for Firefox 3. I want to know what this darned crazy sucker is trying to do, taking over my entire system!!! Larry. #11 Re: Re: Re: Re: Firefox 3 beta 1 memory hog on Windowsby lc99 Tuesday November 20th, 2007 11:22 PM I've now tried disabling (turning off) the two options "Tell me if the site I'm visiting is a suspected ..", under the Security pane in Firefox 3.0b1's Preferences dialog. The urlclassifier3.sqlite file is finally not growing in size (it re-initializes to about 24KB after I remove it from the Cache directory). Now I'll carry on my merry way, and see whether the craziness recurs. Larry I've had Firefox 3 beta 1 on Windows XP running for more than 24 hours, and memory use is only 63 MB. I've opened and closed more than just a few tabs during that time. Wow that didn't last long. I opened places because it somehow imported a slightly older version of my bookmarks and I went to clear out all the junk and it went INSANELY sluggish as I held down delete. Then about 10 seconds later the whole browser stopped responding and I had to kill it. Calling it places is dumb anyway, just freakin call it bookmarks. Back to Firefox 2 I think we've got to the root of the problem that you and some other Firefox 3 Beta 1 testers are seeing. Starting yesterday, we began receiving reports, like yours, of a new memory/cpu usage issue that happens shortly after a normal startup and can spike the CPU and chew up hundreds of MB of RAM. This is apparently happening to people with new profiles or in profiles that have a very outdated list of bad sites for the Phishing Protection feature and the Malware Protection feature. What's going on is that soon after Firefox is started, Firefox tries to fetch updates to the site forgery and malware lists -- the lists of bad sites that allows Firefox to warn users about suspected Phishing and Attack sites. If the profile has very outdated or no local lists, as is the case for a new Firefox profile, Firefox is trying to bring down these rather large lists in one big chunk rather than slowly in small chunks. This causes Firefox to consume large amounts of CPU and memory and can slow the users machine to a crawl. This problem is due to the change in the "SafeBrowsing Protocol" which only affects Firefox 3 Beta 1 and nightly build users. If you're on Firefox 2, this isn't going to affect you. The work-around for this problem was for us to throttle it on the server side. We've done that and if you try Firefox 3 Beta 1 again, it should be fine. - A Asa, so how is it that I can download huge files, using a variety of applications or utilities, without consuming much VM or CPU resources on any computer available, without any trouble ... but when it comes to fetching a 20MB URL classifier DB, even if it were in a single chunk, that should consume hundreds of MB of VM and take over the entire system? Your stated workaround of throttling the transfer on the server side -- has that been tested enough to demonstrate that it prevents the failing scenario, on typical user systems? In your post it would be good to see a bit more explanation -- why the huge VM takeover, and what makes it go away. Thanks; Larry. I think we have a serious problem with FF3 Beta 1. How do they expect the average user or even a developer to test the Beta if all it does it hog all of the memory and freeze the computer almost instantly after you open the browser? I really hope they fix this issue quickly so we can get on with the business of testing it. It looks like it's going to be a great version but I dont know for sure until this issue is fixed. Just as I was writing to complain about the memory issue I read where they have a work around for the problem now. I can't wait to get home and try it out and hopefully it will work this time. Just as I was writing to complain about the memory issue I read where they have a work around for the problem now. I can't wait to get home and try it out and hopefully it will work this time. #19 Except for this teething problem it does great JOBby drssk Wednesday November 21st, 2007 10:20 PM Sadly it created little embarrassment for me, as I hurriedly announced on demo page of my web application "For flawless performance we strongly recommend Mozilla FireFox 3 (Currently Beta-1) ". Just see this link : http://www.vrundacomputing.com/webquiz/ I was longing for Firefox 3 for last few months, because without requiring users making any changes in their system, it rendered Indian and other east Asian languages perfectly. It also renders Unicode mathematical and scientific symbols far better where IE fails miserably. Hope Firefox 3 becomes usable as fast as possible #24 Re: Except for this teething problem it does greatby thelem Monday November 26th, 2007 11:16 AM You should never recommend a beta for "flawless performance". By definition a beta release will have problems. I want to ask if anyone here have the same problem as I. Basically, I don't have Microsoft's "Arial" font installed on my system (which is ArchLinux <http://archlinux.org>), but I use Red Hat's "Liberation Fonts" as a replacement for it (and for "Times New Roman" and "Courier New" since it have the same metrics and shape is of those from Microsoft's "Core Web Fonts") using FontConfig's rules that I put in "/etc/fonts/local.conf" which works wonderfully in GNOME/GTK+ applications and with Firefox 2.0.0.9, but it doesn't work in Firefox 3 Beta 1! I removed "~/.mozilla" just to be sure there's nothing causing the problem and I started Firefox 3 Beta 1, but, alas, it still doesn't render "Liberation Sans" in-place of "Arial" (or "Liberation Serif" in-place of "Times New Roman"). As I said before, it works flawlessly in GNOME/GTK+ applications and in Firefox 2.0.0.9. Is anyone facing the same problem? Thanks. Ziyad. I'd like to make suggestion for new feature in Firefox 3. It'd be nice to have some kind of bandwidth throttling implemented in download manager. I think best way to do this would be to copy it from WinSCP, it has small slider next to each download ranging from 0 to 100% and you can throttle the speed for each individual download in real time. It'd also be nice to put one slider on the top to control all items at once. This way you could decide what you want to have downloaded first and also transfer bandwidth to other applications. The feature may be optional so that people who don't like it could turn it off or put it in a hide-able side panel. But I think many people would appreciate it. One more suggestion. How about adding feature to save session and exit via ctrl+click on cross(close) button? This would be a nice replacement for the "save session" plugin which I'm currently using. I was wondering if it was possible to automatically save what was in the form fields when you leave the page and go back to it using the history. Also, this would be handy if you closed the browser and re-opened it, so as to avoid having to type everything in again that you labored over :) This feature is present. Just enable the forms option and it's setting in preferences. http://veera.uni.cc I tried to install 3.0 Beta 1 on my mom's computer, and it hogged every last bit of memory up and drove CPU usage to 100%. I was unable to stop it, so I had to press the reset button. After I restarted, I tried again, same thing. No other programs have any trouble whatsoever, and I have no idea what caused it. Others have had the very same issue. Please look through the comments above, on this page. It has to do with the code that builds the URL classification database (stored in your Firefox profile), and there are ways to avoid the runaway condition. I understand your frustration as I experienced the same problem! Larry I have been running the beta since first publicly announced and wanted to say how pleased I am with it. Running with WinXP, the speed, rendering accuracy, and memory usage seem really great. Although I do some Kestrel testing, FF 2 is a thing of the past for me. IMO, FF3 is a winner/keeper. Keep up the good work ! Howard Hoyt Blounts Creek, NC Howard Hi I could not get firefox ver 2 etc to run correctly on vista, it would not allow me to input any data, e.g. if I tried to log into gmail the sign in page just remained and my account could not be accessed, it was the same when I tried to input any search data, nothing happened. I could surf without any problem, the fault only happened when input was required. I tried the safe mode, empty cache etc but still was unable to input my name etc. At least this beta version seems to run ok with vista, however I do occasionally get a shaking screen, and of course not many add ons are ready for this upgrade. But at least I can go back to using firefox and not the crap explorer that ships with vista. Keep up the great work guys, I only wish I could be of more help to everyone. Thanks to all of you that contribute to this great browser. Regards Nev same problem as the kid has on his mom's computer. the beta version gobbles up 2.5 GB (all in my case) of PF space and craps out. works pretty slick 'till then. |