Firefox slow google reader

Binary package hint: firefox-3.5

How to reproduce :
go to google reader, read normal feeds (for example reddit)
scroll up and down while the mouse pointer is on the description of the items.

Encountered Behavior:
very slow scrolling. Scrolling down by 1 screen takes about 1 min. While scrolling, the window becomes grayed and you can't change tabs/do anything. It will continue scrolling down, being gray, after I finished scrolling my mouse. CPU flies up to 100%

I tried the following :
- launching firefox with a new empty profile. This does not help at all.
- disabling smooth scrolling. This helps, scrolling is faster (but still behind the mouse input), the window is not grayed. The cpu still fires up to 100%. The feeling is like when you drop frames from a video (very irregular scrolling)

ProblemType: Bug
Architecture: i386
Date: Tue Oct 6 19:25:21 2009
DistroRelease: Ubuntu 9.10
NonfreeKernelModules: nvidia
Package: firefox 3.5.3+build1+nobinonly-0ubuntu3
PackageArchitecture: all
ProcEnviron:
 PATH=(custom, user)
 LANG=en_US.UTF-8
 SHELL=/bin/zsh
ProcVersionSignature: Ubuntu 2.6.31-11.36-generic
SourcePackage: firefox-3.5
Uname: Linux 2.6.31-11-generic i686

Same problem with Ubuntu 9.10 x86_64. I tested with Firefox 3.0 and it goes flawlessly, the bug seems to affect only FF 3.5.

Is there any way I can provide more info on this bug, or report it to a more suited place ?

Confirmed here on linux32 and Ubuntu 9.10. Same problem...

Firefox 3.5.4 Ubuntu 9.10 AMD64. Bug still exist. There's no one in other browsers (Midori, Opera).

Also experiencing this on Ubuntu/9.10 (karmic) Firefox/3.5.4.

Also experiencing on Debian sid - Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1.4) Gecko/20091028 Iceweasel/3.5.4 (Debian-3.5.4-1)

I think this bug could be ralated to falsh content in pages ... cause it happens also in other pages with flash

It is still slow with Flashblock.
Since Wonder has it on Debian sid, maybe we should file the bug at mozilla ?

I have the same pb on 9.10 intel

The same happens on my 9.10 (i386, nvidia gpu with release 185 of drivers, compiz enabled).
But I don't think this is exclusively caused by firefox, because:
a) firefox 3.5 scrolling was as fast as 3.0 when I ran it on jaunty
b) chromium scrolling was fast in jaunty, and is now much slower after upgrade to 9.10 (but not as slow as firefox 3.5).

Moreover I noticed that "arora", a qt-based browser, scrolls very fast on 9.10, as fast as chromium was on jaunty (and is not anymore on karmic). Since they are both built on webkit, the difference seems to be in GTK vs. QT.

Maybe the problem is cause byt the combination of new GTK + firefox 3.5.

This happens to me too. I use Ubuntu Karmic 9.10, 32 bit. Firefox 3.5.4.
It isnt as slow as the original poster reports, but it still is pretty annoying. It scrolls down in a "choppy" way, especially when there's an image (it shows the top of the image, repeated, covering the whole reader area, and takes a while to actually alow you to see, so it makes it impossible to "flick trough the news").

Interestingly, the Google Reader Prism available on the repositories seems to scroll "somewhat" faster.

I also tried Arora, it scrolls like a dream.

Same problem here ! very Slow !

this is happening to me as well. firefox 3.5.5 up to date karmic release.
when scrolling using konqueror, it is very fast. opera performs very quickly when scrolling as well.
compiz is enabled and i'm using the nvidia driver in Xorg. this does indeed still scroll incredibly slow when compiz isn't enabled.
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation G72M [Quadro NVS 110M/GeForce Go 7300] (rev a1)

i'll keep trying to track down the root

Thank you for reporting this to Ubuntu. Could you please provide an strace to see what might be causing this?

strace -eopen -f firefox 2>&1 | tee /tmp/ff_strace.log

I also see the hesitation. I tried to listen to a audio download from marketplace.org, after the file downloaded I still got a ~6second delay every ~8 seconds of play.
Attached is a strace of the session

@Micah,

Ubuntu Karmic up to date.
I run your command. I added -safe-mode parameter to firefox just to disable any extensions which might interfere.
Same behaviour: slow scrolling in Google Reader. Desktop effects enabled, nVidia card.

See the attached strace and please tell me if you need more info.

@Micah,

Ubuntu Karmic up to date.
I run your command. I added -safe-mode parameter to firefox just to disable any extensions which might interfere.
Same behaviour: slow scrolling in Google Reader. Desktop effects enabled, nVidia card.

See the attached strace and please tell me if you need more info.

Thank you for the updates. No more straces are necessary at this time, I will try to look at these soon.

I can confirm that this is also happening to me in Ubuntu Karmic, however, Firefox 3.6 from the Mozilla daily PPA does not have these issues (started using Firefox 3.6 from pre Alpha and ever since now - this never occurred).

Is everyone here having this issue with the nvidia drivers? Please let me know which version of the nvidia driver you are using?
Thanks.

No, this is not limited to nvidia drivers. I have an old ATI Radeon Express card and I'm affected by the bug.

Happens with Intel Graphics as well.

I have the nvidia 185.18.36-0ubuntu9 driver, same problem with firefox and google reader.

does firefox 3.6 behaves as bad??
i dont recall having this symptom, but I use mozilla team dailly PPA, and currently runninng on Firefox 3.7, and find it fast as expected

I ran into this same bug today; strangely it is account-dependent on my machine. If I log in as me, I don't get it. I log in as a guest, and it's there in all its ugly glory.

Hi,

I have the same problem with Google Reader (with Gmail i think no...).The Reader scroll is too slow.

I have a fresh install of Ubuntu 9.10 Karmic with all updates :(.

AMD 64 3400+ Ubuntu 32bits with nVIDIA 6600

Hi, in the Swiftfox forum refering to the last Firefox version (v 3.5.5) the admin/dev says:

//quote http://forums.getswiftfox.com/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=495
3.5.4 caused trouble for some users with a crash on startup. If you experience this trouble with 3.5.5 please check that you have at least version 2.18 of libgtk. In case anyone does run into trouble and for some reason can't upgrade their libgtk and wants 3.5.3 back, here are the links for the tarballs...
//¬quote

Maybe a GTK not resolved problem?

I can reproduce this bug with the stable firefox 3.5.5, and also the pre-3.5.6 and 3.6beta from the mozilla ppa. The unstable versions didn't work for me.

32 bit Karmic, nVidia GeForce 7600 GS, nvidia drivers version 185.

I can reproduce this bug in Google reader.
problem is even worse in Google Wave.

firefox 3.5.5
Smooth scrolling disabled
32 bit Karmic
nVidia Geforce 6200
nVidia drivers version 185

Bug is reproducible here:

Firefox 3.5.5: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.1.5) Gecko/20091109 Ubuntu/9.10 (karmic)
Kubuntu 9.10 x86: Linux ubuntu 2.6.31-15-generic-pae #50-Ubuntu SMP Tue Nov 10 16:12:10 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux
nVidia Drivers 185.18.36

Any resolution? :(
The scroll is totally insufferable

2José Cabo, I solved it by switching to Google Chrome 4 Beta :)

zhekanax,

you did not *solved* it, you *avoided* it by choosing an alternate browser.

I also have this bug in Windows XP. FireFox is extremely slow on Google Reader. On other sites it is very fast (not like IE).
So I guess there's a bug in FF code.

I don't think you can compare the 'slowness' of ff+reader under XP vs the cpu hogging under 9.10...

Btw - ffox 3.5.4 was usable under 9.04 with reader... only under 9.10 it's started to CPU hog (not ff actually, Xorg) - I guess something is 'broken' or 'pretty sub optimal' there...

Me to. Scrolling up and down always bursts one core of my cpu to 100%.

Ok - I did some tests:
* Using nv driver: CPU problem does not occurs, to bad it's non-bling-bling.
* Using nvidia proprio driver: Problem does occurs.. (I am using 173.14.20 to get correct powermizer behavior aka force-underclocking)

Some notes:
* Xorg eats a full core (99%) - sysprof gives nothing except '???'
* Moving firefox window (when open on reader) gives CPU xorg spikes (WTF? with compiz on ?)

So, playing around, I found out that the following command (obviously only applicable with nvidia...)
$ nvidia-settings -a InitialPixmapPlacement=1
fixes the CPU usage for reader - added to gnome-session and I can enjoy my FF again...

Hope this helps...

same on intel graphics

I have the same problem on nvidia 8700M 512 GDDR3

slow and stoping Ubuntu 9.10, I can reboot in kermic koala
I'm using Chromiun to Google Reader

fixed in Lucid alpha 3.

According to Google anouncment Reader will not be available after 1st of July 2013. So I think the bug can be closed.

Upstream bug showing "RESOLVED WORKSFORME"
Google Reader service shut down
Bug report no longer valid so marking as such