Firefox crashes and addons

[Ar]

Not strictly speaking a Mageia issue, but it all started from an update
pushed out in Mageia repositories.

I installed the latest version of Firefox, not knowing it was a large
re-write, and it broke 95% of my addons I use including the ones use to
stop Javascript.

After managing to sort out reverting to the older version, and the mess
it made of accessing bookmarks, I have an issue, may not be related to
the update, where one or two websites crash the browser on accessing
them for no clear reason (they've been fine before), the crash a few
times causing a 1GB+ core dump as well.

When I run Firefox in safe mode, which disables all addons, the websites
load without problem. When I run Firefox normally but with all the
addons disabled, the browser still crashes (no core dumps).

Any ideas what's going on? You'd think with the addons disabled, Firefox
would open the page without crashing, but it doesn't.

PS: despite all the guides I've read online, gdb and core dumps is
really user unfriendly. It's not a easy browsable text file, and I don't
want to look through a 1GB file!

[TJ]

Post by Ar
Not strictly speaking a Mageia issue, but it all started from an update
pushed out in Mageia repositories.
I installed the latest version of Firefox, not knowing it was a large
re-write, and it broke 95% of my addons I use including the ones use to
stop Javascript.
After managing to sort out reverting to the older version, and the mess
it made of accessing bookmarks, I have an issue, may not be related to
the update, where one or two websites crash the browser on accessing
them for no clear reason (they've been fine before), the crash a few
times causing a 1GB+ core dump as well.
When I run Firefox in safe mode, which disables all addons, the websites
load without problem. When I run Firefox normally but with all the
addons disabled, the browser still crashes (no core dumps).
Any ideas what's going on? You'd think with the addons disabled, Firefox
would open the page without crashing, but it doesn't.
PS: despite all the guides I've read online, gdb and core dumps is
really user unfriendly. It's not a easy browsable text file, and I don't
want to look through a 1GB file!

Several weeks before the Mageia version of Firefox 60 ESR was put up for
testing, I installed Mozilla's version on one of my machines, just to
see what would happen. Not only did it disable several addons, it also
changed some configuration settings - and added some new ones. Some of
the settings, as I recall, concerned the addons.

When I reverted back to FF52 ESR from Mageia, those new settings
remained. My guess is that the same has happened to you. I can't say
what changes would have been made, because that would depend on the mix
of addons you have, but it's a place to look.

TJ

[Ar]

Post by TJ
When I reverted back to FF52 ESR from Mageia, those new settings
remained. My guess is that the same has happened to you. I can't say
what changes would have been made, because that would depend on the mix
of addons you have, but it's a place to look.

Thanks for the suggestion. I've installed a "diff" GUI to try making
finding the problem. It's going to be a long slog.

[Bit Twister]

Post by Ar
Not strictly speaking a Mageia issue, but it all started from an update
pushed out in Mageia repositories.
I installed the latest version of Firefox, not knowing it was a large
re-write, and it broke 95% of my addons I use including the ones use to
stop Javascript.
After managing to sort out reverting to the older version, and the mess
it made of accessing bookmarks, I have an issue, may not be related to
the update, where one or two websites crash the browser on accessing
them for no clear reason (they've been fine before), the crash a few
times causing a 1GB+ core dump as well.

You need to figure out if it is a system wide problem or just a user problem.

Create a test account, say junk. Log into junk and verify same crash
on a specific url.

If you already have a junk test account, remove the firefox
sub directory and verify you still have the failure.

\rm -r $HOME/.mozilla

Post by Ar
PS: despite all the guides I've read online, gdb and core dumps is
really user unfriendly.

Yes, I have found that ddd is a little bit more friendly, especially
if you have the source code. Just for fun you might try strace.

example: strace firefox http://url_that crashes_here

[Ar]

Post by Bit Twister

Post by Ar
PS: despite all the guides I've read online, gdb and core dumps is
really user unfriendly.

Yes, I have found that ddd is a little bit more friendly, especially
if you have the source code. Just for fun you might try strace.
example: strace firefox http://url_that crashes_here

Thanks, will try these (I do have a "junk" test user account, just not
tried it for Firefox).

[Bit Twister]

Post by Ar

Post by Bit Twister

Post by Ar
PS: despite all the guides I've read online, gdb and core dumps is
really user unfriendly.

Yes, I have found that ddd is a little bit more friendly, especially
if you have the source code. Just for fun you might try strace.
example: strace firefox http://url_that crashes_here

Thanks, will try these (I do have a "junk" test user account, just not
tried it for Firefox).

Do run the firefox test from the command line. You may get more
information about problems.

[Ar]

Post by Bit Twister
Do run the firefox test from the command line. You may get more
information about problems.

I don't know what test from the command line you can do. In any event,
despite a LOT of deleting, re-adding and even completely wiping Firefox
and any remains of it, the problem of crashing on certain websites on a
completely clean install remains, which points to a different problem,
and one probably not (but not 100 certain) caused by the new version of
Firefox.

So I ran the completely clean install from the command line with one
problematic website, and it gave.......


(/usr/lib64/firefox/plugin-container:10132): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to
locate theme engine in module_path: "adwaita",
[fresh] [error] probe_ppp_module, can't find libpepflashplayer.so
[fresh] [error] probe_ppp_module, can't find libpepflashplayer.so
[fresh] [error] probe_ppp_module, can't find libpepflashplayer.so
[fresh] [error] probe_ppp_module, can't find libpepflashplayer.so
[fresh] [error] probe_ppp_module, can't find libpepflashplayer.so
[fresh] [error] probe_ppp_module, can't find libpepflashplayer.so
[fresh] [error] probe_ppp_module, can't find libpepflashplayer.so
[fresh] [error] probe_ppp_module, can't find libpepflashplayer.so
[fresh 10132] plugin missing, using placeholder
[NPAPI 10132] ###!!! ABORT: Aborting on channel error.: file
/home/iurt/rpmbuild/BUILD/firefox-52.2.0esr/ipc/glue/MessageChannel.cpp,
line 2152
[NPAPI 10132] ###!!! ABORT: Aborting on channel error.: file
/home/iurt/rpmbuild/BUILD/firefox-52.2.0esr/ipc/glue/MessageChannel.cpp,
line 2152
[Child 10055] ###!!! ABORT: Aborting on channel error.: file
/home/iurt/rpmbuild/BUILD/firefox-52.2.0esr/ipc/glue/MessageChannel.cpp,
line 2152
[Child 10055] ###!!! ABORT: Aborting on channel error.: file
/home/iurt/rpmbuild/BUILD/firefox-52.2.0esr/ipc/glue/MessageChannel.cpp,
line 2152
###!!! [Child][MessageChannel] Error:
(msgtype=0x3E0003,name=PCompositable::Msg_Destroy) Channel error: cannot
send/recv


Then when you visit an offending website, it produces stuff like below.
BTW, there's no such user at /home/iurt/ so I don't know who coded that.



[Thread debugging using libthread_db enabled]
Using host libthread_db library "/lib64/libthread_db.so.1".
0x00007eff976f1fcd in poll () from /lib64/libc.so.6
Copying output to /tmp/freshwrapper-backtrace-1539288138-10132.txt.
=== backtrace triggered by signal 11 ===
=== current thread ===
#0 0x00007eff976f1fcd in poll () from /lib64/libc.so.6
#1 0x00007eff9352ce14 in g_main_context_iterate.isra () from
/lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0
#2 0x00007eff9352cf2c in g_main_context_iteration () from
/lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0
#3 0x00007eff998505e2 in
base::MessagePumpForUI::RunWithDispatcher(base::MessagePump::Delegate*,
base::MessagePumpForUI::Dispatcher*) () from /usr/lib64/firefox/libxul.so
#4 0x00007eff998559ad in MessageLoop::Run() () from
/usr/lib64/firefox/libxul.so
#5 0x00007eff9b9e0c06 in XRE_InitChildProcess () from
/usr/lib64/firefox/libxul.so
#6 0x000055687bb644eb in content_process_main(int, char**) [clone
.part.2] ()
#7 0x00007eff97628600 in __libc_start_main () from /lib64/libc.so.6
#8 0x000055687bb63c69 in _start ()
=== thread list ===
Id Target Id Frame
* 1 Thread 0x7eff9e1eca40 (LWP 10132) "plugin-containe"
0x00007eff976f1fcd in poll () from /lib64/libc.so.6
2 Thread 0x7eff88c82700 (LWP 10134) "Chrome_ChildThr"
0x00007eff976c54c3 in waitpid () from /lib64/libc.so.6
3 Thread 0x7eff7d8ff700 (LWP 10135) "gmain" 0x00007eff976f1fcd in
poll () from /lib64/libc.so.6
4 Thread 0x7eff7d0fe700 (LWP 10136) "gdbus" 0x00007eff976f1fcd in
poll () from /lib64/libc.so.6
5 Thread 0x7eff7c8fd700 (LWP 10137) "pool" 0x00007eff976f7f69 in
syscall () from /lib64/libc.so.6
=== all threads ===

[Bit Twister]

Post by Ar

Post by Bit Twister
Do run the firefox test from the command line. You may get more
information about problems.

I don't know what test from the command line you can do.

Hehe, you are testing firefox by launching it either with or without a
url. That is the test.

Post by Ar
In any event,
despite a LOT of deleting, re-adding and even completely wiping Firefox
and any remains of it, the problem of crashing on certain websites on a
completely clean install remains, which points to a different problem,
and one probably not (but not 100 certain) caused by the new version of
Firefox.

Still not sure if you tried the test using the "junk" account.

Post by Ar
So I ran the completely clean install from the command line with one
problematic website, and it gave.......
(/usr/lib64/firefox/plugin-container:10132): Gtk-WARNING **: Unable to
locate theme engine in module_path: "adwaita",
[fresh] [error] probe_ppp_module, can't find libpepflashplayer.so

I would have placed my bet on getting a rpm to get that installed.
That assumes it is not on the system. Go ahead and verify it is not installed,
Example:
$ locate libpepflashplayer
/usr/lib64/chromium-browser/PepperFlash/libpepflashplayer.so

If you have one, you may want to try, installing the mozplugger rpm,
and running mozplugger-update as root. then test firefox again.

Post by Ar
[fresh 10132] plugin missing, using placeholder
[NPAPI 10132] ###!!! ABORT: Aborting on channel error.: file
/home/iurt/rpmbuild/BUILD/firefox-52.2.0esr/ipc/glue/MessageChannel.cpp,
line 2152

That is a Mageia bug in my opinion, but in your case it probably would
be closed with wontfix because firefox-5* is no longer supported since
QA has released firefox-6*

Post by Ar
Then when you visit an offending website, it produces stuff like below.
BTW, there's no such user at /home/iurt/ so I don't know who coded that.

A bug in the package that builds the rpm.

My recommendation, contact each addon author for addons you are using
to get their addon working with the new firefox, or install NoScript
in the new 6* firefox.

If your adblock addon is not going to be ported to latest firefox, you
can consider installing privoxy and adding the sites you want blocked.

sample configuration snippet from mine

{ +block +handle-as-image }
.adshuffle.*
adserver.adtechus.com/*
adserver.adtech.de/*
.mspmentor.net/*

<snip>

{ +block }
192.168.11.1

##------------ end /var/local/config/xx__my.action ------------

Note the last rule. I saw some article where malware would attack your
router while you were looking at an infected website from within your
account so I block access to my router via firefox.

[David W. Hodgins]

Post by Bit Twister

Post by Ar
[fresh] [error] probe_ppp_module, can't find libpepflashplayer.so

$ rpm -q -f /usr/lib64/chromium-browser/PepperFlash/libpepflashplayer.so
flash-player-plugin-31.0.0.108-1.1.mga6.nonfree

Post by Bit Twister

Post by Ar
Then when you visit an offending website, it produces stuff like below.
BTW, there's no such user at /home/iurt/ so I don't know who coded that.

A bug in the package that builds the rpm.

Not a bug, just a leftover. The build system runs under the userid iurt,
so references to it are sometimes included in the packages it builds.

Regards, Dave Hodgins

[Scott B.]

Ar wrote:

[snip]

Post by Ar
I installed the latest version of Firefox, not knowing it was a large
re-write, and it broke 95% of my addons I use including the ones use to
stop Javascript.
After managing to sort out reverting to the older version

[snip]

I think the previous Mageia version was Firefox 52ESR, which has
reached EOL; hence, the new Mageia version is an update.

Why not use the new version instead of the EOL version? You could
switch to addons that work with the new version, and you may find
that you don't need some of your old addons anymore. It's still the
ESR version of Firefox.

[Ar]

Post by Scott B.
I think the previous Mageia version was Firefox 52ESR, which has
reached EOL; hence, the new Mageia version is an update.
Why not use the new version instead of the EOL version? You could
switch to addons that work with the new version, and you may find
that you don't need some of your old addons anymore. It's still the
ESR version of Firefox.

There are no new versions of any of the most needed addons that I use,
that's why Firefox Quantum lasted about 10 minutes on my computer before
uninstalling it.

[Ar]

Post by Ar
Not strictly speaking a Mageia issue, but it all started from an update
pushed out in Mageia repositories.

<snip>

I admit defeat. It was just too much work and deleting and configuring
over and over, I came to the conclusion that the latest Firefox changed
some other file that could (would) not be rolled back, so the problems I
reported could not be fixed.

So I bit the bullet and installed the latest version of Firefox, I'm not
happy about losing some very good add-ons which have no equivalents, and
having to re-train certain add-ons all over again.

Thanks for everyone's help in trying to solve the problems, I will add
the text to my archive for problem solving in future if need be.