firefox startup ~18 secs [solved]

r00t_ninja · 2009-06-12 07:29:07

im having a problem with Firefox (firefox 3) , the start up time is approximately ~18 seconds , i have tried the pgo build but there wasn't any difference in start up time , my hardware is a bit old , i have a pentium 4 2.8 ghz and 630mb of ddr ram , along with a nvidia fx5500 , i have been using ubuntu for about a year and have just switched to arch linux , on ubuntu firefox only took about 7 seconds to startup for the first time of that session and then if i closed it and started it again it would start up after 1-2 seconds (seems wierd) , is there anything i can do to make firefox start faster and does anyone have any ideas on what could be causing such a slowdown.

additional info: running gnome as my de
starting firefox from terminal has given no errors

Last edited by r00t_ninja (2009-06-13 23:37:54)

SpeedVin · 2009-06-12 08:43:46

Hello rOOt_ninja
Hmm to be faster?
In options there's option that's firefox check that he is defualt browser tou can disable that or you can compile firefox form aur.
Mabye beta and PGO build or try Swiftweasel PGO optimazed for your processor

r00t_ninja · 2009-06-12 09:03:59

i am using firefox pgo build compiled from the aur , sorry if i didn't mension that in my first post.

harryNID · 2009-06-12 09:24:05

Hi "r00t_ninja",

First check here:

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Fir … up_Firefox

for some tips on speeding Firefox up. Pay particular attention to "7 Turning off anti-phishing to speedup Firefox". That can and will cause Firefox to become slow only after a short time. I build the "firefox-pgo" package from AUR and have noticed recently (don't know if this is a bug) that the "urlclassifier" file in question seems to recreate itself even with the options to turn it off checked. I wound up (and I don't recommend it!) deleting the two scripts that create that file in "/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.11/components/. As I said I don't recommend going quite that far unless you encounter issues with it like I did. Also in typical Arch fashion you could hack "/usr/lib/firefox-3.0.11/run-mozilla.sh" as I have and that will definitely make Firefox start faster. Again, I would advise against that unless you know what you are doing as one wrong move and Firefox won't start. If you don't feel safe deleting "urlclassifier" then you can try this command (nicked from the forum here).

find ~/.mozilla/firefox/${current_profile} -name '*.sqlite' -exec sqlite3 '{}' 'VACUUM;' \;

It's supposed to optimize Sqlite3 databases. I made a small script called "firefast.sh" so I can call it anytime without having to type that whole thing in.

If that ("urlclassifier") is not it then I would check out your GTK theme. A heavy one can affect speed throughout all you programs. I run on a P4 system and Firefox starts in about 3 seconds for me.

Good Luck

Last edited by harryNID (2009-06-12 09:25:35)

r00t_ninja · 2009-06-12 09:35:41

i have turned off anti-phishing , my gtk theme is just the clearlooks theme , ill backup my run-mozilla.sh and then muck around with it a bit , firefox seems to do nothing for a quite a while when i start it.

arkham · 2009-06-12 13:21:07

r00t_ninja wrote:

im having a problem with Firefox (firefox 3) , the start up time is approximately ~18 seconds , i have tried the pgo build but there wasn't any difference in start up time , my hardware is a bit old , i have a pentium 4 2.8 ghz and 630mb of ddr ram , along with a nvidia fx5500 , i have been using ubuntu for about a year and have just switched to arch linux , on ubuntu firefox only took about 7 seconds to startup for the first time of that session and then if i closed it and started it again it would start up after 1-2 seconds (seems wierd) , is there anything i can do to make firefox start faster and does anyone have any ideas on what could be causing such a slowdown.
additional info: running gnome as my de
starting firefox from terminal has given no errors

Did you setup your /etc/hosts correctly? See http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Beg … tc.2Fhosts

ProfessorTomoe · 2009-06-12 16:47:35

Another question for you - what file systems are you running? I found that Firefox started up considerably slower after I switched from ext3 to ext4. No amount of optimization fixed the problem. Getting rid of ext4 did, though.

Here's what I'm running now:

/dev/sdb2  /       ext3         defaults,noatime 0 2           #had been ext3
/dev/sdb1  /boot   ext3         defaults,noatime 0 1           #had been ext3
/dev/sdb3  swap    swap         defaults 0 0
/dev/sdb5  /usr    ext3         defaults,noatime 0 2           #had been ext4
/dev/sdb6  /var    reiserfs     defaults 0 2
/dev/sdb7  /tmp    ext3         defaults,noatime 0 2           #had been ext4
/dev/sdb8  /home   jfs          defaults,noatime,errors=remount-ro 0 3     #had been ext4
/dev/sda1  /mnt/FNORD_101      ntfs-3g         uid=500,gid=100,fmask=0113,dmask=0002,locale=en_US.UTF-8 0 0

The speed difference is astonishing.

Last edited by ProfessorTomoe (2009-06-12 16:52:06)

r00t_ninja · 2009-06-12 21:20:33

i am using ext4 , maybe that the problem , i didn't upgrade from ext3 though if thats what your meaning.

ProfessorTomoe · 2009-06-13 02:10:55

r00t_ninja wrote:

i am using ext4 , maybe that the problem , i didn't upgrade from ext3 though if thats what your meaning.

I actually switched by backing up the data on my ext3 partitions to an external drive via rsync, doing a fresh reformat to ext4, then restoring the data to the new, empty partitions via rsync. In other words, I didn't "upgrade" either.

droog · 2009-06-13 02:17:37

I think op's problem of 18 seconds to start firefox has nothing to do with the filesystem, It's just too far fetched for that big of a difference. I don't know what the problem is but it's not filesystem, If it is then thats insane..

r00t_ninja · 2009-06-13 02:32:00

ok ive been messing around with stuff for abit , im back with the normal firefox official mozila and iv got the start time down to 11 seconds , anyone have any ideas , also should my /etc/hosts look like this :

#
# /etc/hosts: static lookup table for host names
#

#<ip-address>    <hostname.domain.org>    <hostname>
192.168.1.195 localhost sam-desktop
# End of file

my router uses dhcp but i have reserved 192.168.1.195 for this computer.

harryNID · 2009-06-13 09:25:57

Hi "r00t_ninja"

According to the Wiki:

/etc/hosts
This file associates IP addresses with hostnames and aliases, one line per IP address. For each host a single line should be present with the following information:
<IP-address> <hostname> [aliases...]
Add your hostname, coinciding with the one specified in /etc/rc.conf, as an alias, so that it looks like this:
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost yourhostname
Note: This format, including the 'localhost' and your actual host name, is required for program compatibility! Errors in this entry may cause poor network performance and/or certain programs to open very slowly, or not work at all. This is a very common error for beginners.
If you use a static IP, add another line using the syntax: <static-IP> <hostname.domainname.org> <hostname> e.g.:
192.168.1.100 yourhostname.domain.org yourhostname

So mine looks like this:

#
# /etc/hosts: static lookup table for host names
#
#<ip-address> <hostname.domain.org> <hostname>
127.0.0.1 localhost.localdomain localhost harry

I use dhcpd without a router so mine looks like the first example. I don't think this will help you much but it might give you an example to help narrow the problem down. Also did you make sure to add your "hostname" to "rc.conf"? They must match.

Last edited by harryNID (2009-06-13 09:39:53)

R00KIE · 2009-06-13 10:05:32

The line must read

127.0.0.1   localhost.localdomain   localhost yourhostname

in your case

127.0.0.1 localhost sam-desktop

if you omit localhost.localdomain I believe it will work just as well.

As for the wiki saying to add another line if you have a static ip .... doesn't make much sense if things work with dhcp it should work just as well with a static ip without adding any extra lines but maybe someone knows better.

Edit:
Added second code section for completion.

Last edited by R00KIE (2009-06-13 10:07:23)

r00t_ninja · 2009-06-13 23:37:07

YAY problem solved , i had my /etc/hosts configured incorrectly , now firefox starts in 2 - 3 seconds , thank you all so much for helping.

gnu_D · 2010-03-19 12:10:31

I know this topic is old, but for a reference.
On every firefox upgrade, if one run this>

# Make a backup of the firefox binary.
sudo cp /usr/lib/firefox-3.6/firefox /usr/lib/firefox-3.6/firefox_backup
# Apply a compression of level 9.
upx -9 /usr/lib/firefox-3.6/firefox

Then Firefox will fly .

P.S> install upx from community, e.g pacman -Sy upx

Arch Linux

#1 2009-06-12 07:29:07

firefox startup ~18 secs [solved]

#2 2009-06-12 08:43:46

Re: firefox startup ~18 secs [solved]

#3 2009-06-12 09:03:59

Re: firefox startup ~18 secs [solved]

#4 2009-06-12 09:24:05

Re: firefox startup ~18 secs [solved]

#5 2009-06-12 09:35:41

Re: firefox startup ~18 secs [solved]

#6 2009-06-12 13:21:07

Re: firefox startup ~18 secs [solved]

#7 2009-06-12 16:47:35

Re: firefox startup ~18 secs [solved]

#8 2009-06-12 21:20:33

Re: firefox startup ~18 secs [solved]

#9 2009-06-13 02:10:55

Re: firefox startup ~18 secs [solved]

#10 2009-06-13 02:17:37

Re: firefox startup ~18 secs [solved]

#11 2009-06-13 02:32:00

Re: firefox startup ~18 secs [solved]

#12 2009-06-13 09:25:57

Re: firefox startup ~18 secs [solved]

#13 2009-06-13 10:05:32

Re: firefox startup ~18 secs [solved]

#14 2009-06-13 23:37:07

Re: firefox startup ~18 secs [solved]

#15 2010-03-19 12:10:31

Re: firefox startup ~18 secs [solved]

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