Arch Linux

asportking

Member

Registered: 2014-04-17

Posts: 41

Attempting to open Firefox freezes my entire computer

This problem came up yesterday while using 58.0.2, and has persisted today after upgrading to 59.0. I've also downgraded to 55 and also experience this issue. What happens is this:

- I attempt to open Firefox, either from dmenu or via terminal
- Firefox does not open, and doesn't produce any output if opened via termianl
- My computer ceases to be responsive. I am able to close windows, but cannot run any new commands. Nothing happens when running commands from dmenu. If I try to open up a new terminal, I just get a blank screen (the prompt never shows up). I haven't fully explored the range of things I can/cannot do in this state, but will update this if I find anything that could be indicative of the problem.
- According to yabar, my CPU usage shoots up to 100%. This could very well be indicative of yabar failing, but if that is actually the case, the computer fans aren't responsive to it.

Looking through journalctl gives nothing - according to the logs, the computer is behaving normally until I eventually have to restart. Similarly, there aren't any crash reports or anything in the logs from Firefox's side. I'm not sure where else to look, and am pretty stumped. Other browsers like Chromium work fine. Any suggestions?

Last edited by asportking (2018-03-13 19:35:18)

loqs

Member

Registered: 2014-03-06

Posts: 17,324

Re: Attempting to open Firefox freezes my entire computer

Does the issue persist in safemode or if you create a new profile for firefox or create a new user and run firefox as that new user?

firefox --safe-mode #safemode
firefox -P #start profile manager

asportking

Member

Registered: 2014-04-17

Posts: 41

Re: Attempting to open Firefox freezes my entire computer

Just tried opening it in safemode. Some small differences:

- The firefox window does open, but the window is unresponsive.
- Opening a terminal does give me a prompt. Attempting to run

sudo reboot

gives me

Failed to talk to init daemon.

Basic other commands - ls, cd - didn't work. At least this was the case for the first few minutes. After a while, trying to open a terminal would give me a similar blank window and I'd lose all functionality.

Currently trying the second command.

seth

Member

Registered: 2012-09-03

Posts: 51,046

Re: Attempting to open Firefox freezes my entire computer

strace firefox?

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