Firefox extremely slow to load first pages after startup

joanmanel · 2019-11-05 13:48:51

This is something that has been happening for a while, and I am getting desperate.

When I boot the system, and I click on Firefox, the browser itself loads instantly, but then it takes a lot of time until I can open a website. Then it will go very fast. The time between starting Firefox to loading the first website varies, but it can be around 5 minutes. I have other browsers and Firefox is the only one being so slow. My hardware is OK, I have 16gb of RAM, a Ryzen 1700 and SSD disk. I dual boot with W10, and there Firefox works fine.

I have tried uninstalling and re-installing Firefox several times. I also tried to refresh it. The only add-on I am using is ublock origin.

The wiki says something:

Firefox startup takes very long

If Firefox takes much longer to start up than other browsers, it may be due to lacking configuration of the localhost in /etc/hosts. See Network configuration#Local network hostname resolution on how to set it up.

And I have checked that link, but it doesn't really say much, or I don't know how it applies to me. I am pretty sure around 1 year ago my Firefox was perfect.

I am using now 70.0.0.1 but this problem also happened with older versions.

seth · 2019-11-05 14:10:58

Is "firefox --safe-mode" also affected?
Does this only happen w/ the first instance after the boot or also with subsequent processes? (quit FF, ensure no process is lingering around, launch a new one)

ceterum censeo (esp. for shenanigans like sharing the browser profiles):
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Du … t_Start-Up

kokoko3k · 2019-11-05 14:41:59

It happens to me too, not everytime, but often, it started to happen after they switched to Servo.
Happens after boot, or after closing and opening it again, and with empty profiles too, i think it is "by design" (sigh...)

Last edited by kokoko3k (2019-11-05 14:44:37)

joanmanel · 2019-11-05 15:23:22

seth wrote:

Is "firefox --safe-mode" also affected?
Does this only happen w/ the first instance after the boot or also with subsequent processes? (quit FF, ensure no process is lingering around, launch a new one)
ceterum censeo (esp. for shenanigans like sharing the browser profiles):
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Du … t_Start-Up

--safe-mode was fast

it only happens with the first instance after boot. if I close it, kill processes, and re-open firefox, it goes fast.

I am not sharing profiles or anything with the other boot. They don't know each other, and I dont share any disk space.

seth · 2019-11-05 16:13:49

Did you try a fresh profile? (kokoko3k might encounter a different problem)

glitsj16 · 2019-11-05 19:47:26

joanmanel wrote:

And I have checked that link, but it doesn't really say much, or I don't know how it applies to me.

You can easily check this by looking at /etc/hosts. If you see a line like 127.0.0.1 localhost your setup is fine for IPv4. For IPv6 you'll need to see ::1 localhost. When in doubt, paste your /etc/hosts file here or provide a link to a pastebin.

Did you change preferences to use a custom homepage instead of the Firefox default? I ask because I too have experienced similar slow first page loading (to yours, to kokoko3, that's not obvious to me). Also played with any variable I could think of, including fresh profile, but I was never able to track this down. What I did notice though is that when you do provide a custom URL as homepage, this works instantly with file:/// formats but the same slowness is observable when pointing to a page on a locally accessible web server, e.g. http://localhost/index.html. I happen to use such a very basic HTML page set as homepage in all my browsers, so that took care of the slowness issue for me. It would be nice to get to the actual cause of the issue though.

sohang3112 · 2025-12-05 08:35:56

> I happen to use such a very basic HTML page set as homepage in all my browsers, so that took care of the slowness issue for me.

@glitsja6 I made a blank page (just <html> </html>) and set that as default - that improved Firefox browser startup time, but new tab cold start is as slow as before.
Do you have any other suggestion also?

Last edited by sohang3112 (2025-12-05 08:36:30)

system72 · 2025-12-05 09:16:20

sohang3112 wrote:

> I happen to use such a very basic HTML page set as homepage in all my browsers, so that took care of the slowness issue for me.
@glitsja6 I made a blank page (just <html> </html>) and set that as default - that improved Firefox browser startup time, but new tab cold start is as slow as before.
Do you have any other suggestion also?

this thread is from 2019, read dates before you post

V1del · 2025-12-05 19:51:44

Closing this old thread: https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Genera … bumping%22

Please don't necrobump and open a new topic if you want to look at modern solutions.

Closing.

Arch Linux

#1 2019-11-05 13:48:51

Firefox extremely slow to load first pages after startup

#2 2019-11-05 14:10:58

Re: Firefox extremely slow to load first pages after startup

#3 2019-11-05 14:41:59

Re: Firefox extremely slow to load first pages after startup

#4 2019-11-05 15:23:22

Re: Firefox extremely slow to load first pages after startup

#5 2019-11-05 16:13:49

Re: Firefox extremely slow to load first pages after startup

#6 2019-11-05 19:47:26

Re: Firefox extremely slow to load first pages after startup

#7 2025-12-05 08:35:56

Re: Firefox extremely slow to load first pages after startup

#8 2025-12-05 09:16:20

Re: Firefox extremely slow to load first pages after startup

#9 2025-12-05 19:51:44

Re: Firefox extremely slow to load first pages after startup

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