Linux Ubuntu, Firefox 154.0, firefox freezes and I am unable to make it work or quit it.

Hi! What you describe is a Firefox hang, and you shouldn't normally need to power off the entire computer. Mozilla recommends testing Firefox in Troubleshoot Mode because extensions, themes, and hardware acceleration can cause freezes.

If Firefox freezes but Ubuntu is still responsive, you can terminate Firefox without rebooting. Open Terminal and run:

"pkill firefox"

Then start Firefox again.

If the entire desktop becomes unresponsive, try Ctrl + Alt + F3 to switch to a text console, log in, and run:

"pkill firefox"

Then press Ctrl + Alt + F2 (or Ctrl + Alt + F1, depending on Ubuntu) to return to the graphical session.

For troubleshooting, start Firefox in Troubleshoot Mode from a terminal with:

"firefox -safe-mode"

If Firefox stops freezing in that mode, an extension, theme, or hardware acceleration is a likely cause.

Because this has been happening for about a month and even caused the whole computer to freeze during a video call, I'd also check that Ubuntu, Firefox and your graphics drivers are fully updated. If it continues even in Troubleshoot Mode, it would be useful to know your Ubuntu version, graphics card/GPU, whether the freeze happens mainly during video calls or video playback, and whether the entire desktop becomes unresponsive or only Firefox.

This looks good. I'll have to check that 'troublieshoot' mode out and see what happens. Thanks a lot.

I have it on safe mode. I was watching a video on youtube and it hit an ad. I clicked on "skip" and it froze. the first ad skipped but the next one froze. Does that mean that the ad skip extension is bad? The other times Firefox froze I wasn't even using youtube. How do I know what is doing it? I mean, just having an ad blocker extension for youtube, does that effect every aspect of how Firefox works? Very confusing.

I just wonder . . . . I start Firefox first thing. I have a number of tabs open all day long... Ventusky (weather radar), Wunderground (general weather information, great graphics), Facebook and Youtube. I have noticed that my whole computer gets sluggish later on in the day. I was thinking it was the Linux OS, but maybe it's Firefox. Is that possible, that having Firefox on all day, something gets filled up and generally clogs up the computer? I wonder if there's a way I can go back to a version of Firefox that was around a couple of years ago. I think maybe all the new bells and whistles might be clogging things up. I just don't think the user should have to be doing a lot of troubleshooting with each new version. I've been using Firefox for over 20 years now, without issue, but this last year or so there have been so many changes, it's making it hard to just be a 'user'. It'd be hard to switch to another browser now.