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memory leak in firefox 3.6.24 on ubuntu 10.04

  • 10 replies
  • 3 have this problem
  • 9 views
  • Last reply by John99

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I am using Mozilla Browser on Ubuntu 10.05 Linux system that comes installed with that version.

As i am having a website running over it and only a single page which is also not very heavy, but when i navigate from one page to other page of the website the memory utilization the Ubuntu system increases and does not drops/reclaimed back. This results in crashing of any process on the system and also sometimes there is so less memory that no process on the system is running except some kernel processes.

I am using Mozilla Browser on Ubuntu 10.05 Linux system that comes installed with that version. As i am having a website running over it and only a single page which is also not very heavy, but when i navigate from one page to other page of the website the memory utilization the Ubuntu system increases and does not drops/reclaimed back. This results in crashing of any process on the system and also sometimes there is so less memory that no process on the system is running except some kernel processes.

All Replies (10)

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hello yogesh2910, sorry firefox 3.6.24 was released over 3 2 years ago and has already reached its end of life, so there is no support for it any longer...

Modified by philipp

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Ok, But this is strange...

Does anybody have a solution as memory cannot be increased just because firefox eats up the memory. There has to be way to tell firefox that it should release memory periodically. Older version if not supported then there should be a update specifically for the version of the OS if they want to use the browser.

In this age of fast changing technology we have to upgrade the softwares according to the System currently being used.

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new versions of firefox should still be available for your system - please refer to the instructions in this article for example: http://www.webupd8.org/2011/05/firefox-5-beta-channel-ubuntu-ppa.html (firefox 27 is the current beta version).

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Well after the upgrade it seemed to solve the memory leak, but now the system is quite hanged after some usage which was not there before.

Previously the memory leak was not causing the system to hang , but the problem is now even worse with the browser update as there is no way to go back to the previous version than to format the system.

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can you reset firefox? (this will keep your bookmarks and passwords):
Refresh Firefox - reset add-ons and settings

there might be other issues with your profile when you leap so many versions...

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Thanks for your reply Philipp.

But the solution given by you does not solve either. It is again hanging the system and i do not know what to do next as there is little could i debug where on any website navigation and keeping it for 6-7 hours do increase the total Available RAM usage of the system.

I can see the memory of Firefox increases with a period of time. Although the latest version of the browser claimed by you is 27 but the one which i upgraded using apt-get command upgraded it to 20.

It also seems that it is reclaiming memory initially but drastically increases over a period of time.

Please Help....

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Can i have a reply to my question....

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Hi yogesh2910, I understand that you are looking at the memory usage that is not released when Firefox is open for a long period of time. Firefox uses too much memory or CPU resources - How to fix Quick fixes if your Firefox slows down

Included in the troubleshooting steps for managing this there is an add on recommended to free that used memory for those who leave it open over time:

The about:memory tool "Measure" will run a report on the page that will show a hint of what is using the most memory when it consumes the resources on the computer.

For example, I have run a report and saw that most of the memory being used is by the js engine on the pages I have left open over night, as well as gfx-surface-quartz, which was fixed after I updated the latest update to 27.

You also mentioned that after the update that Firefox hangs. Firefox hangs or is not responding - How to fix however you also mentioned that you have updated to 20. Currently version 27 is Firefox Beta and we recommend updating to version 27 which has fixed alot of the memory issues you are seeing. If you need help updating Firefox to the latest, would it be possible to install the latest version from here: Install Firefox on Linux[http://mzl.la/McoKxE] Please let us know if this helps.

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Hi,

Thanks for your reply.

As per your reply i am seeing that the version 27 is available for Ubuntu 12.04 and above, but my system currently is Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid.

I fear if i install the version of firefox not meant for Ubuntu 10.04 then it might function abnormally.

Even i have added the apt-add-repository by the given link and used the apt-get install command to install firefox, it only installs 20+ version.

Can u give me direct link where i can install firefox version 27 directly with apt-get.

Thanks,

Yogesh2910

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Update to a supported OS

This is not an Ubuntu Support forum, but one immediate problem is that you are running unsupported and outdated Ubuntu software. Ubuntu 10.04 was EOL 2013

I just booted an old Ubuntu lucid, and that was using Firefox (Canonical) 20. No doubt that was the last version of Firefox available when support ended. You probably will be able to run & install Firefox Mozilla 27 on that if you tried, but I have not tried that myself.

I am posting this from Ubuntu 12.04 precise using Firefox(Canonical) 28 and also have various Firefox Mozilla versions installed.

You appear to have posted from a Windows7 64 bit computer. If you use an up to date Ubuntu your distro will have an up to date matching Firefox Canonical. You will have a choiceof 32 or64 bit Ubuntu. If however you happen to go down the route of Mozilla Firefox note the default download offerings are 32bit builds, although 64bit are available as ftp downloads.

If you follow the instructions in

that is an additional version. It does not remove your distro install of Firefox.

Whatever route you take remember to backup the Firefox profile and put it somewhere safe. Just in case anything goes wrong. (Remember you probably have an encrypted Home Directory/Partition ) It is now possible to upgrade automatically no need to do it manually

Modified by John99