I-Firefox Community Forum

Ubuntu - I use the SNAP version of Firefox - I generally have lots of tabs open but only use 5 or so of them and it's generally fine.... but when I am closing Firefox, it USES like 100% of the CPU and ALL of the RAM and ALL of the SWAP memory when closing.

This locks up the computer.

Sometimes it doesn't quite go all the way but I can watch it all happen in real time, using Task Manager - and that shows a solidwall of all resources occouring, when the close Firefox is run.

I am told by research via ChatGPT that this is a very real problem with the SNAP version and it's best to change to the Debian version, copy all the bookmarks etc., across and then uninstall the SNAP version.

It's rather disconcerting to have Linux crash because of this one app locking it up and frequently.

Chat GPT:

Is there a problem with Firefox Snap Version closing and using all the resources while doing so, which results in locking up the computer?

You're definitely not imagining it—there have been reports of Firefox's Snap version consuming excessive system resources (CPU, memory) and even causing lockups or hangs, particularly during closure. Here's what’s going on and how to mitigate it:

What’s Happening with Firefox Snap?

2. Browser Hangs or Locks the System on Close

On Linux (especially Ubuntu), users have reported that closing Firefox can lead to it hanging in memory, sometimes unresponsive and still consuming resources.
Super User
Ask Ubuntu
A stark example from Reddit illustrates the severity:
“About 50% of the time I open Firefox, it'll reach 100% CPU usage in about 30 seconds… PC completely unusable unless I shutdown.”
Reddit

3. Known Wayland Sway Bug

On Wayland/Sway setups, reloading Sway while Firefox is open can trigger intense logging, causing high CPU use and an enormous syslog.
Fix: Set MOZ_DISABLE_WAYLAND_PROXY=1, or upgrade to FF 125 where the issue is addressed.
Reddit+1

Alternative Approach

Many users, particularly on Ubuntu, opt out of Snap completely in favor of the .deb package or PPA builds. These alternatives often avoid these specific issues. Ask Ubuntu Reddit

Thoughts? Solutions?

Thanks in advance.

Hello! Today I stuck with problem in my system: after minor package update, hardware acceleration was broke. In past, I stuck with same problem after total pc upgrade (AMD -> NVIDIA GPU, another might be unnecesary), and somehow I fixed it, but i dont remember what exactly fixed it. Can someone please help me turn hardware acceleration on this time? My searching the key arround didn`t helped, but i found in about:support line which notes that firefox unrecognized my videocard etc. My specs: kernel: 6.17.1-zen1-1-zen driver: nvidia-dkms-580.95.05-1 videocard: GTX 1080 TI DE: gnome 49 with Wayland

Tips that ive tried: Tried to make all as wrote in archwiki Tried to install an nvidia vaapi implementor Made some random steps from internet, without effect(maybe thats why hardware acceleration doesent work??)

theres also about:support page attached

In 2024-25 Microsoft Edge gained the ability to limit the usage of physical RAM that the processes uses. Once that limit is reached tabs are put to sleep or are unloaded. So a user of Microsoft Edge could restrict the memory usage to say 1GB or 2GB or 3GB and so on till the maximum available physical RAM.

Does Firefox have such an ability? Is there some flag or settings in about:config that can be enabled for a similar feature to be used? Does Firefox have ability to put tabs to sleep once SWAP is started to be used? Is there some flag or settings in about:config that can be enabled for a similar feature to be used?

If none of one of the above is not available with Firefox then will Firefox add this feature as part of the browser in the future?

I'm using Firefox 141.0 on OpenSuse Tumbleweed with KDE and Wayland. I'm using Firefox with two profiles: work and personal - which is (usually) awesome, until suddenly it's not.

Then, one or both profiles seem to become corrupted, and closing firefox, opening it, choosing either profile just hangs forever. My old tabs show up, but clicking on any tab, for any site, just hangs forever, and no page is ever loaded. Sometimes restarting helps, but sometimes not. Sometimes restarting 2 or 3 times and then suddenly it will work. But normally, I have to just delete all my profiles, and re-create them. Fortunately everything is synced with Firefox sync. Then everything will work wonderfully for a bit - although I have to re-login to everything.  :-(

Any ideas? This is a huge pain and productivity killer. I really love firefox, but this sucks.

Since a while, I think it is since I created an extra testprofile with "firefox-esr -P", but I've set my main profile as default again

When opening a link in another program than firefox I get always: a popup "Close Firefox" "Firefox is already running, but is not responding. To use Firefox, you must first close the existing Firefox process, restart your device, or use a different profile."

I do have both firefox and firefox esr, I usually use regular firefox the second came with the debian 13 repository.

I keep the esr to test display issues for reproducibility on my personal desktop, because I manage debian 13 kiosk-style desktops with firefox-esr.

(I noticed also that the regular firefox profiles can not be opened in firefox esr, so I use an extra profile for esr)

On updating to linux mint 22.3 - cannot type anything in firefox in address box, search and primary password or anywhere else within firefox - have uninstalled & reinstalled but nothing happens