Browser periodically freezes and unfreezes

[Moonchild]

Well, don't know what to say. My Pale Moon is currently open a long time with plenty of history, about 20 active tabs, and CPU usage is minimal.

So, it's hard for me to try and figure out what's going on if I can't reproduce it.

[Massacre]

Don't try to open anything that uses "modern" JS in Pale Moon and you will be fine. That includes X, Facebook, VK...

Would be great if that JS engine could be enhanced with safeguards for preventing infinite GC loops or what is the exact problem with it.

[Moonchild]

Don't try to open anything that uses "modern" JS in Pale Moon and you will be fine. That includes X, Facebook, VK...

You mean "avoid data-scraping and ads+telemetry-laden social media"
That might be a good idea anyway?

[Massacre]

Don't try to open anything that uses "modern" JS in Pale Moon and you will be fine. That includes X, Facebook, VK...

You mean "avoid data-scraping and ads+telemetry-laden social media"
That might be a good idea anyway?

Indeed. But it also includes *.fandom.com (manageable but takes a hit on RAM and CPU), new reddit (could lead to complete UI unresponsibility), youtube and twitch (it's better to use some Chromium instead - lots of Google-specific JS).

BTW, I'm using Ublock Origin, so it's not ads, its site's JS core.

[Moonchild]

yeah I don't frequent fandom or reddit, but I do go to twitch and (with the vorapis userscript) youtube. and I don't really see major issues other than them being as slow as expected.

[Gemmaugr]

I sadly have to frequent Fandom because they bought up almost all game wiki's. Unfortunately, the frontend https://breezewiki.pussthecat.org/ isn't the easiest to use. I use eMatrix and uBO, with chrome://ublock0/content/asset-viewer.html?url=https://gist.githubusercontent.com/Craf ... Fandom.txt

I use youtube having added:

www.youtube.com##ytd-reel-shelf-rendere ... tyle-scope
www.youtube.com###items > ytd-reel-shelf-renderer.ytd-structured-description-content-renderer.style-scope
www.youtube.com##.ytp-cards-teaser
www.youtube.com###fulfilled-layout > .ytd-ad-slot-renderer.style-scope
www.youtube.com###donation-shelf

To uBO's My Filters. I don't find it overly slow (though it does happen, and a quick bookmark all sites, close all tabs, and restart makes it like new. Can happen after 5 or 50 vids though).

I use reddit with a GreaseMonkey script that I've edited:

Code: Select all

// ==UserScript==
// @name        Good old Reddit
// @description	Good old Reddit.
// @version		1.0
// @match       *://www.reddit.com/*
// @exclude      https://*.reddit.com/poll/*
// @exclude      https://*.reddit.com/gallery/*
// @exclude      https://*.reddit.com/media*
// @exclude      https://*.reddit.com/notifications
// @exclude      https://chat.reddit.com/*
// @run-at      document-start
// @grant       none
// ==/UserScript==

if ( window.location.host != "old.reddit.com" ) {
    var oldReddit  = window.location.protocol + "//" + "old.reddit.com" + window.location.pathname + window.location.search + window.location.hash;
    window.location.replace (oldReddit);
}

When voting or viewing polls, I just change old.reddit to sh.reddit

I don't use twitch or vk or FB.

I view X with a GreaseMonkey script:

Code: Select all

// ==UserScript==
// @name               Nitter Redirect
// @description        Always redirects to nitter
// @include            *://twitter.com/*
// @include            *://x.com/*
// @version            1.03
// @run-at             document-start
// @grant              none
// ==/UserScript==

window.location.replace("https://twiiit.com" + window.location.pathname + window.location.search);

Or another instance of your choosing: https://github.com/zedeus/nitter/wiki/Instances

[moonbat]

I use reddit with a GreaseMonkey script that I've edited:

Would be good if you could edit your comment and add code tags around the script to make it more readable and easier for others to copy and use. I use URL Rewriter for this and a few other redirects.

[Sessh]

Well, at least it's not just me. Are the other folks here having this issue also on Windows 7 or is it happening on other OS'es as well?

I grabbed the GreaseMonkey PrivateRedirector script which includes Nitter stuffs. Viewing X through that is fine, no issues. X is the only site I've noticed so far that has the issue in my case. Youtube doesn't, it's as clunky as it's ever been, but it doesn't cause issues once the tab is closed aside from RAM creeping. I have 17-18 tabs open.

Did someone say to get memory info or something when the issue is happening? Tell me how and I'll do it. Is it just about:memory > Measure & Save > Upload saved file?
Then again, maybe that wouldn't be helpful since it's a CPU-usage issue.

[hitokage]

I've also been experiencing this since installing 33.9.0 and 33.9.0.1 (both x64) on Windows 7 (x64), but I haven't been able to spend much time troubleshooting or gathering any information. I do wonder if it is somehow being caused by one or more of the newly implemented CSS functions - especially with how extensively CSS is used on the same websites that also heavily use JavaScript.

[Moonchild]

Quite possible. There are a few regressions noted with the new implementations and I may have to end up backing out several of the new implementations if they can't be easily solved in the short term.

[geraldh]

I've noticed that Ebay in particular has become a problem with 33.9.0 and 33.9.0.1. It's fast initially, but scrolling through listings becomes progressively slower with noticeable pauses. This didn't really happen with the previous builds. I've also noticed that the RSS (Resident Set Size?) in my Linux Mint 22 Task Manager can get to over 2GB on Ebay with only that tab open. This RSS figure doesn't seem to reduce, even when I leave Ebay and switch my single tab to a simpler website, e.g. Startpage.com.

[Moonchild]

I've noticed that Ebay in particular has become a problem with 33.9.0 and 33.9.0.1

I just gave it a test and other than the spiky CPU usage because of everything and the kitchen sink being async on ebay (and loading everything at the very last second as you scroll down) I didn't see any out of bounds memory usage or long pauses there.

This RSS figure doesn't seem to reduce, even when I leave Ebay and switch my single tab to a simpler website, e.g. Startpage.com.

That is at least somewhat expected. cached data will not be tossed from memory immediately upon closing a tab. The browser keeps memory allocated for a considerable time and won't compact its memory blocks until the browser has been truly idle for a while (because it's expensive to do). Even decoded images won't be tossed immediately.

[Gemmaugr]

Would be good if you could edit your comment and add code tags around the script to make it more readable and easier for others to copy and use. I use URL Rewriter for this and a few other redirects.

I tried, but it seems the time-frame for that have already passed. So here's a stripped down version to not take up more space.

Code: Select all

// ==UserScript==
// @name        Good old Reddit
// @description	Good old Reddit.
// @version		1.0
// @match       *://www.reddit.com/*
// @exclude      https://*.reddit.com/poll/*
// @exclude      https://*.reddit.com/gallery/*
// @exclude      https://*.reddit.com/media*
// @exclude      https://*.reddit.com/notifications
// @exclude      https://chat.reddit.com/*
// @run-at      document-start
// @grant       none
// ==/UserScript==

if ( window.location.host != "old.reddit.com" ) {
    var oldReddit  = window.location.protocol + "//" + "old.reddit.com" + window.location.pathname + window.location.search + window.location.hash;
    window.location.replace (oldReddit);
}

Code: Select all

// ==UserScript==
// @name               Nitter Redirect
// @description        Always redirects to nitter
// @include            *://twitter.com/*
// @include            *://x.com/*
// @version            1.03
// @run-at             document-start
// @grant              none
// ==/UserScript==

window.location.replace("https://twiiit.com" + window.location.pathname + window.location.search);

[Moonchild]

I tried, but it seems the time-frame for that have already passed. So here's a stripped down version to not take up more space.

I've dropped in the code tags in the original, for convenience.

[UCyborg]

After some more time using the browser, I can't say I'm positive about anything changing regarding freezing with recent updates compared to old versions. But my memory is more on the unreliable side. Early signs of dementia?

[Kand_in_Sky]

After one time visting x.com (twitter) i could reproduce the behavior with freezes/unfreezes, this behavior stays even when the tab is closed.
Restarting PM makes everything ok.

[MrD2018]

The issue triggered by Xwitter (and similar sites) will put the browser in an unrecoverable state of trying to "sweep the floor" but not being able to, and retrying again and again.

Would it be possible to have the JS garbage collector timeout after a certain number of tries at clearing up the javascript from a particular problematic website rather than continuing indefinately?

[Moonchild]

It's not that simple. Spidermonkey's back-end doesn't isolate front-end tabs that way. While theoretically possible to spin up separate js runtimes for each tab, that isn't very practical nor performant, and would have additional drawbacks. Not even sure how web workers could be handled in that context, for example.

[flamelord]

Unfortunately, you need to be signed in to read anything beyond the original tweet which is the only reason I have an account.

Xcancel is your friend

[erichtex]

I have also been having this problem. It started when I loaded the latest update. I had deliberately not loaded the update during a weekend when I used PM extensively. The following Monday, I did the update (33.9.0.1) and problems with the UI freezing started. It does get worse the longer you run a web page.

The site I have been having a problem with is wikitree.com. It certainly does not use "modern" JS. Problems include freezes while scrolling, using radio buttons and other UI interactions. I have not yet monitored the processor load while working this. There was no freezing before the update.