[thelist] Firefox, CMS, and latency

Felix Miata mrmazda at earthlink.net
Sat May 21 10:29:04 CDT 2011


On 2011/05/21 08:21 (GMT-0600) Bob Meetin composed:

> I wonder if anyone else ever experiences this.  I am running Firefox,
> v3.6.17, on Linux.

Which? There are many. Each builds its own, or provides its own customized 
source for self-building (e.g. Gentoo).

>  I have WebDeveloper, Firebug and ySlow installed.
> Every now/then I run into latency problems with my CMS (especially)
> websites.  When I start Firefox it is fine.  Then after a while it starts
> to slow down, to almost crawl, and I run into severe latency.  Moving,
> placing the cursor, then typing all experience delays.

> Am sort of wondering whether this might be related to some of the
> developer tools installed or other.  Although the problem is emphasized on
> my CMS sites, I can also see the latency when accessing Google, etc.
> Restarting Firefox typically solves the problem.  Thoughts?

Serious testing requires multiple browser versions be installed. One way is 
to use whatever version is installed via the distro's package management 
system as primary, and use Mozilla.org's static builds as additional, which 
is a relatively simple process. Simply download the Firefox .bz2 build of 
choice, and extract into a dir such as ff4, ff2 or ff5 in /usr/local, /opt or 
even /home/<username>.

It's best to use separate profiles for separate versions. Startup can be 
facilitated by adding the specific versions as new menu items and using 
-no-remote -P profilename as startup options, but starting from a term or 
shell provides the option to see error messages that may occur running or 
starting up. -no-remote as a startup option allows you to have multiple 
versions open concurrently. I typically have at least 6 Gecko versions open 
24/7, save for restarts.

Just like with other versions, you can also install Mozilla.org's version 
matching the distro's latest version (e.g. 3.6.17). Using it with the same 
profile as well as a different one should tell you if it's a profile problem 
or a problem with the distro's build customizations.

Using FF2 or older may require installation of a "compat" version of 
libstdc++ in parallel with the currently installed version.
-- 
"The wise are known for their understanding, and pleasant
words are persuasive." Proverbs 16:21 (New Living Translation)

  Team OS/2 ** Reg. Linux User #211409 ** a11y rocks!

Felix Miata  ***  http://fm.no-ip.com/


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