Back again.
Not having an existing Firefox session running doesn’t seem to make any difference in the start-up time – regardless of “firefox” or “/usr/bin/firefox” it starts in less than a second …
But, the following warnings were logged in the Konsole window – the last 2 when the Firefox window was closed:
(firefox:32045): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: <data>:1:34: Expected ')' in color definition
(firefox:32045): Gtk-WARNING **: Theme parsing error: <data>:1:77: Expected ')' in color definition
[Parent 32259, Gecko_IOThread] WARNING: pipe error (57): Connection reset by peer: file /home/abuild/rpmbuild/BUILD/firefox-60.3.0/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/ipc_channel_posix.cc, line 353
[Parent 32259, Gecko_IOThread] WARNING: pipe error (57): Connection reset by peer: file /home/abuild/rpmbuild/BUILD/firefox-60.3.0/ipc/chromium/src/chrome/common/ipc_channel_posix.cc, line 353
My normal “ff” script actually starts firefox using another program that backgrounds it and disconnects it from the terminal. So I don’t see any output, though I have redirected that to file which I rarely look at.
This time I tried it more directly;
firefox &
It took 10 seconds for the “firefox” window to show up. In the meantime, I could not use my terminal session (“xterm”). Anything that I typed did not show up.
After the “firefox” windows showed up, I closed that window.
A few seconds later, I got the error messages from firefox (which I ignored). Then I got a “Done”. And only after that “Done” was I again able to use the terminal to enter another command.
I then tried
firefox &; ls
This time, the “firefox” window opened in a second or two. But I still could not enter anything at the terminal.
Again, I closed the “firefox” window. After that, I saw some firefox error messages, and then “Done”. And only then could I again use the terminal.
Hmm. I normally “csh” as my shell. So I tried with “bash”. And I do not see any of those problems using “bash”. So I’m suspecting that there’s a problem with how “csh” talks to the latest kernel.
I’m actually wondering whether this is related to the “tty1 to tty6” thread.
Good find Neil. I’m using bash, so that might explain why my two laptops (running openSUSE Leap 15) are not impacted. The OP in that thread you refer to has been very “economical” with providing information to help nail down the issue IMO.
I have rechecked this with my laptop. And I see the same thing.
User shell is “/bin/csh”. Currently “firefox” is not running, though it has run recently:
firefox &
It takes 10 seconds or more for firefox to start. And even after closing firefox, I cannot type anything in the terminal window for several more seconds.
firefox &; ls
Here firefox starts in 2 seconds or less. However, I still cannot type anything in the terminal for several seconds.
If I change to using “/bin/bash” as shell, then everything behaves normally. Firefox starts in 2 seconds or less, and I can immediately enter new commands in that terminal.
This is all using kernel 4.12.14-lp150.12.25-default.
If I reboot to kernel 4.12.14-lp150.12.22-default
then everything works correctly with “/bin/csh” as shell.
I’m about to open a bug report on this, which I will report as a kernel problem. And I’ll mention the “tty1 to tty6” thread as an example of another, possibly related, kernel issue.
I should add that I have been noticing this for a week or so. But I was unsure what I was seeing at first. Now that I know how to reproduce the problem, it was appropriate to report as a bug.