dramatically slower Chrome and Firefox after 11.4 clean re-install

English Applications
1

I’ve searched this Applications forum without success. I don’t know what information would help address my problem, but if you tell me what output from the konsole might be helpful I can post that. Here’s my situation.

I was running desktop 64 bit SuSE 11.4 using KDE, and Firefox was performing well. Then I had to do a clean re-install of SuSE and my backed-up home directory. The only thing I restored for Firefox from the backup was my bookmarks.

Well following the re-install Firefox runs so slowly it’s pathetic. My internet connect speed (up and down) seems OK when measured to various cities on various testing websites (5.63 Mbps up and 0.42 Mbps down – that’s as good as I ever get). But I just cannot get to websites at all quickly, and once I get to a website Firefox takes forever to find anything. Typically it’s taking 30 seconds to a minute to resolve a website (for example, cnn.com), and once I’m at a website it’s painfully slow resolving links on that site.

I thought that maybe the newest version of Firefox that I got when updating my SuSE re-install might be the problem. So I installed Chrome using an rpm from google.com hoping that it would be better. But the same problem. Chrome also takes forever to resolve websites. Despite being promoted as much faster than Firefox it’s just as slow (or, at least, in my situation something is preventing it from performing better than Firefox).

Just prior to posting this message I searched the words “slow chrome,” and the first time I tried using Chrome the browser found nothing and timed out. The second time I tried it took well over a minute to bring back any results.

I tried powering down my modem but that made no difference. I also rebooted the computer on the off-chance that it might help. But again, no difference.

So I’m at a loss on how to get back the very responsive browser speed that I had just a few days ago before the clean re-install.

Any ideas? What konsole output might help you with suggestions?

Thanks!
bosdad

2

So you know that openSUSE 12.2 just came out, right? Anyway, could be a dns problem perhaps. Might give us some output from terminal:

/sbin/ifconfig -a

cat  /etc/resolv.conf

ip addr sh

dig yourdomain any

nslookup www.yourdomainname.com

Post the output in a code # block like these commands using the advanced message text editor and lets see what we get.

Thank You,

3

On 2012-09-06 22:36, bosdad wrote:
> Any ideas? What konsole output might help you with suggestions?

Either a DNS issue, or an IPv6 issue.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” (Minas Tirith))

4

James, thank you. Two comments in response.

First, I am deathly afraid of moving to SuSE 12.X because of the many problems I read about with KMail2. I had problems moving from 11.1 to 11.4 (most importantly I lost the mailing lists I had created in 11.1 and could not create and use mailing lists in KMail in 11.4). Now I see that SuSE 12.X uses KMail2, and that converting from KMail is a real nightmare.

If I can’t get 100% of my KMail from 11.4 into KMail2 in 12.X, and if I can’t create and use mailing lists then I can’t upgrade. My business is dependent upon having access to my e-mail archive and my customers. Obviously this issue with Kmail is a discussion for a different forum, but I just wanted to let you know why I’m still using SuSE 11.4.

Now, as to the problem I wrote about here… I will post the information you requested later today. But per the post immediately following yours I did check and discoverd that the Ipv6 box was ticked. (Foolish me… I know that should have been unticked but I simply overlooked it during the re-install.) Website resolution performance seems to be better but I want to give it a few hours and check more sites.

So the output I will be posting later will reflect the fact that the system is not configured 100% the same as when I posed my problem – Ipv6 is no longer ticked.

Many thanks. Stay tuned.
bosdad

5

Carlos, thanks! Ipv6 was ticked. Performance seems to be better but I will confirm by testing more sites during the day. But at least performance does seem better.

Thanks again.
bosdad

6

OK, here you go. Hope I’ve done this right. Please remember that this is after I unticked the IPv6 box. Thanks!

gil@linux-by6h:~> su
Password: 
linux-by6h:/home/gil # /sbin/ifconfig -a
eth0      Link encap:Ethernet  HWaddr 00:30:67:30:C4:0C  
          inet addr:192.168.1.69  Bcast:192.168.1.255  Mask:255.255.255.0
          UP BROADCAST RUNNING MULTICAST  MTU:1500  Metric:1
          RX packets:126147 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:82454 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:1000 
          RX bytes:134634310 (128.3 Mb)  TX bytes:13954851 (13.3 Mb)
          Interrupt:41 

lo        Link encap:Local Loopback  
          inet addr:127.0.0.1  Mask:255.0.0.0
          UP LOOPBACK RUNNING  MTU:16436  Metric:1
          RX packets:215 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
          TX packets:215 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
          collisions:0 txqueuelen:0 
          RX bytes:18151 (17.7 Kb)  TX bytes:18151 (17.7 Kb)

linux-by6h:/home/gil # 
linux-by6h:/home/gil # cat  /etc/resolv.conf
### /etc/resolv.conf file autogenerated by netconfig!
#
# Before you change this file manually, consider to define the
# static DNS configuration using the following variables in the
# /etc/sysconfig/network/config file:
#     NETCONFIG_DNS_STATIC_SEARCHLIST
#     NETCONFIG_DNS_STATIC_SERVERS
#     NETCONFIG_DNS_FORWARDER
# or disable DNS configuration updates via netconfig by setting:
#     NETCONFIG_DNS_POLICY=''
#
# See also the netconfig(8) manual page and other documentation.
#
# Note: Manual change of this file disables netconfig too, but
# may get lost when this file contains comments or empty lines
# only, the netconfig settings are same with settings in this
# file and in case of a "netconfig update -f" call.
#
### Please remove (at least) this line when you modify the file!
search gateway.2wire.net
nameserver 192.168.1.254
linux-by6h:/home/gil # 
linux-by6h:/home/gil # ip addr sh
1: lo: <LOOPBACK,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 16436 qdisc noqueue state UNKNOWN 
    link/loopback 00:00:00:00:00:00 brd 00:00:00:00:00:00
    inet 127.0.0.1/8 brd 127.255.255.255 scope host lo
    inet 127.0.0.2/8 brd 127.255.255.255 scope host secondary lo
2: eth0: <BROADCAST,MULTICAST,UP,LOWER_UP> mtu 1500 qdisc pfifo_fast state UP qlen 1000
    link/ether 00:30:67:30:c4:0c brd ff:ff:ff:ff:ff:ff
    inet 192.168.1.69/24 brd 192.168.1.255 scope global eth0
linux-by6h:/home/gil # 
linux-by6h:/home/gil # dig yourdomain any

; <<>> DiG 9.7.6-P2 <<>> yourdomain any
;; global options: +cmd
;; Got answer:
;; ->>HEADER<<- opcode: QUERY, status: NXDOMAIN, id: 61761
;; flags: qr rd ra; QUERY: 1, ANSWER: 0, AUTHORITY: 1, ADDITIONAL: 0

;; QUESTION SECTION:
;yourdomain.                    IN      ANY

;; AUTHORITY SECTION:
.                       10800   IN      SOA     a.root-servers.net. nstld.verisign-grs.com. 2012090700 1800 900 604800 86400

;; Query time: 136 msec
;; SERVER: 192.168.1.254#53(192.168.1.254)
;; WHEN: Fri Sep  7 11:26:48 2012
;; MSG SIZE  rcvd: 103

linux-by6h:/home/gil # 
linux-by6h:/home/gil # nslookup www.yourdomainname.com
Server:         192.168.1.254
Address:        192.168.1.254#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   www.yourdomainname.com
Address: 80.92.65.144

linux-by6h:/home/gil # exit
exit
gil@linux-by6h:~>
7

Update.

After being on the Internet all day and landing on several dozen sites I can say that Firefox does feel a little bit faster after unticking the IPv6 box in the set-up screen. I can’t put any sort of definitive statement to how much better, just that it seems to be resolving website faster than earlier today.

However, Chrome is no better and may even be degrading as the day goes on. It is just horribly slow. :frowning:

So any suggestions you can provide – maybe from clues in the code I submitted in a prior e-mail(?) – would be appreciated.

Thx
bosdad

8

The more I use Firefox the more I realize performance is not appreciably better after unticking IPV6. And Chrome still is so slow it’s almost a waste of time to use it.

Anyone have any ideas based on the output I posted a few days ago?

Thx
bosdad

9

A few more days and performance continues to be terrible. Both Firefox and Chrome are frustratingly slow.

Any ideas while I’m still stuck in SuSE 11.4?

Thanks.
bosdad

10

On 09/14/2012 06:06 PM, bosdad wrote:
> Any ideas while I’m still stuck in SuSE 11.4?

use YaST > Security and Users > User and Group Management to add a new
Test user…log out, and then back in as Test and see how Chrome and
Firefox runs…

by the way, i have found Chrome to sometimes be ‘wonderful’ and
sometimes a LOT less than just ‘okay’…sometimes i click and it just
and goes round and round and round and never shows the new page…then
it give an error with at “Try again later” which if clicked often
immediately loads the wanted page…

also, i have noticed that sometimes when i see that chrome has started
that same do-nothing-trick, i just click again on the same link and it
will then actually do something, and soon (sometimes VERY soon) load
the wanted page…

by the way, i am currently running openSUSE 11.4 32 bit and Chrome
Unstable 22.0, but have found similar unsatisfactory behavior in Stable
20.0 and Chromium 17.0

i believe it is true that the fewer add-ons used the more reliable and
snappy any of Chrome, Chromium or Firefox will be–so, disable
everything you don’t use OFTEN and then enable those when needed

–
dd http://tinyurl.com/DD-Caveat http://tinyurl.com/DD-Hardware
http://tinyurl.com/DD-Software

11

Thanks. I am traveling and will try these suggestions on my desktop when I get home.
bosdad

12

Sorry for delayed reply. Was in the Far East for awhile.

I tried creating a new user as suggested in previous post. Unfortunately I don’t see Firefox being any faster. It still takes forever to load most pages.

I am at a loss for what to do now. These browsers are all just terrible after the clean install of SuSE 11.4.

Bosdad

13

If I remember correctly (and perhaps I don’t :\ ) , simply unchecking ‘use ipv6’ in 11.4 does not disable it fully (something to do with ipv6 being recently included at kernel level).

To disable it fully you need to add this line to the boot options in grub’s menu.lst

ipv6.disable=1
14

BTW - if it is indeed an ipv6 issue you would also notice that yast is slow to load / refresh your repositories.
The symptom for browsing and yast would be that when you click a link to a new site it will hang for a period of time (approx 20 secs I think) then load the page as normal. If parts of the page you are trying to load are being fetched from another location (most advertising is like this) it will hang again.

15

On 2012-10-05 06:16, farcusnz wrote:

> Code:
> --------------------
> ipv6.disable=1
> --------------------

The other thing to try is to change the name server. I see the OP is using one in the local
network (nameserver 192.168.1.254), probably the ISP router, so I would simply put the google
nameservers instead. 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4 IIRC.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)

16

Thanks!

  1. Where do I do this? Where do I find the boot options in grub’s menu.lst?
  2. Do I just paste in the line at the bottom?

bosdad

17

Thank you.

  1. Where do I make this change (add 8.8.8.8)?
  2. Do I remove the 192.168.1.254 or simply add 8.8.8.8 below it?
  3. Should I add both 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4?

bosdad

18

Yes, YaST is VERY slow loading and refreshing the repositories.

What you describe (the 20 second lag) is exactly what’s happening – sometimes more than 20 seconds.

bosdad

19

On 2012-10-05 13:56, bosdad wrote:

> 1) Where do I make this change (add 8.8.8.8)?

If you are using traditional networking, in yast, network settings. If you are using network
manager, in network manager.

> 2) Do I remove the 192.168.1.254 or simply add 8.8.8.8 below it?

Remove the old one (it is probably set automatically via dhcp), add the new one.

> 3) Should I add both 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4?

Both will not hurt.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)

20

On 2012-10-05 13:56, bosdad wrote:

> Code:
> --------------------
> > > ipv6.disable=1
> --------------------
>>>
>
> Thanks!
>
> 1) Where do I do this? Where do I find the boot options in grub’s
> menu.lst?

The file in /boot/grub/menu.lst, or in yast boot module.

> 2) Do I just paste in the line at the bottom?

No.

See the file, notice how it is done.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 12.1 x86_64 “Asparagus” at Telcontar)