Gmail crashes on Firefox

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1

On openSuSE 13.2 I can not use a version of Firefox any newer than 36.0.3 -or- it will crash when I log into my Gmail account. The latest updates from openSuSE contain Firefox version 40 -and- it crashes as soon as I try to log on to my Gmail account. No I can’t switch to another email cause that is my Google Account that is needed for my Android Phone… and we have chats via the Gmail.

Is there some reason for this problem and most of all is there a fix. I have been waiting for it to work on each new Firefox version but it still does not.

Thanks,
-Chuck

2

I am not having any problems with gmail.

Admittedly, I haven’t tried login. I’ve stayed logged in for a while. I don’t remember which version of firefox that I was using at the time of the most recent login.

3

On 2015-08-16 20:16, nrickert wrote:
>
> I am not having any problems with gmail.
>
> Admittedly, I haven’t tried login. I’ve stayed logged in for a while.
> I don’t remember which version of firefox that I was using at the time
> of the most recent login.

I don’t have problems with it. I just tried now for verification.

I would try with a new /Linux/ user first, for diagnosis.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

4

As a workaround you could try google chrome or chromium for that.

5

why not use tunderbird as an email client, t-bird works great with gmail, it’'s easy to configure
https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/thunderbird-and-gmail

I use t-bird for my gmail and avoid logging in to google as much as possible.
I use t-bird for hotmail, netscape (aol) and yahoo too (there is a simple trick to get yahoo working with tbird the rest are natively supported)

6

Well, I do use t-bird for my “normal” mail -but- for my Android I need the Gmail. Ya gota have a Google account in order to do stuff on Android. And I use its chat to talk to my team members. I was lucky enough … or un-lucky ?? – to get elected as the OP for the HTC ReZound thread on XDA. I compile and put out the OS. CyanogenMod 11.0 is the version we are currently using. My phone is 3 and a half years old so there is not much going for it -but- we are trying -and- with help from the wonderful openSuSE community I build my Android OS’s on openSuSE. I started it on 12.3 and moved up to 13.2 on my newest PC.

So what does all that have to do with this??? Just that I use Firefox and have been forever. I like it and don’t care for the others. I’m sure some of you have the same feelings about your favourite. At any rate, I must use Gmail and in my 13.2 system the Gmail crashes when I try to logon/sign on to my Gmail account in any version newer than 36.0.3 of Firefox. I just updated my 13.2 with the latest today and Firefox version 40 was installed. Hmmmmm… updated…?? could it be that I must remove all traces of the previous Firefox before updatint to the newer one??? Any thoughts on that?? I know strange things like that have been required in the past. Had a problem on my WebSite server with the history when I tried to signon from a different machine.

I’ll check that out and get back to ya…
-Chuck

7

Nope! I cleared the history and it was looking good … cause I had to sign on to Google mail, password and all. -But- as soon as the mail page appeared it vanished!! Firefox closed out and nothing but my desktop. Had to restart Firefox and then quickly kill the restore of Gmail. Otherwise it would restore it and then disappear… crash.

I filled out one of those reports that you get asked to do… but have not heard anything from Mozilla yet. Just thought that I would check in here and see if anyone else was experiencing this problem. Looks like not.

Thanks for trying,
-Chuck

8

A few things to try.
#1 start Firefox from a terminal and see the error messages when Firefox crashes.
#2 it could be a damaged Firefox profile, start Firefox with the -P switch from a terminal and create a fresh new profile, see if the error is still there.
I can logon to google/gmail from 13.2 with ff 39 (still haven’t updated to 40) with no real issues, it could be a bad video driver try disabling hardware acceleration in firefox (Firefox does use gfx acceleration).

9

Well shame on me. I didn’t search long enough or thoroughly enough before bothering all of you. It happens once in a while when I get frustrated and don’t think. -But- maybe this will help someone else -and- I’m not out of the woods yet.

I found that the problem is with “gstreamer”. https://support.mozilla.org/en-US/questions/1062807 I disabled gstreamer like was suggested and the problem went away. I will try updating gstreamer on my own -but- any, and all, suggestions will be accepted.

Thanks to all of you for your usual good responses,
-Chuck

Hmmmm… I just looked and there is a whole lot of gstreamer code out there. Looks like I have version 1.4 and there are a number of pluggins. Once again, any and all suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

10

Gstreamer being an issue with Firefox? That’s the first time I’ve heard of it.

Something else you can do is run firefox from a terminal (I don’t know if it is just “firefox” or what the command would be at this time). When the browser crashes you may have some further information as to the reason/cause. It may confirm the gstreamer connection, or it may point to something completely different.

Also, try making sure all extensions are turned off in Firefox to make sure that isn’t interfering with your Google account.

Since Gmail and Google Products are just online services, some possible work-arounds include

  1. Using Thunderbird (Evolution or Kmail) to access your email/calendar/etc.
  2. Using Chromium (that would be my first choice) and see if that can access your Google account. Don’t worry, it is still open source.

I’m using Tumbleweed (KDE) and Firefox (primary browser) and have not have had any issues getting my email. I also use Kmail sometimes, but over this weekend I am sure I accessed it via Firefox.

And, of course, run updates to see if there was something that is now fixed.

Good luck!

11

Thanks -but- it is a Mozilla problem and I do use Thunderbird for my normal email.

12

On 2015-08-17 07:06, chucktr wrote:

> Well, I do use t-bird for my “normal” mail -but- for my Android I need
> the Gmail. Ya gota have a Google account in order to do stuff on
> Android.

Same as many of us, you don’t need to justify it. However, Thunderbird
works just fine with gmail accounts, so you can use it. It is faster
than webmail.

I use Firefox to access gmail only when I want to configure things
there, or something special. And version 40 works fine.

I don’t routinely use gmail via firefox because then google tracks
everything I browse to my identity.

I read that you had a problem with gstreamer.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

13

Hello my friend, I haven’t been on here for quite a while cause all “was” working well with the current system and VMware. However, this Firefox Gmail problem has been plaguing me for some time. I was just ignoring it and reverting back to firefox version 36. But my flash videos started messing up and I find that they don’t in version 40. I need a Google account because of my involvement with Android and Gmail is my account … my only account with Google. For now I’ll just keep the “gstreamer” disabled in Firefox. I don’t do anything with it anyway. :stuck_out_tongue:

Take care,
-Chuck

14

On 2015-08-17 16:16, chucktr wrote:

> For now I’ll just keep
> the “gstreamer” disabled in Firefox. I don’t do anything with it
> anyway. :stuck_out_tongue:

I don’t even see the word gstreamer in my plugin list.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

15

I’m going to have to look at my about:config settings for media.gstreamer.enabled and see what my settings are.

At least there are ways to work around it.

This is why I usually have Firefox -and- Chromium installed (or at least >1 browser). I don’t use Chromium much, though, but it’s still there just in case.

16

Ya know, that got me curious. So I looked at my plugin list with and without it enabled. It is NOT in mine either… -BUT- there are lots of other things in the “about:config” that are not in my plugin list. Whatever, I only know that with gstreamer enabled I have the problem and with it disabled I don’t. :open_mouth:

By the way… did you by any chance look at that Mozilla link?? You can see that I am NOT the only one that has this problem.

Take care my friend,
-Chuck

17

On 2015-08-17 19:16, chucktr wrote:
> robin_listas;2724370 Wrote:

>> I don’t even see the word gstreamer in my plugin list.

> Ya know, that got me curious. So I looked at my plugin list with and
> without it enabled. It is NOT in mine either… -BUT- there are lots of
> other things in the “about:config” that are not in my plugin list.
> Whatever, I only know that with gstreamer enabled I have the problem and
> with it disabled I don’t. :open_mouth:

Ah, about:config. I didn’t look there.

I have (in my desktop machine):

media.gstreamer.enable-blacklist true
media.gstreamer.enabled false

I don’t know why (the second one is not default value, meaning that I
changed it years ago). However, on another profile that I use
specifically for connecting to gmail, I have both set to true, and it works.

It may be that you don’t have a current version of those libraries, or
that you have an incompatible set.

> By the way… did you by any chance look at that Mozilla link?? You can
> see that I am NOT the only one that has this problem.

No, I didn’t :slight_smile:
I did now.

Ah. I found out why I disabled that setting. It is used to activate the
internal firefox mp3/mp4 player, which I found faulty.

Test here:

http://mirrorblender.top-ix.org/movies/sintel-1024-surround.mp4

(Found here:
http://forums.mozillazine.org/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=2749961)

It doesn’t work with media.gstreamer.enabled=true for me. But it does
not crash, either.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” at Telcontar)

18

AFAIK Firefox uses gstreamer as a backend for decoding mp4 files, to get it working properly you need to use gstreamer from packman as the one from the oss repo is crippled, there is an option to use ffmpeg instead for mp4 decoding in about:config see the preference media.fragmented-mp4.ffmpeg.enabled
http://www.linuxveda.com/2015/04/02/enable-mse-native-html5-support-firefox-linux/
still you’d need ffmpeg from packman

19

On 2015-08-17 21:16, I A wrote:
>
> AFAIK Firefox uses gstreamer as a backend for decoding mp4 files, to get
> it working properly you need to use gstreamer from packman as the one
> from the oss repo is crippled,

Yes, I have everything from packman.
This feature does not work.

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.

(from 13.1 x86_64 “Bottle” (Minas Tirith))

20

Does Firefox crash for you whenever you try and use any Google service, or only when you are logging in?

I just updated Tumbleweed (KDE), which updated Firefox to 40.0, and I am in my Gmail and Google account apps without any issues.

Checking about:config I see

  • media.gstreamer.enable-blacklist = true
  • media.gstreamer.enabled = true

I’m not saying that gstreamer wasn’t the issue, or that you don’t have an issue. I’m just curious about the cause.

I do have the FlashDisable Add-on which allows me to toggle whether Flash is turned on or off and usually it is off. While it doesn’t make sense, I would be curious if it could be Flash + gstreamer as an issue?

Of course the latest update may have fixed this issue, too.