Re: Query about Iceape, Iceweasel
Bret Busby wrote:
Before I go purging and reinstalling software, and trying to rebuild
associations (or whatever they are named), like when I click on a link
to a .pdf file and it is opened by a PDF viewer (not Adobe Acrobat -
that is not installable), and then trying to again configure the
reinstalled software, there is something that I should perhaps clarify,
if you or someone else is trying to reproduce the problem that I
encounter, and are unable to reproduce the problem.
You might have us confused for software testers. We're just your
peers/other users also using the software.
In open software, ultimately you're responsible for coming up with a
reasonable test that will reproduce the problem on multiple systems if
you're experiencing a problem. Frustrating as that might be, that's how
it works. Your description might help someone else recognize something
they've seen before so you get help also, by their direct assistance,
but if you're doing things that are out of the ordinary -- you probably
won't find anyone out there at the edge of the envelope with you.
This is just a mailing list of folks who are trying to help you figure
it out, not the other way around. You can turn in a real bug report
through the BTS if you'd like a developer to look at it.
But... looking at your description below, I don't think you're going to
get much in the way of a response...
As an example, for one country, to read the news, I have a bookmark set
that I use, that has 32 URL's, so that I have at least 32 tabs open in
the browser window for the news for that country. As I open links for
news stories, I can have tabs open, that go off the right hand edge of
the screen. I have just opened an extra tab, in that particular browser
window, that went to the right edge opf the screen, and that was a count
of 41 tabs open in that browser window.
41 webpages open and you're experiencing problems. Gee, there's a big
surprise. You're somewhat pushing the bounds of sanity at that point,
for just about any browser.
(And my interest in helping with your problem just vanished completely.
I can't read 41 pages at a time, and neither can you. Perhaps you
might argue that the software should handle it perfectly, but at that
level of insanity, I certainly don't care anymore... as one user to
another -- since I'm not a developer or package maintainer -- I'd
recommend the old adage of "Doctor it hurts when I do this!" probably
applies. "Then don't do that.")
In the browser window that I open for this country, I have about ten tab
bookmarks, and, of those, about 6 web pages automatically refresh. Due
to the bodgy way that the ABC presents its news web pages, apart from
five news headline web pages refreshing about every minute, each news
story web page that is open, also refreshes about every minute.
Yeah, it's the websites fault you're opening 41 web pages. LOL! We'll
get right on that... I'll attempt to contact the various badly-written
websites and see if they'll fix their sites just for you and little-old
me. Sure they will. Maybe after we're dead. Get real.
At present, I have 22 Iceape browser windows open, with however many
tabs in total are open, and tsome of those tabs, are subject to
automatic refreshing.
That's utterly ridiculous. Have fun being a "test pilot". What you're
describing sounds more like a load test in a QA department than any
normal needs of anyone running a web browser!
On occasion, Iceape has taken above 95% of CPU, and that is when (but
not necessarily the only occasions when) it sometimes crashes of its own
accord (without me closing "untitled windows").
Yeah, well... whatever. You're so far out on a limb doing stuff that
makes no sense (no one can read 41 pages at a time) that what difference
do the details make at this point?
I have earlier today, with these browser windows and tabs open,
encountered the problem with the "untitled windows".
I have also encountered the problem on occasions with 10 browser windows
open, and with 14 browser windows open, thence with less memory usage,
both "by programs" and "by cache".
I bet you have.
So, perhaps, if you want to try to reproduce the problem, you may need
to have more than just one instance of each of the two URL's that are
included in my message shown above as having the timestamp of 0130 AM.
I bet I would.
However, I'm no longer interested. Maybe some gung-ho developer or
person without a real life will go on a mission to reproduce your
problem at this point, but I doubt any sane person would spend much time
on it. You're too far outside of the normal use curve, methinks.
If you're interested in finding out what's wrong, tools are available on
Linux that don't really exist (without cost) on other OS's. For
example, you could start launching iceweasel inside of strace or other
low-level debugging tools and trying to trap the moment when the phantom
windows pop up, to see what it's really doing when it freaks out. You
could also start downloading nightly mozilla snapshots (after setting up
a proper build environment) and seeing if the latest versions also
behave the way the Debian packaged version do -- all things a
developer/package maintainer might do, if they had a real bug report to
work from.
After your description of how many windows you typically have open, I
doubt many other end-users here will spend much time on it. You never
know, though -- someone may decide it sounds like an interesting challenge.
Oh, and, when I experience an application crash, and/or a gnome crash, I
reboot the system, to try to avoid residual memory problems.
The kernel should handle cleaning up application memory (or "permanently
caching" any memory that wasn't de-allocated at the iceweasel/iceape
crashes. Once cached, if never called for again they'll just sit there
using some swapfile space. Until that fills, I wouldn't worry about
doing a full reboot.
Your thread now (to me personally anyway reads like this):
"Dear Debian community, I tried to drive the car you provided at RPM
red-line and excessive speeds for days on end, and it has exhibited some
bad behavior when I abuse it like that! The tires fell off, and once in
a while it even blows a head gasket, and has to be taken to the shop
every few days!"
Uh-huh. Yep.
Nate
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